NYC Bike Commuters
 

Anyone commute in NYC?

A few of my friend and I would like to learn more about riding in NYC and would like to see if we could hire someone to lead a small group around different parts of NYC. Nothing formal but it would be fun for us to learn.

I just replied to your email.
(And am telling you here in hope of building my post-count...)

Thank you sir!

If you get someone familair with the turf to guide you thats great but it is not necessary.

I don't know how you plan on getting there but if it's on New Jersey Transit be aware that although bikes are allowed on the trains during non-rush hours, if the train is crowded (like most weekend trains leaving NYC) the conductor does not have to permit bikes. So you may be able to get into the city but might have a problem getting out. I don't have any direct experience taking a bike on a train into the city but have taken the train many times and they are generally packed leaving NYC. If this is what you plan some more research may be in order.

What I have done is to drive to Fort Lee (take the last exit before the George Washington Bridge). There is a large public lot and you can pay for several hours. From Ft Lee you can bike across the George which is pretty cool in itself. On the Manhatten side there is a kind of spiral walk that gets you down to steet level.

I did this a couple of years ago when I wanted to buy a pair of Outlier pants and wanted to try them on rather than buy through the internet. (They had a showroom in Williamsburg). I didn't want to kill a day schleping into Brooklyn, and miss my weekend ride just for a pair of pants, so I drove to Fort Lee and cycled to Brooklyn from there.

I got downtown on the path on the west side that extends almost the entire length of Manhatten.
Maybe someone more familiar can offer a better way to the bike path, but I just kind of stayed west headed downtown on whatever street I found, and then after asking someone found this park on 145th street that has an elevator to take you down to the path. It can be somewhat crowded in spots, but you will not be in a hurry so I recommend it.

I ended up crossing Manhatten on Canal which is probably the busiest East-West road on in lower Manhatten so that was a bit of a mistake but it was still kind of fun. I worked my way up to the Williamsburg bridge which is also a pretty cool thing to cycle over.

Bottom line for you is once you get down town you can just discover for yourself there are plenty of bike lanes going north-south so you can take one of those back up to the bridge and you will probably want to go around Central Park for a bit as well.

If you are going to go to Ft Lee. (and even if you are not) I recommend you go on a Sunday. The parking lot in Ft Lee is empty and there is less traffic in NYC.

Daily NYC commuter here, from western Queens to SoHo. I know most of the bike-friendly parts of the city pretty well, but don't know much about the Bronx, Southern Queens and Brooklyn, or Manhattan north of 14th. You'll find other NYC commuters in the Northeast regional forum as well. Cheers!

Recycle a Bicycle offers something just like this for learning NYC traffic and riding safety. Click on "Adult Education" http://www.recycleabicycle.org/shop/...lage-manhattan

I'm a native NYer that commutes from Brooklyn to Midtown Manhattan once or twice a week. I also know most of the city, including the Bronx and Queens, but not Staten Island (is Dat an Island?), and know every area of Brooklyn. I know most of the good bike routes through and around, and know the bad ones too.

I always recommend the West Side Greenway as a good starting point, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and some of the N/S Avenues in Manhattan. Stay out of Central Park though on weekends, it is a total zoo. The Brooklyn Bridge is also not a good spot to ride with all the tourists on it now, but as a tourist it has become a "must do". As a Brooklynite, I stay off it and use the Manhattan Bridge. The East Side Greenway is a work in progress to be generous, mostly it just isn't a bike trail, just a few connected sidewalks along the river. A fun loop is the Queensboro Bridge, through Williamsburg, and then over either the Manhattan or Williamsburg bridge back to Manhattan. You get to see the hipsters in Billyburg and can stop for a beer somewhere.

If you really want to see the entire city, sign up for the NYC Century this coming Sunday. You don't have to do the whole 100 miles, in fact the extra 25 miles over the 75 mile route is pretty boring stuff through eastern Queens, and maybe the 55 mile route will cover the best parts.

Send me a PM and maybe we can arrange something.

I live in lower manhattan, let me know if you like my help. Can do it this Saturday morning.

Thread revival..

I guess motorists are going to be more upset..

NYC wants to take 25% of its street space away from cars in favor of a walkable/bikeable city

https://electrek.co/2022/05/12/nyc-w...bikeable-city/

which parking lot do you use in Fort Lee? I assume not the one in the main street and there must be something near the bridge?

This thread is 10 years old. Things have changed.

wow. time does fly fast when as I get older!

I don't drive so much, let alone try to find parking.
I usually take the PATH from Hoboken or Newport to get across into Manhattan.
If I have to ride, I cross the GWB, Fort Lee is not that far from GWB.

Upcoming legislation, I hope it passes:

New York’s proposed e-bike rebate could slash electric bike and scooter prices by 50%

https://electrek.co/2022/08/31/new-york-e-bike-rebate/

I hope it passes, too. It's a really good idea.

Hey how about a rebate for regular bikes? Why only e-bikes???

Write to your district rep.
Get a petition started.

I'm a bit cautious about getting on board with this.

From the linked article:

There's already too much competition for space on NYC's bike paths. The e-bikes and scooters have more or less taken over, to the point where they're a danger to riders of plain old bicycles.

I can't say I love the idea of subsidizing e-bike and scooter purchases without establishing very clearly that bike paths and greenways are for bicycles (and possibly pedal-assist e-bikes), not for motor vehicles.

My vision is a bit radical. I think there should be classes of vehicles (and I'll use that word to apply to two-wheel conveyances though that's not the legal definition in NY State), and above a certain speed or power should not be allowed in bike lanes. There might be one to three classes BETWEEN bicycle and motorcycle, and the higher-powered the vehicle, the more restricted the spaces they can use.

NYC being a fairly lawless place won't want this, but we have to aim for something in that direction. The city has gotten badly disorderly. Everyone has complaints.

I'm a proponent of bike lanes, and I agree with you about putting some limits on the bike lane. It's just getting a little too crazy for folks to cross the street. Pedal powered riders have been "a challenge" for quite a few years - my coworker got hit walking in a crosswalk, with the light, and spent 2 weeks on crutches. Now every delivery person is flying up the avenue, in the bike lane, on an ebike at 20+ mph. Every commuter train car has someone toting an e-scooter into Penn or GC. It's here to stay, and that's OK, but... I don't see any reason to allow motorized transport in the bike lane. Even for pure human power, there will eventually need to be some enforcement on basic rules of the road. Not sure how they're gonna do that in a sustainable way.

In NYC, I encounter more cars illegally parked in the bike lanes than actual ebikes or regular bicycles.
Like wise, I encounter more pedestrians who bury their faces into their phones than those paying attention to where they're walking.

Accidents will occur regardless of the laws,
but accountability regardless of laws will deter those who operate dangerously or even pedestrians who don't pay attention to where they are walking.

stay off the Central Park Transverse roadways, they're killers
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...39762fdab8.jpg

Agreed. I had just started to commute on one of them after not using them for 30 years. Then someone got killed. I stopped. I am a daring cyclist, and I ride in places others would not dare. But I do have a few limits.

I started carrying a pool noodle on my bike while commuting.
https://qz.com/1620913/the-best-cycl...a-pool-noodle/
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...d630bb6cb8.JPG

For sure. Many decades ago, I went to high school just a block from Central Park and a couple of blocks from the 86th Street transverse. I grew up in Queens, but even then, in those pre-bike path days, I'd ride my bike to school once in a while.

I learned way back then that the transverses are not for bicycles. Nothing has changed.