And a swell time was had by all. And what a wonderful opportunity for
partygoers and cyclists to learn the meaning of "shared use."
The little red lighthouse (I hope you all read the story as children!) is
right next to the (upper) Riverside Park segment of the Hudson River
Greenway, the last leg before the few street blocks leading to the George
Washington Bridge. It marks the beginning of five very steep switchbacks
that were really never designed for anything but hikers and maintenace
vehicles. How wonderful to see parents educating their children in the art
of sign reading! How marvelous to see riders _absolutely needing_ to get
that last bit of speed, even through clouds of rugrats and ankle-biters,
How dissapointing to see myself sad for not making the last switchback
rather than hitting a child.
But the funny part is, in New York, cyclist are quite used to dealing with
horses, It's one of those things, there just seem to be a lot of horses in
Manhattan. But this was the biggest hay-ride wagon I had ever seen, pulled
by a team of horses (we really don't see that very much here) coming around
a blind turn and taking up the entire pathway.
Now I ask the assembled ladies, gentlemen, and others. Aren't horse drawn
vehicles required to follow the same uniform manual of signs and signals as
every other vehicle in North America?
Oddly enough, for some reason, when i see something that really has to slow
down, my usual expression is "whoa, hossy!" First time I needed to use it
literally.
--ag