From CnTraveler.com
Cycling in New York can be intimidating, but with a bit of research and planning you can glide through iconic spots like Coney Island and Central Park on two wheels.
By FRANCESCA CARINGTON
I began my exploration of the countless bike paths in New York City as soon as I arrived. As a longtime cyclist in London, I knew that cycling is a satisfying way to get to know a city as a newcomer, and it’s no different in New York: you whip through neighborhoods, witnessing the landscape changing character dramatically between blocks. (My first ever bike ride took me past the copper-colored mansions of Brooklyn Heights, along the tourist-crowded cobbled streets of Dumbo, through Hasidic South Williamsburg and ended outside a crummy dive bar on Grand.) Riding a bike also requires a certain mindset, a kind of calm hyper awareness as you assess your surroundings. It means that you really notice things on a bike: potholes and perfectly flattened rats that need dodging, but also scraps of conversations, or the gauzy silhouette of the Empire State Building peeking out behind skyscrapers to signpost where you are.
While biking through Manhattan has its chaotic charms, I love to cycle around Brooklyn most of all, past elaborately named churches and along brownstone-lined streets, getting splashed by the water from hydrants as children play in the water on scorching summer days, wheeling my bike down streets closed for block parties, or pausing to admire families’ dramatic Halloween decorations. And when you puff uphill over the bridges from Brooklyn to Manhattan on a bright winter morning, the saturated colors of the city etched onto a clear sky, New York can literally take your breath away.
Navigating the bike paths in New York City can be intimidating, even for locals, but with a bit of research and planning you can take advantage of both official bike lanes and quieter backstreets. There are also riverside bike lanes running up both the east and west sides of Manhattan (with a thirty-block gap around the United Nations on the east side), as well as cycle paths contouring the key routes through Brooklyn. Whatever your style, on a bike, the city reveals itself to you.
Here are some of my favorite routes through New York‘s various boroughs.
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