karlmyer
A very narrow decorative-brick path, about 2 feet wide, runs alongside the right (slow) lane of the 6-lane Van Wyck Expressway, I-678, in both directions as it approaches, enters, and leaves Kennedy Airport. The brick path is separated from traffic by the right-shoulder highway guardrail. The I-678 roadway has no shoulder, actually, and the guardrail immediately abuts the right traffic lane. On the other side of the guardrail, right up against it, runs this brick path, parallel to the roadway. It seems like a bikepath. The same type path also runs alongside various roads throughout JFK Airport. There are wide, crushed-stone entrances to this brick path at various points along the service road running parallel to the Van Wyck, called South Service Road.
Motorists, then, on the Van Wyck toward Kennedy airport, would see: Their southbound 3 lanes of Van Wyck Expressway; then, to the right of that, the guardrail; then immediately to the right of the guardrail the brick path; then, aside that, a wide grassy area with periodically-spaced mulched beds; then South Service Road to the right of that.
A policeman saw me entering the brick path at one of these access points on my bicycle, chirped his siren as he drove up behind me onto the crushed-stone access area, and told me not to enter the path "because you'll get hit." I don't think he was aware the path existed until that minute and stopped me because he thought I was going to ride on the expressway. There is no chance, in any case, of getting hit by a car since the guardrail separates the path from the roadway.
As it turned out, I did ride the paths at various times during the afternoon. But I didn't encounter - or even see from a distance, on the other side of the highway for instance - another bicyclist or pedestrian on these paths all day. What are these odd paths? Are they bike paths? How far north (away from Kennedy) on the Van Wyck Expressway do they extend?
One reason I call them odd is their narrow width. Two bicycles could not pass each other without one going off onto the grass. Also, lampposts are situated in the middle of the path, obstructing bicycle travel. And there are periodically-spaced mulched beds sloping down to the path which have a certain type of thorny bush whose broken-off branches seem to have washed down onto the brick path along with some of the mulch. At first I just rode over these small twigs and mulch until noticing that the thorns embed themselves in the bicycle tires. I meticulously picked around 25 out of my tires after realizing this. They were sharp and long but did not cause a flat or even any loss of air, surprisingly.
Motorists, then, on the Van Wyck toward Kennedy airport, would see: Their southbound 3 lanes of Van Wyck Expressway; then, to the right of that, the guardrail; then immediately to the right of the guardrail the brick path; then, aside that, a wide grassy area with periodically-spaced mulched beds; then South Service Road to the right of that.
A policeman saw me entering the brick path at one of these access points on my bicycle, chirped his siren as he drove up behind me onto the crushed-stone access area, and told me not to enter the path "because you'll get hit." I don't think he was aware the path existed until that minute and stopped me because he thought I was going to ride on the expressway. There is no chance, in any case, of getting hit by a car since the guardrail separates the path from the roadway.
As it turned out, I did ride the paths at various times during the afternoon. But I didn't encounter - or even see from a distance, on the other side of the highway for instance - another bicyclist or pedestrian on these paths all day. What are these odd paths? Are they bike paths? How far north (away from Kennedy) on the Van Wyck Expressway do they extend?
One reason I call them odd is their narrow width. Two bicycles could not pass each other without one going off onto the grass. Also, lampposts are situated in the middle of the path, obstructing bicycle travel. And there are periodically-spaced mulched beds sloping down to the path which have a certain type of thorny bush whose broken-off branches seem to have washed down onto the brick path along with some of the mulch. At first I just rode over these small twigs and mulch until noticing that the thorns embed themselves in the bicycle tires. I meticulously picked around 25 out of my tires after realizing this. They were sharp and long but did not cause a flat or even any loss of air, surprisingly.