Mission Statement:
Cycling in NYC
By Cheick Toure
The purpose of my blog is to discuss and explore the experience of being a cyclist in New York City. I’ve lived in New York City for about 14 years, and for whatever reason I never considered commuting with a bike as an option. Commuting in new york in itself is a different challenge then most places, the trains can be often crowded during rush hours and if you drive then you’ll experience traffic on the roads. But recently I just wanted to have an alternative to my commute, and decided to purchase a bike. I live on the border of Long Island and Queens, so I often take the Long Island Railroad and then the subway to get to work or school. Both my job and school are in the city so I spend an awful amount of time in the city and on my commutes. Although commuting is cheaper than owning a car in New York, its still not cheap when you include the cost of monthly metro card and a monthly Long Island Railroad pass (LIRR). The long Island railroad monthly pass from Rosedale to Penn station is $210 along with my Subway monthly pass $112.Being a college student, I look for ways to lower my cost of living so that I can have more funds for other things, this encouraged me to bike in attempt to lower my commute cost. But New York City is city of the yellow cabs and reckless drivers, and that makes it intimidating to bike. Drivers have this sense of ownership towards the road and don’t like sharing, specially with bikers. But recently things have been changing, with the introduction of CitiBike which was introduced by the collaborative effort of Mayor Bloomberg and Citi Bank, more New Yorkers are using the CItibike’s as a vehicle to get them through the city and also avoid some of the traffic. So because of this there’s more bikes in New York city aside from the delivery bikers and bikers like myself. Along with the introduction of the CitiBike came new bike lane paths, a little sense of security among bikers knowing that their not being rebels by choosing to be cyclist around the city. Cycling is looked at differently now since business people dressed in business attire use the citibike’s to get around the city. On another note, although commuting in New York may seem frustrating for those of us who have been living in New York for quiet sometime we have to admit that commuting here, may still be easier than some other big cities. So my blog aims to discuss some of the challenges, joys, benefits and experiences that biking in New York has to offer. Even if your bike is your only form of transportation or if you are a part bike rider and part subway rider or LIRR rider like myself, I want to hear your story.
Riding a bike around the city makes me feel as if am new to the city. I get to explore places I would never have explored if I wasn’t on a bike. Biking makes certain places accessible that wouldn’t be otherwise, it makes me appreciate the beauty of the city, and i’ve become sort of a tourist to this city. There are things in this city have taken for granted because I got accustomed to seeing the same things during my commutes on the trains. But riding my bike lets me appreciate the beauty of a bridge, it’ engineering and the view of the city.
I believe my blog may have a purpose because before taken on this experience I had questions about biking in New York City, but I could hardly find anything on the subject. Am sure maybe somewhere on the web someone might have written about their experiences as well, but I am looking to get a little deeper and cover this experience from many angles. From the people riding the bikes, the people sharing the road with bikers, and much more.
My target audience for this blog will be those interested in the experience of being a cyclist in NYC and along with bringing up discussions with other people that are affected by cyclist in New York. The content of the blog will include photos, videos, maps, bike shops, repair shops and so on, anything that can help make the cycling experience come off as real as possible to the readers. In regards to videos I am aiming to take on a Gopro camera in order to show some of the places a bike can take you that a car just couldn’t. Mainly the things you can experience riding a bike that you wouldn’t be able to do while driving. This blog isn’t aiming to convert everyone into a cyclist, that would probably make cycling just as frustrating as driving, but this blog will advocate that cyclist, drivers and subway riders can coexist in one ecosystem in partnership. I would also hope that through this blog effort we can all see the importance and health benefits of cycling and take on the responsibility of preserving it and making it a safer commute for the current cyclist and future cyclist.
Editorial Plan:
Editorial Plan
The goal of my blog is for it to cover the experience of being a cyclist in new york city, cycling as a form of commuting or just getting around the city.
Types of content
Q&A’s:
-In such a metropolitan city what drives people to want to get around in bikes versus all the other options available?
-what are some of the advantages or disadvantages of being a bicycle rider in new york? challenges, opportunities and benefits.
Mainly the questions are going to be around the experiences that a bicycle rider can have and others wouldn’t be.
Coverage of events:
Coverage of events would of been much easier during the spring or summer, but as the weather gets colder their are less and less events going on about cycling in new york. But that doesn’t mean their won’t be any, just very rare. My goal is get out their and seek those events out and try and get as much coverage out of them as possible. But I will still make the coverage on bike shops and their events, to promote more bike riders within the city, development or implementing of new bike lanes within the city.
What other people are saying about cycling:
It’s also important to hear from other people who are affected by cyclist in the city, we want to coexist, but by being able to respect each others riders rights. So well discuss the things that cyclist can improve on from the perspectives of does who are not actual cyclist. Every perspectives matter.
Creating process of the post:
I aim to make the post media driven as possible, that being said I also have to keep in mind that cycling is a thing of motion, this is new york city after all and people have places to be. With that being said, some of the images or reoccurring themes maybe bikes in motion, which will be images of cyclist going about their day, but mainly capturing different genre of cyclist going about their days. So images I feel will be very important for the blog, along with videos and interviews. Those two form of media will be able to tell the story in much more words then you ever tell it. Video footage are the things that may be just a tad bit complicated to obtain, unless i set up equipment that allows me to record the videos as I commute. Photos can be captured by being at places where cycling normally occurs, bike lanes, dedicated bike paths, riding in the park, and bike riders at the stop lights.
The Editorial process of the blog will evolve and take a life of it’s own, I am sure this is something I won’t be able to control as much as i’d like. Because cycling is a living a breathing activity, so the majority of it will take a life form of it’s own, and I hope to be able to capture as much as possible of it to recreate some of the experiences on this blog.
Social Media
Am looking to make Instagram and Snapchat will be my main platforms of social media, Instagram is just instant, and so is Snapchat. With those two together I can make micro-blogging posts in advance of the main blog posts I aim to make.