Newsstand: Bike NYC

As a newly-minted bicyclist, I enjoyed Frank Bruni's op-ed yesterday about Janette Sadik-Kahn and New York City's increased bike lanes and push toward fewer cars. The city is gradually becoming a much friendlier place to ride on two wheels. Of course, it doesn't always feel that way commuting in the morning along Central Park South...

I like Bruni's quote of Gabe Klein, the Chicago transportation commissioner, who noted that biking was an antidote to many modern ills: “There’s the congestion problem,” he said. “The pollution problem. The obesity problem. The gas problem.”

Biking is really a great way to accomplish so many things at once: get where you want to go, exercise, save money and help the environment. Saturday, J and I rode our bikes up through Harlem to Hamilton Heights, then cut over to the Hudson River up to Washington Heights. On the way back, we cut through Columbia and Morningside Heights. We enjoyed the opportunity to get outside, breathe the fresher air, and explore uptown. I've gone on a couple biking trips in foreign countries over the years, and it's one of the best ways to see a place. You can cover a lot of ground and yet go slow enough to experience your surroundings, even to stop and check out places en route. All of this is to say that I'm thankful we have bikes and excited to continue exploring our city.