Biking through Chelsea

New York City offers a mix of favorable cycling conditions — dense urban proximities, short distances and relatively flat terrain — along with significant cycling challenges: congested roadways with stop and go traffic, a sometimes unsympathetic regulatory environment, and streets with heavy pedestrian activity. The city has a large cycling population including utility cyclists such as delivery and messenger services, cycling clubs for recreational cyclists and, increasingly, commuters.^[1]

While New York had developed the country's first bike path in 1894,^[2] and recent trends place the city "at the forefront of a national trend to make bicycling viable and safe"^[2] — competing ideas of urban transportation have led to conflict as well as ongoing efforts to balance the needs of cyclists, pedestrians and cars.^[2]

History [edit]

The bicycle boom of the late 19th century had a strong impact on New York area, and the City of Brooklyn was especially responsive, providing accommodation in Eastern Parkway, Ocean Parkway, and elsewhere. New York didn't produce as many bicycles as other cities, so imported many from elsewhere, including Freehold Township, New Jersey. As a spectator sport, six-day racing was popular and spurred the building of velodromes in suburbs including Washington Heights, Manhattan, and Jersey City, New Jersey. Weekly races were held in suburban roads, including Pelham Parkway, Bronx. The biggest races were in inner city locations, notably at the original Madison Square Garden which had been designed for cycle racing and at the time was located adjacent to Madison Square. The Olympic sport, Madison Racing, is named after cycle races that became popular at Madison Square Gardens.

Several of the middle 20th century parkway projects of Robert Moses included bike paths. However, when more people could afford cars, bicycling declined and the bikeways fell into disrepair. New bridges connecting Queens to The Bronx, or Brooklyn to Staten Island, did not provide for bicycles or pedestrians.

Late in the century, bicycling resurged. A narrow, physically separated bike lane in Sixth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan had little success^[3] and was eliminated but bike lanes on major bridges were created, refurbished, or improved, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and other agencies created the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and other land bikeways.

Utility cycling [edit]

Carrying freight on Madison Avenue

Motorized delivery bike for a restaurant, with chain, lock, and plastic bags on handles to protect from winter wind

Bike transport in Midtown

Bike share demo in Times Square

Delivery bikes are commonly used in New York for fast food deliveries over short distances, sometimes using mountain bikes outfitted with a lock box (for money), a wide carrier for larger loads such as pizza or other accessories. Electric bicycles are increasingly used for this service, their illegality being sporadically enforced.^[4] Bicycle messengers use narrower wheels to carry lighter loads short distances. Specialized cargo bicycles and tricycles carry heavier loads.

Pedicabs became commonplace at the turn of the 21st century, offering novel travel over short distances, including guided tours of Central Park. In April 2007 the New York City Council voted to limit the number of pedicabs to 325.^[5] A court overturned the limit,^[6] later regulatory efforts concentrated on requirements for insurance and safety equipment^[7] and in April 2011, new legislation tightened parking regulations and capped pedicab licenses at 850.^[8]

In 2007 the Department studied the prospects of a bicycle sharing system^[9] and announced in 2011 that kiosks would be built for the service to begin in 2012^[10] with 10,000 bikes at 600 stations operated by Alta Bicycle Share,^[11] operators of Capital Bikeshare and similar schemes in other US cities. Citigroup will pay to advertise on the bikes and the system will be named Citi Bike.^[12] Draft maps in 2012 indicate stations between 60th Street in Manhattan, the Hudson River, Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and Bushwick Avenue.^[13] Introduction is expected in May 2013^[14] and expansion is anticipated.

Bikeways [edit]

There are three types of bike lanes on New York City streets: Class I, Class II and Class III. Class I bike lanes are typically physically separated from vehicular/pedestrian paths. Class II bike lanes are simply marked with paint and signage, and lie between a parking lane and a traffic lane. Class III bike lanes are shared vehicular/bike lanes, usually only marked by signage. ^[15] The majority of bike lanes in New York are Class II or Class III bike lanes. ^[16]

Most cycling is in Class II or Class III bike lanes, since most streets provide no separate facilities for bicycles. However, Class I bike lanes connect most neighborhoods. Those are in parks and Greenways, segregated from traffic. The Hudson River Greenway is so heavily used that it requires separation of the bikeway from pedestrians. Other parts of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway and the Brooklyn-Queens Greenway are less continuously segregated. An east-west Greenway runs through Pelham Bay Park and across the Bronx along Mosholu Parkway to Van Cortlandt Park where it connects to the South County Trailway. Others include foreshoreways along the north shore of Jamaica Bay, the south shores of Little Neck Bay and Flushing Bay and other locations.

As of February 2009, about 170 miles (270 km) of Class II bike lanes run in streets, and the network is growing.^[17]Class II and Class III bike lanes are often blocked by trucks unloading and by double parked cars. A few, as in Tillary Street, Brooklyn, replace the parking lane and are separated from motor traffic by concrete barriers. The 8th and 9th Avenue bike lanes in Chelsea, Manhattan were rebuilt in late 2008 as Class II bike lanes between the curb and a new parking lane, and are expected to provide more safety.^[18] Similar layouts were used in the reconstructions of 1st and 2nd Avenues in 2010, and in that of Columbus Avenue in 2011.

Renting, outside Artisans Gate, Central Park

Parking under a bike shelter in Long Island City near Pulaski Bridge

Bike shop in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Parking near the Staten Island Greenbelt, a protected nature area

On three Saturdays in August 2008, a route on the East Side of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge to 72nd Street along Lafayette Street, Park Avenue and other streets was cleared of motor traffic to allow easy non-motorised use as an experiment called "Summerstreets".^[19] It was repeated in 2009 ^[20] and became an annual event, including August 6, 13 and 20, 2011.

From mid-August 2008, two lanes of Broadway between 42nd Street and Herald Square were transformed into a pedestrian plaza and bike path.^[21] In late May 2012, four one-way pairs of crosstown bike lanes in Midtown received preliminary approval.^[22]

Appreciation of the new bike lanes in streets was not unanimous.^[23][24] A group in Park Slope sued in March 2011 to remove a new bike lane^[25] and in November the City Council voted to slow the installation of new lanes and pedestrian plazas.^[26] However, an August 2012 survey found two thirds of New Yorkers in favor of bike lanes.^[27]

A proposed Queensway rail trail conversion of the former Rockaway Beach Branch has also met controversy.^[28]

Recreational [edit]

Some parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park, ban or restrict motor vehicles during certain weekday hours and all weekend to promote bicycling. A company operates bike rental stations in several city parks^[29] and local bike shops also rent them, especially in areas of tourism. Less formal operators work on street corners or out of the back of a truck or in parking garages. Additional services include paid guided tours.

Several organizations, including Five Borough Bicycle Club and Bike New York, conduct tours every weekend. Most are day trips for no fee;^[30] some larger or overnight tours require payment. New York City is host to several long annual recreational rides, including the Five Boro Bike Tour. New York Cycle Club and others specialize in fitness and speed. Bicycle track races run most summer weekends in Kissena Park and elsewhere. Road races are held on weekends and some weekday evenings at Prospect Park, Central Park, and Floyd Bennett Field.

New York City Department of Transportation distributes a free and annually updated bike map ^[16] through bike shops. The map shows Class I bike lanes in green, and Class II/Class III bike lanes in other colors. It shows the locations and names of bike shops and points of touristic interest. Shops that rent bikes are shown in red.

Commuting [edit]

Many New Yorkers live less than a dozen miles or 20 km from their job, and can be seen bicycle commuting over various bridges connecting Manhattan with the outer boroughs and along the Hudson or elsewhere in good weather. In 2008 the NYC Department of Transportation released a "screenline count report"^[31] suggesting that commuter cycling had more than doubled since the turn of the century.

For mixed-mode commuting most suburban commuter rail stations provide free parking in racks, and some have bicycle lockers for security. Regulations on bicycles on trains vary by railroad and time of day; Metro-North and LIRR require a permit that can be obtained for free at Grand Central Terminal. New Jersey Transit also allows bicycles onboard trains en route to New York City but restricts them on rush hour trains. Bikes are allowed on New York City Subways at all hours, though it is sometimes difficult to fit a bike into a packed subway car. Rules against fastening bikes to subway property, including fences around street stairs, are enforced more rigorously than those concerning lampposts and other street furniture. Municipal bicycle stands are installed in many neighborhoods. Most are simple "bike staples" but a few, including one each at the northwest ends of Pulaski Bridge and Union Square are larger, with a roof. More are planned.^[32]

Due to traffic patterns and transport network geometries, mixed-mode bicycling+subway can be the fastest way to commute or to achieve transport within NYC, for many routes and times.

Folding bicycles, which often allow parking in a workplace or home closet where there isn't room for a full sized bike, became increasingly popular early in the 21st century.^[33] European city bikes from the Netherlands, though lacking this virtue, became a lesser trend in 2008.^[34]

In 2009, a local law created by the New York City Council went into effect, requiring commercial buildings with freight elevators to allow employees to transport their bikes on them up to tenant floors. The purpose of the bill was to allow access to indoor storage spaces to encourage commuting by cycling.^[35] The City Council also created another local law in 2009 requiring many off-street parking facilities to replace some of their spaces for vehicles with bicycle racks. So far there has been limited demand by cyclists for paid off-street bicycle parking at these garages and lots.^[36]

Transportation Alternatives promotes bicycle commuting and bicycle friendly facilities to lessen the impact of cars on urban life.

Laws and rules [edit]

A bicycle is treated similarly to a motorized vehicle under the law of the State of New York with several exceptions. No license is required to operate a bicycle. Cyclists must ride in the direction of traffic. On one-way streets 40 feet or wider, they may ride on either the left or right side. Children must wear a helmet. Adult cyclists must use hand signals, must only wear headphones in one ear,^[37] must not ride on sidewalks, and must use lights at night (red in rear and white in front).^{[38] [39]}

Class II Bike lane in the door zone. This is common in New York City.

Ghost bike in the Lower East Side

Dangers and annoyances [edit]

Being doored (colliding with the door of a car unexpectedly opened) is a prominent hazard.^[40] Many Class II/Class III bike lanes run in the door zone. While the law requires caution in opening car doors into traffic lanes, dooring remains common, and doored cyclists face injury and sometimes death. Cyclists must exercise caution, riding a door's length away from parked cars whenever practicable.

Approximately 20 cyclists are killed most years, usually by collision with a moving motor vehicle (including those who are knocked under wheels by a door). Some fatality locations are marked by white-painted ghost bikes. Traffic accidents kill approximately 160 pedestrians per year (about half as many as in the late 20th century) and a lesser number inside cars.^[41]

Activism [edit]

Critical Mass Ride and the NYPD [edit]

Critical Mass monthly rides in New York have turned into a conflict between the NYPD and bike riders. On 27 August 2004 during the Republican National Convention, more than 400 riders were arrested for 'disrupting traffic'.^[42] The arrests, thought to preemptive action against protests during the convention, spawned law suits and courts have ruled that the rides are legal (c.f.^[43]). Other rides were also followed by arrests,^[44] tickets^[45] though the NYPD has been content to leave alone.^[46]

See also [edit]

• Transportation Alternatives
• Copenhagenization (bicycling)
• Time's Up!

References [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Cycling in New York City

External links [edit]

• Central Park Bike Rentals Central Park Bike Rental NYC
• 5 Borough Bicycle Club Touring
• New York Cycle Club Speed
• Kissena Cycling Club Track racing
• Fast & fabulous
• New York City bike maps
• Ride the City, an Open Street Map tool that allows bicycle route planning in the five boroughs.
• Biking Rules! - A New Street Code for NYC Cyclists
• Time's Up! Direct Action Environmental Group
• Bike Blog NYC Urban Bike Culture in NYC
• Bike Tours of NYC, Brooklyn NYC, Brooklyn Bike Tours