tubesocksFred

My work started to require us to work in the office on a more frequent basis. I've been doing my weekly bike commute from Northeast Queens to the WTC area, then take the PATH to Jersey City. They added a 2nd weekly onsite day, which could be to any of our offices. I could head to our closer office near WTC or to our Long Island office in Uniondale. I was wondering if there are any good paths I can take that traverses from Northeast Queens to central Nassau County? I used google maps and it frequently gave me a route with constant zig zagging turns, and/or include roads that looks like cars will be traveling at close to highway speeds (Old Country Road). I saw some alternate routes that seems less busy, but they frequently are roads with no shoulder. I don't know if I want vehicles regularly passing at 40mph.

Riding to the city is just a constant dodging of cars and trucks, swerving in and out lanes into oncoming traffic, and getting flats on spewed glass or potholes. But those vehicles are usually going pretty slow, not the 50mph people drive on those Long Island roads. Although the constant opening of their car doors sent me to the hospital twice in the last few years.

I'm use to riding on Long Island, but its usually with a pack of riders heading down the LIE svc road and doing the back roads in the north shore towns, so riding fast and dangerous is not unknown to me. Although we rarely worry about cars when we are a big pack of riders.

Steve B.

Generally, into Floral Park into Garden City South, then south Hempstead. No great suggestions, I avoid that part of the county for cycling, other then some N/S routes I have used. I would do a Google route for bicycles, then do a street view to get a feel for the roads. Maybe drive it. Also check on Rode With GPS for any rides others have used in the area.

tubesocksFred

Floral Park/Garden City was one of the back road routes I looked at, but the street view gave a bit of narrow roads w/no shoulder in industrial areas. Not sure what that means in real life, as when I ride down Grand Ave toward the city, it is filled with trucks, and the bike lane is basically free unloading zone for trucks. It looks nothing like in street view.

I looked up on Ride with GPS, and somebody posted something that goes through Westbury/Searington. Once they crossed the LIE, I could just take my usual ride on its service road and reach my usual destination. I will download both routes to my computer and try them out.

Its weird, when I use google to plan routes to NYC, it send me to the most inconvenient streets, all for the sake of staying on a bike path. But whenever I plot routes in Long Island, its basically anything goes. It even plotted a route that takes me on the RT 106/107, along with getting on those highway looping interchange. Other times, when I got lost and used google maps to get home, only listening to the nav directions, it took me to one of those high speed roads where there's a cross street every mile or so.

Steve B.

There are only 2 bike paths in Nassau, one is out in Bethpage, goes N/S for 15 miles, the other goes to Jones Beach. Nassau has zero on street bike infrastructure, nothing. You have to discover on your own whats decent or not.

LIE service road to Post Ave., then south to Eisenhower Park, then the path around the park, then across into Mitchell Field and down Uniondale Ave. would be an option. Problem is, the service road has no shoulder either, in the section east of Lake Success to about Glen Cove Rd. It just sucks at rush hour, is why I didn't recommend it. Its fine on Sunday morning, not at 8 on a Tuesday.

I have somewhere a really old cycling map that Nassau County Parks Dept. published in the 80's. I'll look for it and see if there's any ideas.

tubesocksFred

I did see some route that diverge from LIE to Shelter Rock road and then to I U Willets Rd...then to Post Ave instead of going down LIE all the way. It seems quieter, and a little less industrious than Floral Park area.

I would assume I am doing the reverse commute on the LIE svc road, so there should be less traffic. I did ride on wkday mornings down the LIE to the first wall (Woodbury Rd) before turning back. There weren't too much traffic heading out east, but when i headed back, there were enough traffic that they took up all the lanes, including the one on the right, which I never see cars use during weekend rides.

Anyway, if the traffic seems dangerous after riding them, I still have the option of riding to WTC (which I will still do once a week). But from my last 5 trips, 2 resulted in flats and 1 resulted in being doored w/a broken collarbone. I stay a bit farther from car doors now, but the glass and massive potholes are sometimes just unavoidable.

john m flores 

My girlfriend lives in Dutch Kills and works downtown too. When she bikes to work, she crosses the 59th St Bridge and rides across Manhattan to the West Side, jumps on the Hudson River Grenway and takes that the rest of the way.

We're hoping to ride out to Montauk this summer but have not researched a route. Following this thread with great interest.

tubesocksFred

I use to commute 30 miles r/t daily on citibikes (from penn station..office was only 2 miles away, took the looong way) pre-covid and some of the rides originate from queens going over the 59th st bridge and over to the Hudson River Greenway. My biggest issue with that was going cross-town. It was a constant darting around cars and trucks in those narrow streets, plus the light was almost always red on every intersection, which I alleviate by making a turn into the avenues if my light is red, then go up or downtown 2 or more blocks until I get to the other side of the ave and continue heading west on the next street. Even then, that cross town ride takes a significant chunk of my time.

Going down Northern blvd, cross 59th st bridge, cross town and then down the HRG is also a like riding down the 2 sides of a right angle triangle, instead of the riding diagonal side (my current way). So it would be a big longer in distance. Although when I ride on Northern blvd on my way back, going with the flow of traffic and catching as many green lights as possible, seems to be much faster than the constant turning and slowing down that my current path requires. So I am thinking of one day, ride down Northern all the way to 59th st bridge, and eventually find the best way to WTC area.

I rode to Montauk a few times last year, started from the Triangle park in Little neck, head down LIE, turn right on Post St in Westbury, turn left on Sunrise Hwy, and head pretty much all the way to Montauk. Others riders we merged with came from Prospect Park via Linden Blvd. Sunrise Hwy is almost like a highway but there is a service lane pretty much the whole way (we did ride a section that was literally a highway with cars zooming by at 60mph+, but we moved at about the speed of a slow car of 35mph, and was pushing too hard to think of what's going around us). We rode with 20 to almost 100 riders so I was never all alone by myself (breakaways, etc) for long, so I don't think I got the sense of how cars would have behaved if I was out there on my own.

Come to think of it, the ride to Montauk was on Post St, which would also be one of the road that was plotted for my commute to Uniondale. It is a relatively quiet road, so I could use that route to work

Steve B.

Well here's a route I threw together on RWGPS. It uses a bunch of local streets, but no alternative unless you want to ride Jamaica Ave. or Hempstead Tpk. I have ridded Tulip Ave., its fine for bikes.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42532655