Monday, December 22, 2014

Happy Holidays And Seasons Greetings From Bike New York - New Web Page And Sign Up For Roosevelt Island Only Bike Maintenance Class

Image From Bike NY

Bike New York's Roosevelt Island Community Outreach Manager Caitlin Goodspeed reports:
Last week we launched our new website, www.bike.nyc! I am especially excited about the page that is dedicated entirely to Roosevelt Island. You can find it under the education tab on the main page. I will be updating the page frequently with news from the island.

Also, we have a Bike Maintenance 101 class for Roosevelt Island residents only happening on Sunday, January 25th from 11-1 at Sportspark Gym. People must email me at cgoodspeed@bike.nyc (new email) to register. There are a limited number of spots for this class! We recommend that people bring their own bikes to practice on, but it's okay if you come sans bike.

Thank you and have a happy holiday!

7 comments :

OldRossie said...

Frank, are you saying you sat in motorgate garage for 4 days? Or, are you saying you sat in the garage for 12 hours over JUST 4 days?

CheshireKitty said...

The McManus numbers sound inflated either way. I wonder if there's a number of patrols PSD is supposed to be performing in Motorgate the same way PSD is contractually obligated to perform vertical patrols in WIRE buildings (1 patrol every 8 hour shift = 3 patrols per every 24 hours).


I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult technologically to use a system such as that used in EZ Pass to automatically record the Motorgate patrols being performed by PSD patrol cars. The data could be referred to in case there is any question that patrols are being performed.


Driving in and driving through the facility - maybe once every 8 hours - this isn't an onerous task. We need a way to verify that these patrols are occurring.


On the cameras: I'm not sure all areas are covered. Even though the cameras can swivel, if they are pointed in one direction, that means they are not covering the area they are pointed away from. There may not be "seamless" coverage. Of course, they are more a deterrent - a person intent on a crime may think twice before committing a crime if they see the cameras. However, the technology is relatively cheap - maybe RIOC could purchase additional cameras to ensure that all areas are covered all the time.

Frank Farance said...

OldRossie: 4 observation periods over 4 days, expected to collect 15-ish data points, but only 3 occurred: actual PSD patrolling differed significantly from McManus's presentation.

OldRossie said...

So for 4 days you spent 3 hours just hanging out in in the garage... The only thing troubling is that PSD didn't question YOU - the creepy dude loitering around the garage...

OldRossie said...

That wasn't the question.

Frank Farance said...

OldRossie: Very funny. I was in plain sight, a camera pointed at me for 3 of those days. Brrr, gets cold in freezing weather at night. That camera should have been pointed at the cars (or at least swept the scene via auto pan).


Maybe they thought: with Mr. Farance in Motorgate, whatever happens will get better recorded and reported than whatever we could possibly do at RIOC/PSD with our defective camera system, so we'll just watch Mr. Farance - he'll be a "canary" for trouble. :-)



Of course, over several days, I took photos of the camera as it watched me. As I was photographing the camera, I giggled thinking of the Spy v. Spy comic strip. Here's a sample comic.

OldRossie said...

I like the comic. You can skip the following paragraph - don't let it muddle the point I'm trying to make in last paragraph:


How do you account for variances in hours of the day, days of the week, the definition of a patrol (driving through, staying in the garage - we've all seen them parked somewhere waiting before doing another drive through), where do you get 27 minutes to patrol motorgate (I used to park in a distant corner and get to it from the gate in under a minute..)... all of these apply to a vertical patrol count. They know of a few bad kids in a building. They enter the building, walk the stairs, linger in the building, walk the stairs again, maybe this happens 3 or 4 times before they leave the building...


Here's the point. your relatively puny sample is certainly not representative of the stats he's putting out for the entire year, yet you're using it (and only it) to make accusations of false representation by someone who, by a variety of measures, is trying to make a positive impact on the island. What kind of an impact do you think you are making?