Is New York bike friendly?

[coleman]

I really like commuting by bike, so I'm wondering how bike friendly New York is? Are some parts of the city more or less bike friendly?

[Sam_Feder]

Totally.

I commute via bike every day, and have for the last two years.

I've had commutes from 1st Ave to 9th Ave, from uptown to downtown, from downtown to uptown, and a swelteringly hot commute from 22nd St, to DUMBO, Brooklyn over the Manhattan Bridge.

Any rides on the island are a snap, almost every bridge has a bike lane, traffic is mostly slow, and bike lanes are plentiful.

Bike thieves are rampant, and parking can be difficult, so I'd strongly recommend using CitiBike, which I've used cheaply and without incident for about 4 years now.

[Zack_Halbrecht]

Yes and no. There are some very bad, busy avenues but there are also hundreds of miles of bike lanes, greenways and other affordances that make biking in the city great. When the weather is nice it is by far the easiest and best way to get around. I would say parts near the major parks and waterfront areas are the most friendly places to bike in the city. The Manhattan Bridge has a dedicated bike side (entire side! not just lane!) and the Queensboro and Williamsburg bridges make it really easy to get from those Brooklyn/Queens waterfront neighborhoods to all parts of eastern Manhattan. I would avoid the Bronx and Midtown on a bike, and plenty of parts of Queens and Brooklyn can look more like highway than normal street. I'd say 5% of the time you would have to be comfortable taking the lane (totally legal) and biking like you are a car so you are seen.

Here's a map of all the greenways and bike lanes http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bikemap-2016.pdf Check out the legend in there to get an idea of what the types are.

As an example commute, the one i usually do is something like this: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Broadway+%26+Canal+St,+New+York,+NY+10013/581+Vanderbilt+Ave,+Brooklyn,+NY+11238/@40.7000211,-74.0036288,14z/data=!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c2598a15a80f27:0x4b75db8ee9f387be!2m2!1d-74.0018987!2d40.719393!1m5!1m1!1s0x89c25ba448afcb29:0x9802e8345a11b40e!2m2!1d-73.9675998!2d40.6803257!3e1!5i1
Pretty great, especially when you get down to Flushing Ave/Manhattan Bridge.

Whatever you do, never, ever ever bike over the Brooklyn Bridge. It should not be considered a bike route and if you are looking at neighborhoods to live in forget about using that bridge as a route. It is overcrowded with tourists and you will find yourself walking with them or screaming at them. It's not entirely their fault, that bridge is just super over utilized.

[Melissa_Goldin]

NYC is definitely bike friendly! I commute by bike and ride most other places whenever I can. There are for sure certain areas that are more bike friendly than others, but overall riding a bike is very feasible. This map shows all of the current and future bikes lanes and is very helpful for planning routes: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikemaps.shtml

[Robert_Jason_Clark]

Very much so. CitiBike is a huge program in the city. NYC consists of 5 boroughs, and some are more bike able than others. Manhattan is probably the most accessible.