New York

A LOT of New Yorkers probably wish they had a bike right now.

"ThreeLeggedDog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
| I was going to ask what it was like to commute home during the outage in New York but then it
| occurred to me....nobody has any power to read the question.

Roadside Artist said:

A LOT of New Yorkers probably wish they had a bike right now.

Maybe. Maybe not. On TV it looks like the streets and bridges are all clogged with pedestrians. You
could be on a bike but not be able to move faster than a walk and not a fast walk at that.

--Bill Davidson
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Roadside Artist said:

A LOT of New Yorkers probably wish they had a bike right now.

"ThreeLeggedDog" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
| I was going to ask what it was like to commute home during the outage in New York but then it
| occurred to me....nobody has any power to read the question.

Bicyclists are the lucky ones today. If they can get home without being ran over, without running
over someone or being mugged for the bike.

In article <[email hidden]>, ThreeLeggedDog

Quoted message said:

I was going to ask what it was like to commute home during the outage in New York but then it
occurred to me....nobody has any power to read the question.

Well, I didn't ride yesterday, actually--I made the mistake of going to a strip mall after the
power went out right after the end of my work day, thinking it was just a localized thing and would
be over soon. Wasn't until I got to the local Barnes & Noble (which was closed) that I learned it
was a much bigger issue than that. Hence was I stranded at a closed strip mall until I could get a
bus back home. Fortunately, this is a small upstate city, not Manhattan, so that wasn't too much of
a hardship.

And lo and behold, when I got home, my power was on. (Despite the fact that the gas station down the
street was turning cars away because their pumps didn't work.) However, my ISP wasn't recognizing my
password when I tried to get online, so I suspect the server in Ithaca was down.

My family in the Cleveland area were without power longer than I was. I got home around 7 and had
power already. They didn't have it until 11:30. I say this realizing, after having finally been able
to get online again today, that some people in other parts of the country, having seen so many
pictures of how the blackout was affecting New York City, seem to be under the impression that it
ONLY affected New York City, and that NYC is getting a disproportionate amount of media attention
for its troubles, as opposed to various catastrophes the rest of the country has endured in the
past. (This, despite repetition of the fact that it also knocked out upstate NY, northeast Ohio,
Michigan and a big chunk of Ontario. Not to mention Northern New Jersey and Connecticut, and parts
of Massachusetts.) I'm here to tell you: this was not just a New York City thing. They got most of
the TV pictures, at least at the start--but that's because that's where the media are. That's all.

Here, cops were directing traffic at places where traffic lights were out. It wouldn't have been
ideal cycling conditions, given the general traffic problems. Also, we had a 9 pm curfew imposed on
our county for vehicles AND pedestrians. Only essential workers were supposed to be traveling at
all. So a night for the bicycle it was not.
--
Trudi Keeper of Brian Orser's Power Grid "Closed Due to Blackout. Pray for the Chocolate!" --sign in
Cleveland store, 8/14/03
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On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 21:41:47 GMT, ThreeLeggedDog <[email hidden]> ranted:

Quoted message said:

I was going to ask what it was like to commute home during the outage in New York but then it
occurred to me....nobody has any power to read the question.

We got power back after about 20 hours. Not too bad, really. A story from when I was a cop:
I was on motor patrol when the 1977 blackout occurred. The radio almost immediately went
hyper and we were responding to emergency calls non stop. Then I got a call to see a woman
about a crime - no further information available. I got to her front door and the elderly,
frail looking woman invited me in. I asked what the problem was and she said that she wanted
to turn herself in. I asked what for, and she told me she had plugged some appliance, (can't
remember what) into a wall socket which caused the blackout of her entire block. I told her
the entire north east was blacked out, but she took that as meaning she was going to prison
and began to cry. It took a half hour to make her understand that it was not her fault and
that I was not going to lock her up. And people asked me why I ever wanted to be a cop!
Cheers, Ken (NY) Chairman, Department Of Redundancy Department
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Trudi said:

... I say this realizing, after having finally been able to get online again today, that some
people in other parts of the country, having seen so many pictures of how the blackout was
affecting New York City, seem to be under the impression that it ONLY affected New York City, and
that NYC is getting a disproportionate amount of media attention for its troubles, as opposed to
various catastrophes the rest of the country has endured in the past. (This, despite repetition of
the fact that it also knocked out upstate NY, northeast Ohio, Michigan and a big chunk of Ontario.
Not to mention Northern New Jersey and Connecticut, and parts of Massachusetts.) I'm here to tell
you: this was not just a New York City thing....

Yes. Locally the bicycle traffic picked up. I saw quite a few more than normal, and all on bikes
with decent headlights. When the power came back on and the gas stations could pump again, there
were line-ups around the block (shades of the 70's oil embargo). Local papers had articles about
idiots driving around trying to buy diapers and running out of gas. On NPR we got a plug; someone
on NYC said "I thought I'd go buy a bicycle, but the bike shops were closed." --Karen M. without
juice for 24 hours during 90/90 weather in metro Detroit