Commuting

In a report for CBSnews.com on Berlin, Germany's booming bike culture, Christine Lagorio expresses shock at the sheer number of bikes she saw in Berlin and the way in which motorists and cyclists share the road "gracefully." This, she says, is something she has never experienced in her home town of New York City.

The SUBWAYblogger found a potentially useful new tool for users of Facebook, a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. The Subway Status application, which was not developed by the MTA, is a user generated subway alert system. Now you can forget about those wet mornings when you don't know if your train will get you to work. Theoretically all of the other users on Facebook who ride your Subway line will have already tipped you off to any service disruptions before you leave your house. Pretty cool, although it is only useful if a large number of people use it, so sign up!

A Streetsblog reader brings us an update on the case of the cyclist killed last December in the Central Park Transverse, through information obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request.

Earlier this summer, pedestrians and cyclists in northern Manhattan and the Bronx were surprised to learn that the walkway on the Henry Hudson Bridge, which spans the Harlem River to connect Inwood Hill Park with the neighborhoods of Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale, would be closed due to construction. For three years.

A tipster sent us these photos of the City's new indoor bicycle parking facility at 280 Broadway. A couple of months ago cyclists who work for the City suddenly found themselves and their bikes turned away from their office buildings, leaving few options aside from locking up to street signs and unprotected outdoor racks. This new facility, free to any City employee with a valid ID, should help commuters who work near City Hall.

Where's the beef? Under Rep. Anthony Weiner's plan, vehicles, like the one above, would not be charged a fee to use New York City's most heavily congested streets

Grist's Dave Roberts provides some more background on Rep. Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican Congressman who ridiculed bicycling as a "19th century solution" during debate over the "Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2007." The House bill, which passed on Aug. 4, included a $20/month tax break for bike commuters:

Over on Flickr, Gothamist is gathering some incredible shots of the aftermath of last night's storm and the chaos of this morning's commute. We'd love it if you would share your morning commute story here on Streetsblog. And check out these photos, thanks to Gothamist's remarkable network of contributors...

How did you get to work, or try to get to work, this morning -- subway, bus, bike, walking, telecommute? Let's hear some commuting stories.