New York City is well on it’s way to becoming a world class cycling city, perhaps the best in North America. Why isn’t it there yet? Well, in this video I share my experience riding around the big apple, what I loved, what I didn’t and what is being done to bring this incredible city to the top.
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0:00 Is New York The Greatest Cycling City
0:40 Great Micromobility Cities
1:15 Cycling From LaGuardia
1:57 New York’s Cycling Network
2:42 Biking Central Park
2:56 Citibike bike share is Fantastic
3:33 New York Drivers
4:14 Reckless Cyclists
4:44 Ban Gas Mopeds
4:52 Parking in Bike lanes
5:20 Bad Bike Lanes
6:14 Legality of Micromobility
7:00 Improvements
7:41 Not the greatest…yet
8:21 I love NY biking
8:46 Why Bike When Transit
9:14 Best way to see New York
America’s Greatest Cycling City? | NYC
50 Comments
Too bad you didn't run into @ZeroEnigma there. He points out lack of discipline of the NYC traffic week in, week out, be it pedestrians, bikes, cars, anything. https://www.youtube.com/@ZeroEnigma
Cycling doesn't have to compete with mass transit. Bikes are allowed on the subways except during peak hours. For longer trips, take the subway most of the way and use a bike for last mile.
You did an amazing job encompassing cycling in NYC. I do deliveries on my road bike to make a living and even before that I’ve always loved biking in general. It was nice to see you on some of the routes I frequent especially the protected bike lane that runs down Crescent street from bridge to bridge. Cycling is a big part of nyc culture, and being on the road is all about respect. Even then sometimes I can get a bit out of hand with my speed and projecting where I’m going through traffic but that’s because I’ve been biking the same streets for years now. But there’s a great understanding between bikers and drivers. The only people that I feel disrupt this are as you said, e-bike and moped drivers along with yellow taxi drivers (who have always been notoriously bad drivers IMO)
Lastly I just want to say I’m so thankful that biking is a way of life for me. Due to how bad NYC can be sometimes I often think about moving away but I’m born and raised and it’s hard to see myself living an equally satisfying life somewhere else.
I live in Bergen County, NJ. Many cyclists come across the George Washington Bridge to cycle on our quiet roads, especially on Sundays.
Is it possible to cycle from LaGuardia to say flushing? I recently went to nyc and got picked up at LGA with my bike. Being my first time in the city, I wasn’t mentally ready to try to figure out if I could actually cycle from LGA. Now that I did a bit of riding there, I wonder if it’s actually possible to land and ride off into the urban jungle?!
would love to see your thoughts on Portland
You mentioned the cost of Citi-biking a few times, but that's the "tourist rate"…. I pay ~$200 per year for a membership and get free regular bikes or ~$4 ebikes (depending on the distance)
Visiting from northern Europe I found biking in New York, 1995 and in 2010, was easy, safe and great fun.
J Cole be like
E bikes ruined NYC
What do you mean you can ride to JFK, you can easily take a folding bike and ride to the Airtrain and check in the folding bike 🤷♂️
On the island of Manhattan the cars or better the drivers are used to seeing cyclists especially the mad Messengers who I love to watch do their thing…. However in the boroughs and the further you away you go from the city the less they are on the lookout for cyclists…. However this city on a bike…. itsso good ❤️
in my experience, jersey barriers are the exception, not the rule
I commute 4 miles to work, 5 days a week. Trip is 20' on a flat trail in California.
NYC is great if you're rich or a masochist
Do you guys even live in NYC? This city is not safe for cyclist. Bike lanes only exist in Manhattan and are so limited in the rest of the boroughs.
Awesome video!
As someone whos gotten very comfortable on the electric citibikes over the past 3 years, while the city definitely has a long way to go before biking is considered safe enough for most non cyclist pedestrians, its always a nice suprise when i bike or walk by a street or avenue and see a fresh layer of green paint in places that only had parking and car lanes. As the city keeps improving i have no doubt more and more people will fall in love with biking around the city like I did. I used to commute to school by bike and was lucky enough to live and go to school very close to central park in a way that allowed the central park loop to be my commute path going and coming from school, its amazing starting the day with the breeze on your face and the peaceful and scenic ride through the park.
Where are the climbs?
i live downtown and ride, you describe the scene perfectly.
Unfortunately the city suffered a massive setback last week when the governor decided to block congestion pricing in midtown which would have gone a long way toward safer, cleaner, bike friendlier streets. Until we have a politician who can execute at the level of Anne Hidalgo rather than a revolving door of corruption, the cycling experience in NYC will always be capped at good, not great.
Also, scapegoating throttle assist cyclists and mopeds is an easy excuse for lack of safety, when cars are the much bigger threat to pedestrians and cyclists in the city. Especially considering the NYPD is notorious for ignoring traffic violations where consistent ticketing would do a lot to calm the flow of traffic and create much safer streets.
I think any downtown is good for biking, and in general I have never been in NYC but I live in Chicago and the bike lanes lead to nowhere.
RIP congestion pricing.
I'd love to bike around Central Park and the Empire State trail but those NY streets with all those cars scare the crap outta me
Been riding in NYC practically every day for 10 years, and I completely agree with your assessment. There are also incredible routes in the Bronx (the route to Orchard Beach/ City Island for one) and the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn/ the Rockaways in Queens.
I’m a native New Yorker who grew up riding in this city. The city now verses when I was a kid is very different. To me it’s safer now except for the e-bike delivery riders who disrespect traffic safety rules. The bike lanes add, for me, a safer experience.
Let's go with the improvement score…
There has been a steady increase in the scale and quality of bike lanes and greenways in NYC over the last 30 years. Thank you for noticing, albeit your snapshot in time from one POV leaves out some of the bumps in the road.
I commute via the Hudson River Greenway (HRG) and I consider it a great privilege to do so. That said, I would put in a good word for "multi-modal" transportation on days when there is heavy rain, deep snow or ice. I ride a road bike on my 15 mile round trip commute and it doesn't work well when there is glare ice. On such days, I use Citibike for the long walk to the subway as the route to the subway is usually clearer than the HRG.
Cold doesn't bother me and I routinely have the HRG much to myself when the temp dips below 20 degrees F. There are many references to Amsterdam in the comments but average winter-time lows there are ABOVE freezing, but NYC has lows BELOW freezing in winter making ice a real hazard. Paraphrasing Thomas Paine, the summer cyclists and sunshine patriots will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country!
(In theory, the city could better maintain the HRG in winter but I am not holding my breath, although that might help with the frost on my glasses.)
As for Citibike, it is a fantastic resource – WHEN it works and you are rich enough to afford it. There was the time they concluded I stole a bike (no evidence was provided) and blocked my subscription for a month. Not counting the 40 hours I spent trying to get them to address the issue, I was only docked one month of the 12 I paid for – albeit, it was January when I use Citibike the most because of the ice! Then there are the numerous times I have been charged extra for dealings with the failings of their system. A pedal fell off in a snow storm and I couldn't find the pedal in the snow – so I got charged for docking late (it took a while to get home with only one pedal). I bike to a busy station and it is full so I have to go riding around the city looking for someplace to dock, go over time and get charged. I go to use a bike and the station is empty, or full and the station is not working (all red lights) and I can't check any of the bikes out.
Debating whether the usual LOW PSI in the tires in the winter cold is a plus or minus. It does give good traction in snow, but pedaling a 50 pound bike with 5 PSI tires does not lend itself to a quick ride. Accentuating the positive, it is a great workout!
For those familiar with obscure quotes from GREAT bike movies, I was as normal as pumpkin pie until I got my bike. Many friends and relatives remain "normal" and I have a heck of a time convincing them to ride a bike in NYC – mostly out of fear of cars!
My Noo Yawk perspective: Western Queens is phenomenal. Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn are pretty solid. The rest, not so much.
My issue with the Citi-e-bikes is that the combination of electric bike and charging extra by the minute incentivizes dangerous riding practices.
You darn near need a bike license in NY. I can ride with the best of em in a city environment but NY is rough. Really have to pay attention to everything around you going on.
Delivery ebikes are killing it, too many, they are going extrmemely fast and its just dangerous.
The most dangerous thing in NYC aren't cars. eBikes riders are nightmare.
Great video, as a New Yorker I agree with everything you said! Just to be clear however , the delivery riders ride like @$$h0l3$ because the delivery apps are pushing them to create an unsafe environment, not because their bikes have throttles. A lot of us law abiding Ebikers have throttles on our bikes and it’s a great feature to have.
I've been riding a bike around NYC for about 16 years and the bike infrastructure has gotten a lot better in that time, and not surprisingly it's gotten a lot more riders too. Although I live about 14 miles away from work I still occasionally ride, mainly due to most of the ride being on the Hudson Greenway.
Excellent video. I live in bike-friendly Montreal, and whenever I go to NYC I use CitiBike exclusively to get around. When I'm in Manhattan, I find that bikes are the only way to see the City. It's convenient and inexpensive, and unlike the subway, you see everything between points A and B. NYC is an excellent biking city!
@terry b mentioned
Great video, great ending! Car culture and car dependency are keeping NYC back. Not just NYC, but the entire USA and the world.
Why not just take the subway? Hop on during rush hour with every line delayed and you'll find out real fast😂
(de)Congestion pricing would have put it over the top
Have seen to many confident riders being fed up with pedestrians and all the trash and guters and cars on the bike lane.
When NYC starts getting those taxes and fees from cyclists and scooters, the free ride will be over. Congestion taxes did nothing to diminish vehicular traffic in London. POV's were replaced by Ubers and taxis.
Have you been to Seattle? There are many nice bike paths that are separated from cars and connect the city really well, as well as great infrastructure right alongside traffic. Highly recommend!
If New york is North Americas best cycling city, then that's just sad
I'm a native NYer that's been biking here for 60 or so years and still doing it. The only reason I don't bike everywhere is that sometimes you need to carry things and that's a lot harder on a bike. I once biked home to Brooklyn from 23rd St in Manhattan with 6 bottles of wine in my bags, but it was heavy and slow. I bike commuted to work in midtown for about 10 years, alternating with the subway, using the Manhattan Bridge and 1st/2nd Aves and know every bump, grate, turn lane and how the lights are timed. When I've gone to other cities, Seattle for one, Montreal for another, I never feel as comfortable biking even using my own bike. You learn the quirks of wherever you are so that is to be expected.
I work in Mid town and the delivery guys on the e-bikes(some more like scooters) are easily the most dangerous vehicle and I check BOTH ways in the bike lane, because sometimes they just use the wrong way.
Biking in NYC has become so mind blowingly better since I moved here 25 years ago that it’s hard to describe. It’s of course far from perfect, but given the challenges involved with an aging and ever evolving infrastructure as well as a myriad of cultures and individuals, it’s astonishing that pretty much anything works at all.
Great video! I have been cycling in NYC for more than 25 years, and you did a great job representing what it's like to cycle here.
3:49 girl that's Jill Biden
A lot of bike lanes are very dirty , abandoned, or crowded by cars. Nobody takes care of .
One thing I think is important as well is straight-up SPEED. After all bikes are a way of commuting, and having places where they can be very fast(Hudson River Bikeway is awesome for that) is important to getting more people to bike. Less pedestrians to slow us down, more dedicated lanes.