P-ville to Manhattan, in four hours or less.

This weekend, I went on a birthday bike ride, from Chappaqua to the East Village. A four hour ride for Italian food! The route is much easier than I imagined; nearly all of it is on flat multi-use paths, and there are only a few areas that are tricky. And I counted 130 bikes during the 2 hours I was in Westchester! I totally stopped counting the moment I hit the Bronx.


**The Route**
1. I began biking from my house(on State Road 117) to the Pleasantville beginning of the North County Trailway, which is at 9A. This was a little tricky: 117 is bumpy, windy and narrow; and there is a gi-normous hill shortly before the path. Lots of inhaled car exhaust. Yum.


Suggested improvements: sidewalks and wider shoulder along 117 in Chappaqua; marked signage and sharrows through Pleasantville indicating directions to the Bike Path.


2. I rode the North County Trailway south to Elmsford. This was calm, pleasant, peaceful, even boring. A great way to catch my breath after the hills. It ends up at a town dump, where that, and an animal shelter, block the construction of the connection between the North and South County Trailways. At that point, I made a left, and rode State Road 9A for exactly one block, turning right onto North Payne Street, a subsequent left on Hayes Street, which I followed til the entrance to the South County Trailway.


Suggested improvements: better signage on the North County Trailway: East/South/North/West Routes, with milage markers, etc. Some roadside attractions: paintings, a statue, would be unnecessary but pleasant. An Absolute MUST: finish the trailway. If that proves impossible for political reasons, then at the very least, sharrows and signage for the connection between the trails is imperative to getting more people biking for transportation, between the two.


3. South County Trailway, South, to Yonkers. Then I road down to the end of the South County Trailway. A beautiful view of the Saw Mill River Parkway is to our right; we pass a lake, a bridge, a dam. It's all very attractive. We end up on Toissant Road, where a part of the South County Trailway is blocked due to an Auto Parts Shop, which had bought the railroad right of way a long time past. To make up for it, I turned up to Tuckahoe Road(dangerous, fast cars), road up a very high hill called Rockne road for several blocks. (I actually walked my bike for a bit at this point).


Somehow we connected into Tibbetts Brook Park, and resumed riding on the South County Trailway. Only god knows how. And my dad.


Suggested Improvements: CONNECT the TRAILWAY. In lue of this, leave the off-road hill, and post sharrows and signs on the connecting sections. It is very confusing otherwise to bikers. This would do an enormous amount to increase cycling to and from New York City.


4. Road the lower part of the South County Trailway through to Van Cortland Park, a dirt trail that is a bit muddy at times, but generally supportive of bikes.


Suggested Improvements: pave the path, signage and milage.


5. Wound up on Bailey Avenue in the Bronx. We connected over to Broadway; road for several blocks, crossed the Broadway Bridge, and made our way down to the Manhattan Greenway, or Hudson River Greenway as it also goes by. Biked along this until 25th Street, when I crossed into the street system.


Suggested Improvements: SIGNAGE. How many times have I said this? A sharrowed, signed bike lane from Van Cortland Park to the Manhattan Greenway would make biking much easier. It also gets a bit dangerous at this point: lots of connections with cars. But also more exhilarating? More people in the road. The Greenway? Is gorgeous.


6. Left on 25th Street. Right on Broadway. Continuing local directions until I reached my friends apartment on 2nd Street, between 1st and Avenue A.


Suggested improvements: improved police enforcement of bike lane rules. Bike boxes at intersections, placing the bikes in front of the cars. Greater separations of lanes to prevent dooring and car connections.


7. Italian food.


Suggested Improvements: None.


P.S I took the Metro-North with my bike back; I felt like a jerk for having one on the train, as they don't really fit, and I had to keep my hand on it the whole ride. Bike storage within the trains would be a wonderful, wonderful improvement.