CYCLE Program

Hey all! So it’s been forever since I last updated my blog. Beginning in August I became really busy with the CYCLE program (it was a lot of miles to keep up with) then I kept getting odd jobs – good for my wallet, bad for a blog updates.  September I barely even rode and October/November I’ve ridden about town but I haven’t gone on any adventures.  I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things over the next few weeks.  I know y’all are buzzing with anticipation. 

What better way to get back into the swing of things then to show the extent of which I biked during the CYCLE program I assisted to coach?  Since it was such a long time ago (the first three weeks of August) I’ll remind you – and me – of the program. Simply, CYCLE stands for Camden Youth Cycling, Learning and Exercising.  The program encourages middle-school students in the City of Camden to learn how to bike safely throughout the city and region.  The eight participants this year varied in cycling skills when beginning the program.  After a quick catch-up on the basics of cycling and rules of the road the group began to bike throughout Camden and eventually beyond.  Each day typically culminated in a 10-20 mile ride.  Along our rides the students learned about cycle lanes, multi-purpose trails and how different organizations promoting cycling and over-all healthy-living throughout the region.  All in all I/the group racked up some serious miles:

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
197	1,162	10.2	13,368

As you can tell we went all over South Jersey, covering large swaths of Collingwood, Haddon Township and Pennsauken – not to mention the City of Camden.  Below is a closer view of the area we covered. 

The program was chalked full of specific rides, here is a quick roundup of the program’s events:

Day 1 –Basic day of learning how to bike and getting to know one another staying in a parking lot outside the Susquehanna Bank Center.

Day 2 – First time we ventured out of the parking lot along the Central Camden waterfront’s trail, ending up at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge.   

Day 3 – While learning hand signals we explored the Cooper Grant historic district and eventually North Camden’s Pyne Point Park.

Day 4 – First long bike ride of the camp. While biking along the Cooper River we went through a several parks on our way to Croft Farm, all in all we traveled just shy of 20 miles this day.

Day 5 – First trip across the bridge – we dropped in on the South Philadelphia location of Neighborhood Bike Works which was holding a similar summer program.  The day ended with a short exploration of Society Hill.

Day 6 – Venturing southeast from Downtown Camden we had or first glimpses of the suburban neighborhoods of Collingswood and Haddonfield as well as the stately Knight’s Park. 

Day 7 – Philadelphia Adventure Day!  We began by meandering through the Independence National Historic Park and visiting Elfreth’s Alley in Old City. Eventually biking along Spring Garden (which will become a new greenway  in the near future) to visit Lemon Hill and the Philly’ Art Museum.

Day 8 – Visited the Camden County boathouse along the Cooper River then ventured out into Cherry Hill stopping at Erlton Bike Shop, along Marlton Pike.

Day 9 – Biked to North Camden where Greensgrow’s Mobile Farmers Market set up shop just on the outside of downtown’s freeways interchanges.  Afterwards we discovered the Cramer Hill neighborhood of Camden and Pennsauken Twp.

Day 10 – Rode an endurance ride, past the Jersey Turnpike along Kresson Road. All-in-all this was the longest ride of the camp at 21.5 miles. 

Day 11 –After visiting the Camden Children’s Garden  we surveyed the industrial landscape of South Camden, visiting Johnson Park and the master-planned community of Fairview/Yorkship Square before biking along Newton Lake in Collingswood/Oaklyn

Day 12 – Traveled back over the Ben Franklin Bridge to the Bicycle Coalition’s Center City offices and made a brief stop in Rittenhouse Square.

Day 13 – Accompanied by Rails to Trail’s we cycled through Campbell’s HQ and back to Croft Farm.  The day was documented by a file crew, which you can see here.

Day 14 – The only time we were rained out so we had an amazing day at the Adventure Aquarium, where I got to touch a shark!

Day 15 – Last day of the camp we visited the Whitman neighborhood of Camden as well as back out along Federal Street to Greensgrow’s location that day.  We ended the day with a lesson on how to lock one’s bike so it will not get stolen. 

I wish I had taken pictures as we traveled through the region there is a lot of fodder in South Jersey for an urban bike blog - ranging from deteriorating urban fabric to active tight-knit communities.  Alas, I didn’t – I’ll just have to revisit South Jersey again.  All in all CYCLE was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Week 22 in Review (August 1-7)

Well it’s been a while since an update and since that update I’ve biked more than I had the entire month of July. The first week of August was my first week instructing the Camden CYCLE program, and what a week it was. First let me say that I crossed the Ben Franklin Bridge a total of 12 times during the week. That bridge is SERIOUS, even after many crossings I still feel winded after getting to the other side. As for the camp itself it started out slow but has ended in some epic rides around South Jersey.

For a little background, there are 8 children (ages 10-11) enrolled in the camp, the majority coming from Eco Charter School in downtown Camden. When starting the camp the kids ranged in skills from not knowing how to even ride a bike to some being more-than confident in their abilities. However, in the first few days we spent most of our time in a parking lot across from the Susquehanna Bank Center learning various skills (i.e. changing gears, stopping, balance, etc) as well as safety precautions (i.e. hand signals, riding in a single file line (which they still haven’t mastered), etc). 

Although the entirety of the first day was spent in the parking lot the second day ended with biking along the Camden waterfront (which I had done before in a previous unrelated ride that I have yet to finish blogging aboutL). Although we only rode up to the bridge and back the camp ended up accruing approx. 7.5 miles. It was a nice leisurely tour compared to some of the other rides we took the rest of the week. 

Day 3 was much more about getting the campers acquainted to riding on the streets (and as I have learned on Jersey streets, dodging potholes). The camp racked up almost 14 miles biking through the streets of Cooper Grant and North Camden. North Camden is ROUGH, and not in the way you all think I mean. I mean in the sense that the city has not repaved many of the streets in the area since it seems the early 20^th century. Elm Street (the street closest to the Ben Franklin Bridge) is all Belgian block and patchy asphalt.  Highly inappropriate for Loretta.

Day 4 was our first big day – one I wasn’t expecting.  Deemed a fitness day we biked 9ish miles into South Jersey ending in Wallworth Park, between Haddonfield and Cherry Hill. The route followed mostly streets that are along a series of parks lining the Cooper River.  Although there were bike paths along most of the route, the campers stuck mostly to streets in order to get them acclimated to riding in traffic, and that elusive single file line. 

The last day of the week was a trip into Philadelphia to visit Neighborhood Bike Works. We visited their “South Philly” location, the Bikery, at the corner of 5^th and Lombard.  The location is set up as a community center basically.  Targeted for anyone in the neighborhood to use the space as a spot to fix up their bike or talk to someone and learn how too.  While we were there the Bike Work’s summer day camp was happening.  We spent an hour or so talking to them and getting a tour around the facility.  Afterwards we spent a few moments in Headhouse Square before heading back over the bridge to Camden.  All in all the campers cycled roughly 50 miles and with my trips over the bridge everyday along with a few other rides I ended up with a record 93 miles for the week. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
11	93.4	523	10.7	6,099

My Philadelphia neighborhood composite did not change much this past week, and I don’t expect it to for the next couple weeks as I have little time to explore new routes through the city.  However, my regional composite changed a lot.  Philadelphia is now second to Camden in the largest proportion of a municipality I have biked through.  Additionally I added four new municipalities to my list, all in Camden County. Make sure you stay tuned to the Geographic Analysis page for all the deets!

Over the Ben Franklin Bridge! (Camden Part I)

A few weeks back I took an ambitious ride through New Jersey. It all started when I was flying into PHL and I noticed a distinctly planned neighborhood tucked between two marshy waterways and a park that juts out into the Delaware overlooking South Philadelphia. I immediately thought, “what a cool area to explore, I’ve never really been in New Jersey!”  Well it turns out I know very little about New Jersey.  I rode through Camden’s downtown, their civic and industrial waterfronts as well as some neighborhoods leading into Fairview (the distinctly planned neighborhood eluded to above) and from the there, into Gloucester City, NJ. Over the next few blog posts I’ll depict what I discovered. 

Unfortunately, my camera broke half way through the ride which not only limits this series but future blog posts until I can buy a new one. However, with that sad fact behind me, below are the stats and a map of the ride in its entirety. 

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/8422896

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
18	105	10.3	1,264

For the beginning of this series on the Jersey –side of the Delaware there is no more appropriate landmark to start with but the Ben Franklin Bridge.  It’s also very appropriate as this ride is foreshadowing my month of August. I’ll be crossing the bridge every weekday for the next three weeks in order to instruct, CYLCE camp. This camp is geared toward Camden youth and getting them comfortable with biking through the city and regional greenway network.

However, to the ride at hand; I live a short distance from the beginning of the bridge but as a cyclist it’s one of the most treacherous miles of biking in Center City.  Not only are there cars whizzing by on 5^th, 6^th and 7^th Streets (the only viable options for getting to the bridge), it is damn near impossible for a new cyclist to figure out how to get to the one open walkway. On top of the confusing and fast moving traffic patterns there are “historic” street pavers EVERYWHERE. On 5^th Street for a block, on Chestnut Street for a block, and on the SIDEWALK to get to the bridge’s walkway!  There should be a rule that if the street hasn’t had belgian block or cobblestone in the last 75 years then it doesn’t need it now.

The Ben Franklin Bridge is a large and old bridge. It was built between 1922 and 1926 as the first permanent pedestrian/automobile crossing between Philadelphia and New Jersey.  The steel suspension bridge was originally named the Delaware River Bridge and was world’s longest suspension bridge until 3 short years later the Ambassador Bridge opened between Detroit and Canada. The bridge itself is 9,700 feet long (from entrance to entrance) or 1.8 miles. (However, as a bike travels the distance is only 7,800 feet or 1.5 miles). Rising from the city skyline, the bottom of the bridge reaches a height of 135 feet above the Delaware. It’s quite an engineering feat. 

It is also quite a cycling feat.

As the bridge provides 135 feet clearance above the water, the pedestrian/bicycle path is at least 15-20 feet above the car deck at the center. This means that a cyclist reaches a height of 160 feet above the Delaware. After a few rough calculations I found that this means that there is an average grade of 4.1% on the Philadelphia side and 3.4% grade on the Camden side. The reason the grade is much less on the Camden side of the bridge is two-fold: 1) the walkway ends before the bridge does and one has to walk down a set of stairs and 2) the approach is longer on the Jersey side. 

The bridge provides spectacular views of Philly, Camden and the Delaware River as well as some great 1920s architecture.  About 2,000 feet from the Philadelphia entrance there is a plaza (or more like a wider sidewalk) around the bridge’s anchorage (where the suspension cables are anchored).  It offers a detailed view of the bridge’s architecture as well as the ability to step out over the PATCO lines.

A few little known facts about the anchorages are: 1) there is an abandoned trolley terminal under the Philadelphia side; however it was never used as trolleys were becoming passé in the 1920s. 2) There are beautiful lobbies/rooms inside the pedestrian part of the anchorages that contain murals of various transportation modes throughout time. The public rooms were rarely used and are now completely abandoned. 

Below are some of the vistas of Philadelphia from the bridge’s walkway:

From the anchorage plaza there is another 1,700 feet of climb before reaching the apex of the bridge.  From there it’s smooth sailing until the steps on the Camden side. 

Before cruising down the rest of the bridge I stopped at the Camden anchorage to take some pictures of downtown Camden and their waterfront.

This is an appropriate place to stop for the time being. Stay tuned for the rest of the Camden waterfront series.  

Week 19 in Review (July 11 - 17)

I’m starting to realize with my schedule picking up and the fact that its 90 degrees out that my bike rides are not as frequent. I've only ridden 78 miles so far this month, last year I totaled 283 for the month of July. I don’t think I’m making that threshold, especially seeing this coming week is in the UPPER 90s. 

This week’s rides were fairly mundane, consisting of traveling back and forth along the Spruce/Pine Street bikeways. However the week was dotted by an epic first ride through New Jersey. It was less epic because of distance and more epic because it was through Camden/Gloucester City. Camden, as many think of it is a bit rough but not any rougher than parts of West and North Philly. It was more nerve-wracking because I have no concept of New Jersey geography.  Philadelphia is easy to figure out because if you are lost you can always look for a numbered street (2^nd, 5^th, 23^rd, etc.) or one of the main thoroughfares (Germantown, Baltimore, Frankford, etc.) and within 10 minutes you’ll find it.  In New Jersey if you find a main arterial there’s a high probability that you’ll end up on some freeway type road with jug handles and long impassable medians.

My Jersey ride was brought on by a few things. 1) The temptation of a new place seeing that I’ve not been there since blogging. 2) When I was recently fly into the airport we flew over South Camden and Gloucester City and I saw two interesting things from the window.  A park that seemed to over look the South Philadelphia Port (which is impossible to get to in Philadelphia, I’ve tried) and an adorable looking neighborhood plan that was tucked in between highways and marshlands. 

Once on the ground I found so many more interesting places it wouldn’t be fair to continue talking about it here. Look for a Camden/Gloucester City post coming soon.

As always here are the stats for the past few weeks. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
4	32	169	11.4	2,021

There were very little changes in the Philadelphia neighborhood composition of my rides. I apparently biked through a new portion of Rittenhouse which brought my total for the neighborhood to 99.8%.  However, with my Jersey ride I made some significant headway through new municipalities. I’ve still biked through a higher proportion of Philadelphia than any other city (30.49 sq. mi/21.2%) but I explored almost 1.5 sq. mi. or 13% of Camden. Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for all the deets!