July
1996
Spinning
Wheels and No Exhaust: A Cyclist’s Guide to New York
City
By David Perry
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"If anyone on the sidewalk were to make deafening
noises, spew poisonous gases into innocent faces, and threaten people
with a deadly weapon, they would be arrested. Yet, a few feet away,
on the public roadway, it is considered normal behavior."
— Steve Stollman, community activist
In the same way that certain plants or animals show the vitality of
an ecosystem, bicyclists are an indicator species of a city’s
well-being. Where cyclists prosper, in bike-friendly cities such as
Seattle, Toronto, Amsterdam, or Copenhagen, this signifies a livable
settlement where people can travel without sacrificing themselves or
their environment.
New York City is a good place for bicycling because it has the ideal
density and topography for most trips. Our so-called "mean streets"
can be oppressive, but are actually quite manageable for people of all
abilities. Each day in New York City an average of 80,000 people use
bikes for over 250,000 trips. Bike riding can be the quickest way to
get about, as proved by the city’s estimated 5000 messengers and
delivery cyclists. In the last few NYC Commuter Races, held during Bike
Week, bikes beat the train and the car going from downtown Brooklyn
to midtown Manhattan.
Most of the city is open territory for urban bicyclists, yet most of
the roadways are dominated by autos and trucks, chasing many potential
cyclists off the streets. Of the 6300 miles of streets and highways
in New York City, only about 120 miles have designated bike routes,
which include bike paths, bike lanes, and routes with posted signs.
This inequality is compounded by the fact that cars carry the least
amount of people for a given space: about 200 people per hour per ten-foot-wide
lane. In comparison, bikes carry 1500 people, sidewalks 3500 people,
and subways 10,000 people.
Transportation Alternatives and City Action
New York City is home to Transportation Alternatives (TA), the nation’s
largest regional bike advocacy organization. With 4000 members, hundreds
of active volunteers, and a full-time staff of five, TA works with city,
state, and federal agencies to improve cycling facilities, while providing
a community support network for cyclists. TA’s Recycle-A-Bike
program gives children and teenagers the opportunity to learn bike repair
and earn a bike. The program operates at four schools: IS 218 and PS
109 in Manhattan, and Eastern District HS and Park Slope Mini-School
in Brooklyn, with a fifth coming this summer. Program leaders collect
trash and abandoned bikes, set up work stations, and teach bike maintenance,
repair, and safety to the kids. To date, thousands of functioning bicycles
have been recycled! TA helped get ramped access on the Brooklyn and
George Washington bridges and full-time use of scenic River Road along
the New Jersey Palisades. It promotes Bike Week events each May and
the New York City Century each September.
In 1993, TA published the nationally acclaimed Bicycle Blueprint: A
Plan to Bring Bicycling into the Mainstream in New York City. Thanks
in part to the Blueprint, the Department of City Planning is developing
a new "Bicycle Masterplan," with a 400-mile network of bike
routes throughout the five boroughs. To show real progress on the street,
instead of another set of plans, the city opened new bike lanes in northern
Manhattan on St. Nicholas Avenue and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.
The two-way lanes extend from Central Park to 168th Street, just short
of a continuous link to the George Washington Bridge. A new westside
bike lane is coming to Hudson Street and Eighth Avenue, going one mile
from Dominick Street to 14th Street with proposed extensions south to
Reade Street and north to Columbus Circle at Central Park.
Parking, Traveling and Group Rides
Besides traffic-calmed streets, cyclists need secure places to park
both indoors and on the street. CityRacks is a new on-street parking
program implemented by the New York City Department of Transportation,
with 1000 racks slated for installation by year’s end. Unfortunately,
miles of red tape have made it nearly impossible for commercial and
residential properties to install bike racks in the past. Additionally,
a growing number of parking garages offer indoor bike racks. Parking
is free at most sites, though a few charge a dollar a day.
Most trains in the Metro area allow passengers to bring bikes aboard.
Bike-and-train rides are a popular way to get out of the city for country
touring and family visits, and they increase the practical range of
any traveler. In 1962, the New Jersey PATH was the nation’s first
urban railway to allow bikes. After many years of informal intolerance,
the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) began promoting bike access
in 1993. Metro-North, the Long Island Rail Road, and New Jersey Transit
all let bikes aboard, except during rush hours. You need a bike permit
(free to $5) and it’s best to ask the conductor which of the train
cars allows bikes.
Group rides come in every variety in New York. We have the nation’s
largest one-day ride, the Bike New York Five Boro Tour, with over 30,000
cyclists. (Only the Tour de L’Ile in Montréal is larger,
with 45,000 cyclists.) The 42-mile Five Boro jaunt allows us to use
the usually off-limits FDR and Brooklyn-Queens expressways and the Verrazano
Narrows Bridge. Central Park, of course, is the center of activity for
New York cyclists. Its famous 6.3-mile rolling loop road is a venue
for Olympic-class cyclists in training and racing. Club rides meet at
the boathouse for day trips of 20 to 120 miles, headed for Long Island
beaches, New Jersey farm country and upstate forest parks. On the last
Friday night of every month, Times Up! hosts the Moonlight Ride, which
meets at Columbus Circle at 10pm for a safe, exhilarating exploration
of the park at night.
Reclaiming Public Space and Time
The fact that cars and taxis are allowed to speed through Central and
Prospect parks shows how much we surrender our public space to unrestricted
motoring. While the motor lobby claims that closing the parks to cars
would congest the surrounding neighborhoods, all evidence shows that
when streets are closed or calmed, neighborhood traffic lessens. Likewise,
when more streets are opened, traffic congestion increases. This holds
for park roads as well as highways.
The biggest task for bike activists is to re-educate the public. Too
many misperceptions exist about bikes and cycling. It’s time people
realized that cyclists don’t ride bikes, they drive them. Bicycles
are human-powered vehicles, with nearly the same rights and responsibilities
on the road as motor vehicles. Likewise, people don’t really drive
cars. They either ride them, as one rides a train, or they are driven
by cars, many working some 15 hours a week to pay for their mobility.
David Perry is the author of Bike Cult: The Ultimate
Guide to Human-Powered Vehicles (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995).
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