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!

Week 21 in Review (July 25 - 31)

This past week I did a few rides to Camden as I was getting ready to help instruct a youth cycle camp that began yesterday.  The three week camp, aptly named CYCLE, is organized by the Rails to Trails Conservancy  and Cooper’s Ferry Development Association. The program is meant to engage Camden youth, ages 11 and 12, as bicycle users as well as stewards of the growing trail network throughout the region.  We will be biking throughout the Philadelphia region as we use cycling as a way to get to a destination and to explore the region.  After three weeks the “graduation” ride is an all-day, 40+ mille trip from Green Lane, PA to the Camden waterfront. I’m super excited to be involved in this program and make sure you  check the blog as many of these rides will go up in the coming weeks. 

Along with my rides across the Ben Franklin Bridge I took a ride along the Schuylkill trail to the Wissahickon.  This is a ride I have done before so it did not really change my totals that much but after the prior week’s heat it was nice to be able to bike along a familiar territory.

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
5	36.1	164	13.2	1,954

Again, there were very little changes in the Philadelphia neighborhood and regional municipality composition of my rides. I biked through about 17% more of the Wissahickon Park.  Additionally I biked through a little more of downtown Camden, bringing my total percentage for Camden to 15.4%.  Philadelphia is still the city I have toured through the most at 21.2% or 30.4 sq. mi. Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for all the deets!

Week 20 in Review (July 18 - 24)

There’s not too much to review this week. I didn't bike at all, which is the first time since mid-January (I biked at the gym when I had a 30 day membership).  The week was just too damn hot. 

Point proven. However this coming week I expect to be biking a little more so keep tuned. 

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!

Week 18 in Review (July 4 - 10)

It’s been hot in Philadelphia and as a result slowed my biking explorations. Between that and trying to find a sustaining income I only got around to biking twice in the entire week.  One ride through Fairmount and Northern Liberties was just out of boredom and the other was with a NEW bike riding buddy, Ben.  I was in Ben’s wedding earlier this summer and as a wedding gist Ben and Sarah got new bikes (not from me, that’d be awfully generous).  On Saturday we decided to bike along the Delaware River, which I had chronicled previously.  We only made it to Northern Liberties before we had a a craving for food. After spending more than an hour at the Green Olive, a healthy/veggie friendly take out market, we finally moved along Delaware and Richmond Avenues.  Traveling past the casino, through Port Richmond and along the big-ass road near the Tioga port we headed away from the river search of a better way home.  FYI: Richmond Avenue might be one of the worst roads for biking. Not only is it fairly broken up, there is approximately 4 feet between parked cars and the route 15 trolley tracks, sometimes less depending on the a driver’s ability to parallel park. I suggested that we head to the Frankford Transportation Center to fill up our water bottles. Much to the chagrin of Ben it was not a couple blocks away as I eluded but a couple miles. However we made it and decided to bike under the El as it would provide shade on our way back.  That turned out to be false as the sun was setting, but we did get to see some of the finer citizens of Philadelphia. Kensington Avenue is hopping for being cockblocked by a giant elevated rail line. As we travelled back through Northern Liberties Ben got a flat tire so we ended up going to A Trophy Bike Garage (which I didn’t realize was connected to Trophy Bikes in University City until I just looked it up) and then got an iced coffee at One Shot Coffee (which possibly might be the cutest coffee shop around, sorry Good Karma).

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

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
2	28.5	140	12.2	1,661

Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page, but some highlights of the changes in my riding are that biking through Frankford, Juniata and Upper Kensington added a lot of new area to my total area.  I’m currently up to 30.5 sq. mi. or 21.1% of the entire city!  Due to Ben and I’s lunch as well as they pit stop at the bike shop, Northern Liberties is the 11^th neighborhood I’ve biked through more than 90%. Additionally, I’ve biked through 98% on Center City (from Vine to South) and 92% of “Greater” Center City (From Girard to Washington). I don’t know, I found that fascinating

Week 16/17 in Review (June 20 – July 3)

The past few weeks I've been a little busy and have not been able to update Urban Cycle as much as I’d like. I was on a vacation in Maine for about 5 days and then I've been busy trying to piece together some odd jobs to make a little bit of income.  Income is good for me, but unfortunate for Loretta as I do not get to ride as often. However, here is an update for the last half of June.

Aside from the rides for groceries or to go visit people the only rides I have taken in the past few weeks are to do laps around FDR Park in South Philly.  It’s my favorite park to ride around because the loop road has low traffic (except for during a Phillies game) and there are no stops. I can just ride, and ride, and ride until I’m blue in the face if I want to. I went to the park twice in the past two weeks and did a little exploring afterwards. After biking around FDR the first time I ended up traveling to the Gray’s Ferry Crescent to check out the progress. It is still not open but they at least have some grass planted. I’m not really sure what’s taking them so long, it’ll be sad if they open it in October because then it’ll be cold again. Afterwards I biked down a small industrial looking street (I guess it’s an extension of Schuylkill Avenue) which ended up in a really large train yard. It was awesome to see trains rolling by, but I didn’t want to overstay my welcome. People get real fussy when an over-curious cyclist ends up in a vast industrial site. 

After the second trip around FDR Park I biked past the stadium along Pattison Ave. It was during a Phillies game so there were a lot of people to dodge. I saw the beginnings of Philly Live, which is a retail and entertainment hub replacing the Spectrum. Originally proposed in the mid 2000s, the project was tabled due to economic conditions and recently began to move forward but only about a 10th of the original plan. It'll apparently open in 2012 and contain 45,000 square feet of retail/restaurant space. It’s exciting to see something move along that is not additional parking. I continued along Pattison until it turned into a Columbus Blvd, which is a very long, lonesome and truck–filled stretch. After reaching Pier 70 I ducked in along the big box stores to bike along the beginning of the Delaware River multipurpose path constructed a little over a year ago. The path follows the river’s edge and ends near Pier 53 Park which opened April, 2010. The park is an acre of native, waterfront vegetation along decaying piers and a portion of a concrete pad. The area is designed to allow plants to break up the impervious area over time and reclaim it. It’s a pretty awesome area for only costing the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation $570,000; although the wood fence is already starting to show weathering presumably due to a lack of staining. 

As always here are some stats of the past few weeks. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
6	63.4	273	13.9	3,261

These past few weeks I really increased the amount of South Philadelphia that I have reached by bicycle. So much so that Point Breeze and Grays Ferry are two of my most biked through neighborhoods. Impressive because Point Breeze is a little over one square mile.  With these mini-adventures I increased my area and percentage slightly to 29.06 sq miles or 20.26% . Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for all the deets.

Week 15 in Review (June 13 - 19)

As I enter my 15^th week of blogging/biking I decided that I wanted to really get out and bike. This past week was very pleasant weather wise and I had little to do during the days (obviously) so I took advantage with a couple epic rides.  I already posted about my ride to Norristown, PA but the day after that ride I went on a ride with Zack southwest of Center City, through the wildlife refuge and around a the back side of the airport. I did end up taking pictures along this ride so I’m not going to give too much away right now, but keep your eyes peeled for a new entry in the coming days.  Between those two rides I ended up cycling 70 miles so I didn’t ride much over the weekend; mostly because I was tired but partly because I took a beach day on Saturday. Below are the stats and map for this week’s adventures.

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
4	77.5	352	13.22	4,237

Even though I rode seventy some odd miles I only really biked through a few ‘new’ parts of Philadelphia, raising my total slightly to 27.91 sq. mi. or 19.47% of the city. This is also one of the first weeks that I’ve biked a considerable distance outside of the city limits. I biked through large portions of Conshohoken (along the Schuylkill River Trail) and through Tinicum Township (along the Delaware River, where the majority of the Philadelphia International Airport is located).  Because of these forays across the border of Philly there was quite a shake up in the number and amount of the region’s municipalities I’ve biked through. Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for all the deets.

Week 14 in Review (June 6 - 12)

This past week was a wash as far as biking - less because of the heat, which was absurd, but more to do with the fact that I totally wiped out last Monday.  It was my first major spill and basically caused by a combination of a rock in the road and me trying to turn to fast on a corner that is a little ridiculous. (18^th and BFranklin Parkway). I’m totally fine just had a scraped up knee and elbow. It’s kinda amazing how slow and fast falling happens. I can totally picture the whole thing happening but it had to happen within 6 seconds.  Regardless, this week I biked only 11 miles. Better luck this week.

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
2	11.3	55	12.25	661

This is the first week that I’ve biked and it was all somewhere I had biked before – therefore there is no need to update my buffer map or the Geographic Analysis page

                                                                                                                        

Week 13 in Review (May 30 – June 5)

This was a pretty solid week for biking. Excluding the beginning of the week, the weather was good and I had some time to actually go on some decent rides. On Thursday I biked a simple loop around Fairmount Park and felt really out of shape. I couldn’t tell if it was the wind or if I was more that I had not biked much and still worn down from the wedding weekend. Either way I was mad strugs. I did make it out and back from my apartment in less than an hour. 

The next day, I wanted to go to a park to do some laps. I had been thinking about switching it up from FDR Park, mostly because I bike there so often. I remembered that Hunting Park has a loop road around it so I decided to attempt a ride up to North Philly and check it out. Hunting Park is much more difficult to get to than FDR Park. South Philadelphia streets feel like they are made for biking; they are narrow, traffic moves very slowly and most importantly (especially for guys) they are fairly evenly paved. While North Philadelphia does not have as many cars parked on the street (I took 13^th Street up to the park) the streets are in pretty poor condition, especially around Temple. Also it probably does not help that there are a lot of hills, whether natural or man-made bridges/dips that go over/under much of the decrepit industrial infrastructure.  I learned from another bike ride I took to/through North Philly a cyclist has to be more on alert, as motorists are seemingly less aware of bicycles.  This held true for this ride so if you decide to bike around here, be alert.

Hunting Park turned out to be a pretty cool park. As I stated in a previous blog entry the park has a lot of history. However when I rode past previously I did not realize how much was happening inside the park.  There are community gardens, a soccer field, a recreation center, a pool, and several playgrounds. Also, that Saturday was the inaugural day for the Hunting Park Farmers Market, at the corner of Old York and Hunting Park. The loop road is smaller and fairly broken up by stop signs for Hunting Park Ave that cuts through the park. Also, it is filled with some interesting entrepreneurs. There were people with lemonade stands. There was one man selling some sort of homemade trinket. However my favorite was the man that had a horse and a pony all set up for rides around the eastern field, that takes dedication. 

On Sunday I biked up to Lemon Hill to watch the last few laps of the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship with Meghan and Judd. I fortunately biked up the back way to Lemon Hill (up Pennsylvania Ave and then over the informal CSX crossing to Sedgely Dr.) and when I got there got a chance to watch the cyclist whiz past heading down the hill. It is amazing how fast the move and how close together they are.  So surprising that no one just slips and ruins the entire race. 

After finding Meghan and Judd on the other side of the hill (where I saw the cyclist come up Lemon Hill instead of down I biked home and ended up on the side of the parkway, where the entire group was in a giant pack and zipped past me at what had to be 35 mph. Impressive.

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
4	45.8	205	13.40	2,455

I covered over an extra square mile this week, which is impressive for not going on any exploratory rides. With this extra boost my total area is 25.99 sq. mi. covering 18.13% of the city. There were major changes in neighborhoods I’ve biked through.  By biking up 13^th Street to Hunting Park I added major gains in the amount Yorktown/Temple/Hunting Park I’ve biked.  Additionally, I have officially biked through 100% of Washington Square West.  For all the detailed information on my cycling patterns check out the Geographic Analysis page.

Week 12 in Review (May 23 - 29)

I got Loretta back from the shop/doctor last Monday and had a momentary panic attack when I began to bike away and my front brake got stuck my chain fell off and I realized Breakaway Bikes failed to reinstall my computer. I went in about to cut someone. However, the guy fixed all of it pretty quickly, albeit rather begrudgingly.  I did have a conversation that went kinda like this:

Me: “Um, also my bike computer is in this bag” 

Bike dude: “oh yea we took it off because it was broken” 

Me: “oh it’s not, it just looks a little beat up”

Bike dude: ::blank stares::

Me: “so, can you put it back on?” 

After all that hassle I didn’t really take advantage of Loretta’s tune up.  Aside from some errand running and hanging out during the middle of the week I didn’t bike anywhere. It was a pretty busy week getting ready for the wedding of Ben and Sarah. (Congratulations, Berah!!)  I did get a few rides in though:

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
4	14.0	71	11.84	865

I only covered an extra tenth of a square mile, mostly in Queen Village, which is now one of my top 10 neighborhoods.  With this extra boost my total area is 24.64 sq. mi. covering 17.19% of the city.  There was minimal changes to neighborhoods, but go ahead and check out the Geographic Analysis page anyway. 

Week 11 in Review (May 16 - 22)

This week is kinda a flop as far as biking. Loretta went to the doctor for a tune-up, and new handle bar tape (hopefully). While she has been in the shop I flew back home to Ohio for the week mostly because I can.  While I had no adventures with Loretta I did with my dad and my mom’s bike. My dad and I took a lovely ride down the Olentangy river trail in Columbus on a hot and sunny Saturday.  I have many pictures and stories from the ride that I hope to share soon.  However, here are the obligatory stats for the week. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
1	24.9	135	11.1	1,625

Because this ride is in Ohio there is no change to my neighborhood/region stats. It’d be amazing if I had GIS shapefiles for Columbus but alas Ii don’t and that’d take too much time. 

Week 10 in Review (May 9 - 15)

Albeit that I haven’t updated my blog with interesting post about my ride at all really this week, I ended up biking around a lot.  I took a ride to Germantown, via a route through Brewerytown, Strawberry Mansion and Allegheny West.  It was really fascinating but by the time I reached Germantown I was pretty tired and people were not very nice. It’s also a rather grubby section of the city, although the main strip looked a tab cleaner than the last time I had seen it.  Additional to my Germantown ride I started to bike do laps around FDR Park in South Philly (My favorite park)

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
3	56.3	251	13.46	3,021

The FDR Park laps have started to satisfy a competitive side in me.  A lap is once around the drive that circles the ponds in the park, it’s roughly 1.65 miles.  The first day I did laps I did 4 of them and one lap I did in 5min and 18 sec. which is the fastest I’ve ever biked around there, it’s an average 18.7 mph.  Over all I averaged less than 17mph for all four laps.  However on the second day that I went (I also did 4 laps) I was much more consistent and was a little quicker overall with slightly higher than 17 mph, 17.2.   That was my adventure for the week. 

I made a large gain in the percentage of Philly I’ve been through. This week I have cycled through just shy of 17.12% of the entire city or 25.5 sq. mi.  Additionally I’ve made great gains in the number of neighborhoods I’ve been in, 97 out of 138 neighborhoods or 70%.

As always make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for a more in depth look.   

Week 9 in Review (May 2 - 8)

This week has been full of cycling adventures. I feel like it’s the first week that it has been warm enough to bike around without worrying about biking in the shorts or pants and being adversely affected by the wind. There are no wind chills when it’s 70. I also I have been slow to update my 5^th Street ride series and I went on another epic bike ride with Zack this week. So therefore I’m just going combine my stats and everything into the week’s review and then dive into more detail when the time comes that I actually write about the ride. 

Routes	Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
5	62.5	296	12.68	3,550

Aside from my ride through West Philadelphia with Zack I went on some pretty decent rides. Most notably on Tuesday, when it was 72 and sunny for the first time in a while I decided to traverse the busy Center City streets around city hall, bike up the parkway and do a gorgeous loop around Fairmount Park.  I saw a gaggle of baby geese that were just adorable but I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t capture the moment. Then Yesterday I went on a lovely, yet hungover, ride with two of my friends, Meghan and Judd. We had discussed this ride earlier in the week and then attended a fairly epic Kentucky Derby party, where I learned that a Mint Julep is mostly Bourbon. However, we all made it to our meeting spot on the Schuylkill Trail and then biked to Manayunk for a coffee and bagels. It was the perfect day!

On Sundays the City closes down West River Dr./MLK Dr. for bicyclist and for runners alike.  Before noon one can travel from the Art Museum to the Falls Bridge, about 4.1 miles.  However, after noon they reopen the road south of Sweet Briar Lane to traffic, leaving about 2.7 mile car free.

All in all it was a great week for biking. Including my West Philly ride, I’ve made huge gains in in the percentage of Philly I’ve been through. This week I have cycled through just shy of 15% of the entire city, 14.85% or 21.3 sq. mi.  Additionally I’ve made great gains in the number of neighborhoods I’ve been in, 88 out of 138 neighborhoods or 64%.

CORRECTION: Last week I stated 89 neighborhoods but I miscalculated and there were only 80 neighborhoods that I have actually biked through more than 2.5% of them, which is my criterion for showing it on the map.  

A few key points concerning my current biking trends are: I’ve biked through nearly 85% of Center City, and I’m shy of only two neighborhoods in West Philadelphia before I can say I’ve biked through all of it.  Make sure you check out the Geographic Analysis page for a more in depth look.