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Many New Yorkers bike from one place to another and take advantage of the city’s car-free paths. Parks throughout the boroughs also offer miles of trails to ride and enjoy. As a matter of fact, New York City is the greenest large city in America.
In Manhattan, the most popular park route is the circular drive in Central Park. Uptown, Riverside Park between 72nd and 125th Streets offers sweeping views of the Hudson River, and is beautiful in the early morning and at sunset. The East River Bikeway runs south from 14th Street to Wall Street; the path snakes along the East River Park all the way to the Financial District. Downtown, the Hudson River Bike Path leads to the Hudson River Park promenade, where cyclists can explore Wall Street, and then head across the Brooklyn Bridge for the breathtaking skyline view, to ’Prospect Parks peaceful greenery. In fact, most of the city’s bridges have easily accessible bike lanes now. The Shore Parkway bike path provides glittering views of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Manhattan skyline. Staten Island’s 209-acre Silver Lake Park is easy to explore by bike.
Bike Tours/Rentals
Central Park Bike Tours and Rentals (212/541-8759). You can explore Central Park on a leisurely two-hour tour (movie buffs should check out the special Central Park Movie Scenes Bike Tour) or rent bikes and explore on your own. Bike the Big Apple (877/865-0078) leads tours for those seeking a different sightseeing experience. Their leisurely paced tours have a guide front and back. They take you over spectacular bridges and into hip and ethnic neighborhoods of the city that the typical tourist seldom sees.
Bike New York The Five Boro Bike Tou,; is an annual 42-mile bike ride on traffic-free streets through the five boroughs of NYC. Start in downtown Manhattan and pedal through all five boroughs, ending at a festival at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island.
Resources
The Central Park Conservancy (212/310-6600) can provide detailed information on sports and conditions in Central Park, including maps, conditions of paths, degree of difficulty, scheduled rides, and suggested routes through the park; they also tell you about riding clubs and where to rent bicycles in the park. The NYC Department of City Planning/Bicycle Network Development provides a downloadable New York Cycling Map, which shows bicycle paths, greenways and bicycle-friendly streets, and indicates how to get from point A to point B quickly and safely. Further features of the map are informational panels on how to ride safely through traffic, how to share the road, how to access mass transit, where to park your bike and how to access recreational areas. The NYC Department of Transportation provides reference materials including cycling maps, rules and regulations governing safety requirements, rules of the road, routes, etc. Transportation Alternatives (212/629-8080) is an advocacy group that works with city agencies to promote cycling and walking. It is an excellent source for total information about cycling in and around all five boroughs, including group rides to some of the city’s more offbeat destinations.
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