On the Beaten Bike Path

Free coffee! Free coffee!

I used to see them maybe twice a year, usually at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge in Manhattan or mid-way across the Brooklyn Bridge. But recently they’ve been making more frequent appearances and show up on some slightly less-beaten paths.

Today they set up shop at the intersection of Smith Street and Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. It makes sense, of course, given the heavily trafficked nature of Smith Street and the fact that many a cyclist passes by here on his or her way to work via the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge. At 8 a.m., on their morning commute, clumps of them crowd at the light, waiting for green to cross Atlantic Avenue.

Free coffee! Free coffee! Courtesy of Transportation Alternatives (www.transalt.org), the advocacy group committed to walkers, cyclists, and users of public transportation. They stood there, three of them, on the right-hand curb, opposite the hipster-chic clothing store Brooklyn Industries and in front of the former 24-hour diner (now closed). A trio dressed in sky-blue tops, a large thermos of coffee at their feet on the sidewalk. Milk, too. And paper cups. During summer months, it’s ice coffee, but today the weather was cold, so the coffee was hot. Is it ever too early for leisurely early-morning work break even if you’re pedaling fiercely to get there on time? Free coffee! But only for cyclists.

If only they knew, those poor gridlocked drivers, the profits and pleasures of cycling to work.

(And if coffee’s not enough, there’s always Bike to Work Day, when ‘fueling stations’ throughout the city provide coffee, breakfast, and coconut water [bikenyc.org/event/4218]).