Cycling in New York City
[citation needed] Several of the mid-20th-century parkway projects of Robert Moses included bike paths; however, when more people could afford cars, bicycling declined and the bikeways fell into disrepair.
Inspired by a trip to China in early 1980, Mayor Ed Koch ordered 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) buffered bike lanes to be built on some Manhattan streets.
[7] Opened in October, the lanes were protested by merchants[8] as well as taxi and trucking interests, while garages and other businesses unsuccessfully sued to stop construction.
[13] That year, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan introduced legislation that became the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA).
[19] Pedicabs became commonplace at the turn of the 21st century, offering novel travel over short distances, including guided tours of Central Park.
[20] A court overturned the limit,[21] later regulatory efforts concentrated on requirements for insurance and safety equipment[22] and in April 2011, new legislation tightened parking regulations and capped pedicab licenses at 850.
[23] In 2007 the department studied the prospects of a bicycle sharing system[24] and announced in 2011 that kiosks would be built for the service to begin in 2012.
[34][35][36] In July 2018, the city rolled out a dockless bike-sharing pilot in conjunction with five companies, with 200 bikes provided in each of three outer-borough neighborhoods.
[33][37] Research conducted by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in June 2013 showed that a majority of New Yorkers support the initiative.
New York City is host to several long annual recreational rides, including the Five Boro Bike Tour.
In 2008 the NYC Department of Transportation released a "screenline count report" suggesting that commuter cycling had more than doubled since the turn of the century.
[45] Regulations on bicycles on trains vary by railroad and time of day; until 2021 Metro-North and LIRR required a permit.
[48] Typically, cyclists use the subway security gates to bring bicycles into the system, and board either the very first or very last train car.
[50] Folding bicycles, which often allow parking in a workplace or home closet where there isn't room for a full sized bike, became increasingly popular early in the 21st century.
[54] The Alliance for Downtown New York, a local Business Improvement District, announced in late 2018 that the Oonee Company would install a new kind of secure bike pod for parking on Whitehall Street.
[67] Much of the opposition has been concentrated in Manhattan and Queens, where opponents claim that bike lanes are a nuisance or danger to pedestrians and nearby businesses.
[69] In 1934 Robert Moses became Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Triborough Bridge, he used these positions to transform the city's infrastructure.
As a result of Moses's philosophy, by the 1960s, New York City's protected bicycle infrastructure was limited to parks and parkways.
In the late 60s mayor John Lindsay made some moves to accommodate cycling such as creating limited "car-free" hours on the Central Park roads.
[72] In July 2019, the New York City Council approved legislation that allows bikers to follow pedestrian walk signals at intersections where no dedicated traffic light for cyclists is present.
In New York City, this "green wave" prioritizes bikers by timing traffic lights around the average biking speed, in addition to mitigating the negative effects of heavy automotive congestion.
[76] The green wave concept was traditionally utilized by traffic engineers to move cars more efficiently and quickly through congested urban streets.
[77] This programming marks a shift in prioritizing the biker over the driver, a conflict that has wider class, race, and geographical implications.
This implementation of green wave traffic signal programming in New York City has followed smaller instances of success in the U.S., including San Francisco, Portland, and Denver.
[78] Both local government and non-profit transportation constituencies have supported bringing the "green wave" to New York City, America's most congested urban area.
Spokespeople from Transportation Alternatives, a group that promotes cycling, argued that drivers were likely to object to any proposed change to their long-held claim to the streets.
Adult cyclists must use hand signals, must only wear headphones in one ear,[79] must not ride on sidewalks, and must use lights at night (red in rear and white in front).
Most are of the traditional design, but the city has added larger protected bicycle parking structures in a handful of locations such as near Union Square.
[83] When mayor Bill de Blasio entered office in 2014, he sought to bring all traffic fatalities to zero through his Vision Zero initiative.
[90] New York State has established No-Fault auto insurance laws (NYIL §51-52) to pay the medical (and some other) expenses of bicyclists, pedestrians, and other people struck by vehicles.
