Archive for the 'Biking' Category

When I walk to Watchung Plaza from my Montclair home, I take a short route  through an interconnected grid of streets and through a small park.  I wave to my neighbor on the way.  I stop for a brief minute in the park to chat with a friend who’s on her way home from work (she’s just gotten off the 5:31 train from Manhattan).  It’s social.  It’s interactive.  It’s exercise.  It’s green.

On the other hand, it’s very difficult to walk to the train station, or the corner store to get milk in a town that is laid out in a branching street pattern with a series of dead-ends -aka cul-de-sacs- feeding in to a main artery. In these configurations, you can be a stone’s throw from your destination, but have to travel a mile to get there.  This may be a satisfactory layout for the car but not for the pedestrian or bike rider.

Watch this very clever video from the Congress for New Urbanism and you’ll see what I mean…

Sunday morning  historical walk/run and bike tour.

Don’t try this in just any suburb.  It takes a village, a real one, to make these sorts of walk/bike tours possible.  Streets that are interconnected on a grid, sidewalks, trees to shade the sidewalks, history , a reason, a community, merchants that are involved with their community and people to participate.  One of the many reasons I love Montclair.

August 9th, 11 a.m.  -a 5K walking/running tour of several historical sites. Sponsored by the Montclair Historical Society, Fleet Feet and Destination Montclair.

August 16th, 11 a.m. – a 4 mile bike tour including historical George Washington Boulder, Charles Shultz House, Clark House Van Vleck House & Gardens. Bike rentals available from Diamond Cycle, where the route begins.