7 Observations From Riding My Scooter From Midtown Manhattan To My Family's Home On Long Island (25 miles)
Yesterday, I met with a LinkedIn connection in one of my favorite places in the world: Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, right next to the Stephen A. Schwarzman New York Public Library. My friend was visiting from Paris and it was great to meet him in person. I might create a list of people that I've met on LinkedIn initially and later met in person.
Recently, I purchased a portable electric scooter to use to get around (I've relied on public transportation and been without my own car for four years now) and took it with me on the train to Manhattan. After my meeting was over, I thought to myself, instead of buying a train ticket home to Long Island, why not ride my scooter home? It's only 25 miles. Here are some observations from my trip.
1. Riding an electric scooter is FUN
They are a TON of fun to ride. When you get on an open stretch of newly paved road and you can max out your scooter, it feels terrific. It's a great alternative to driving, you feel connected with the outdoors, and other people on bikes and scooters.
2. Delivering food on a scooter every day in Manhattan is extremely dangerous
From Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, I went east on E. 40th Street, made a left onto 1st Avenue, and rode that all the way north to the Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge on 60th Street. Clearly, the streets in Manhattan on a busy day are extremely crowded with passenger cars, police cars, trucks, vans, bicycles, scooters, and countless pedestrians. Thankfully, I didn't encounter any close calls during this trip, but if I had to do it daily for a year, I think it would be inevitable before I crashed and experienced either a single passenger accident caused by a pothole/trying to avoid a pedestrian, or got into an accident with a car or another scooter rider. The only question would be how severe would the accident be. I saw multiple white bicycles in NYC, which are memorials left at the accident scenes of bicyclists that passed away in a fatal accident and it gave me pause.
3. There are Spanish people everywhere in NYC
Mexicans, Ecuadorians, Salvadorians, Guatemalans, Peruvians, Dominicans. They're on construction sites, delivering food on scooters/bikes, on the trains, running restaurants and bodegas, in the libraries, etc. You literally can't avoid them if you spend any amount of time in NYC. Knowing how to speak Spanish is a great skill if you live and work in NYC/Long Island.
4. The view of New York City and Long Island City from the Queensborough Bridge is incredible
Usually, if you're crossing the Queensborough Bridge, you're zooming over it in a car. But if you take the pedestrian/bike path, you'll get to savor the views. I've never taken the Roosevelt Island Tramway, which takes you from Manhattan to Long Island in a tram that rides along the Queensborough Bridge, but would like to do so one day.
5. E-Scooters can go REALLY fast
My scooter tops out at 20 mph, which is plenty fast for me. Any faster than that, and you're looking at heightened risk of possibly fatal accidents. Some of the scooters that were passing me by on the bike path going over the Queensborough Bridge must have been going close to 40-50 mph.
6. People driving cars in Manhattan get really angry
It must be the traffic....combined with the heat and crappy jobs. Or maybe they're just jealous that they're paying through the nose to fill their gas tanks up. On two occasions, I got beeped/cursed at by drivers. Each time, I was operating my scooter perfectly within the rules of the road.
7. The Wealth and Income Inequalities in Manhattan, the surrounding boroughs, and suburbs on Long Island are staggering
The gradual change from sky-scrapers, to an urban environment to suburban homes is quite interesting.
From the middle of NYC to the heart of Long Island isn't very far in the grand scheme of things (25 miles about), but in that little area, there are different worlds. Exorbitant wealth in Manhattan, some really hard scrabble cities in Queens and Brooklyn, and some more of both on Long Island. In one zip code, the average home price could be north of a million and in another zip code not even two miles away, you could be in the middle of a war-zone. I experienced the entire spectrum on my trip.
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