NYC Street Street Quiz for Non-Natives: Follow Up

I loved all of the comments readers contributed to the following picture last week when I asked for reaction to what I was trying to capture -

 

I mostly loved how there were different spins on the perils of bike commuting in NYC.  My main goal was to convey the dangers, and disgusting nature, of NYC garbage.  Yes the large puddle is an IED produced by garbage ooze and the cans and plastic bottle denote the blatant disregard for recycling efforts in NYC.  Let me walk you through the picture with the following arrows as visual tools . .

1.  This is garbage ooze (IED) and it should be noted that the puddles repeat all the way down the street.  I have not crashed on an IED yet, however I have come perilously close when I was taking a turn a few summers ago, hit a baked puddle in the middle of the summer and held on for dear life, narrowly escaping a yard sale of epic proportion. 

2. I grew up in Oregon where recycling is built into the genetic code of everyone born in the state.  The Oregon Bottle Bill of 1971 was the first container deposit legislation passed in the United States.  Thus I find it impossible to throw a can or bottle in the trash.  If there is no recycling container around, I will carry the bottle with me until I find one.  Call me crazy.  What miffs me is that I meticulously sort all my recycling in my apartment in NYC and it is all too common to see garbage truck workers toss the recycling right in with the garbage and smash it all up.  There are supposed to be separate trucks, but rarely if ever do I see recycling actually recycled and this is an example.  The workers just crushed up the recycling with the garbage and didn't bother to pick up the cans and bottles that were dropped in the process.  Deep sigh.

3.  Often accompanying the garbage ooze is solid waste as well.  Rats will sometimes eat into the bags left on the sidewalk at night and when the bags are picked up, all sorts of disgusting waste will drop into the street.

4.  As some people commented, you have to be careful to watch out for car doors and pedestrians that will dart out of nowhere from between cars.  Speaking of pedestrians darting out, it's not worth it folks . . . for super scary proof see the following - viewer discretion advised, but the guy did live.

5. It was a brutal winter in NYC and on this street there were potholes of unusual size for weeks.  As you can see they were recently filled in.

6. This is the garbage truck, and next to it is another truck.  The streets in the city can be very narrow and when a garbage truck and another truck are parked close to one another, good luck in getting by them unless you want to take the illegal step of riding on the sidewalk (I am often guilty of this but will clip out of one of my pedals and push myself along with my foot so as to appear less intimidating to pedestrians).

Oh what fun it is to commute in NYC. 

So, who "wins" as far as comments?  I did note that a prize might be up for grabs.  Well, there are two winners.  First, I am partially annoyed by Jack Bulkley's comment stating that he saw "7 rabbits and a fox" on a recent commute.  What, no unicorns?  But I am also jealous, so Jack is winner number one for offering the polar opposite side of bike commuting. 

Number two has to go to billy fright.  If you have not read billy's comment, it zigs and zags from comments on the human species to art.  

I got a package of goodies a while back and Jack and billy will have first dibs.  I'll have more details tomorrow and I have another contest in the works so stay tuned for more chances to score some swag.

Comments

[affiliate program]

We should be careful enough in doing this activity. Well informed blog. Impressive. If you want to ask for some help regarding your health, please feel free to visit this. In some ways, I hope I can help you in my outmost help. Take care