Does anybody agree with me that today's 5 Boro Bike Tour was lousy? Bike traffic on the BQE was at a standstill for well over and hour and the overall flow of the tour was stop-and-go, kind of like rush hour traffic. I remember last year being a much more pleasant experience.
Curious to hear other people's thoughts...
What did you expect? With 30,000 people of all ages, skill and fitness levels trying to ride different kinds of bicycles at different speeds on the same clogged roads, it's a mess. If you're interested in cycling, there are many other, better options for group rides around and out of the city.
You have to consider any experience pleasant when you've saved over $4 per gallon in gas.
Okay. Next time, then - Gran Fondo New York.
This was my first 5 Boro bike tour and while I understand that it's a huge logistical problem to run an event like this and overall the marshals did a great job (Thank God for volunteers) the holdup on the BQE (2 hours for me) was unacceptable and something that should have been foreseen by the organizers. On the 5 Boro Bike Tour website they mentioned the construction and stated that it might cause a bit of a delay. One would think that the route could have been changed to local streets to avoid that area. You could see that some tour riders were in fact doing just that and I wish I had been one of them. By the time my group finished we had to skip the festival because we had a 3 hour drive home. Riding back to our cars not far from the Ferry we spoke with many people that stated that they will not come back because of the way the situation on the BQE was handled. I understand that you have to expect delays with 32,000 riders, and I could have lived with all the other walking that we did but the BQE did it for me and my friends. We won't be back again.
I rode in the very first one of these and got trapped in numerous bottlenecks back then. Now I stand in the part of Dumbo that is cut off from the world by these bike riders and throw pieces of asphalt at the toeheads trailing behind their obese parents.
Yeah, I've stopped riding it too. I've marshalled in the past and this year I was sick, day of so missed out but in hind-site, I'm happy I didn't go. I'd just rather ride 9w to piermont and get a nice muffin at bunbury's and ride back. wonderful ride and not crowded.
The best ride from Brooklyn that I have done is taking Ocean Parkway to Coney Island, going down to a bike path at the waterfront on Sheepshead bay. That bike path will take you past Floyd Bennet Field to Marine Park Bridge. For a short ride make a right to the beach at Brezzy Point, for a longer ride make a left and ride through the waterfront on Far Rockway to the Atlantic Beach Bridge. Ride down to Longbeach and have yourself a great day at the beach!
Alternatively, you can cross Flatbush Avenue and continue on the same bike path (parallel to the Belt Parkway) to the very nice pier at Rockaway Parkway, or even beyond to Cross Bay Boulevard, where you can pick up the Cross Bay Bridge to the Rockaways, and ride through the Rockaways until you get back to the Marine Park Bridge and Flatbush Avenue.
All told, it's about 46 miles from Prospect Park to the Cross Bay Bridge, through the Rockaways, then back to Ocean Parkway and Prospect Park.
Or 18 miles from Prospect Park to the Rockaway Parkway Pier, and then back via Ocean Parkway and Prospect Park.
I registered but wasn't able to do the ride, and based on what I've heard I'm glad I didn't. I did the ride three times five years ago and back. I recall one bottleneck in Central Park, but I remember it otherwise being a pretty smooth ride. The solution is simple: they just need to reduce the number of cyclists on the ride. There has been an explosion of cyclists in general in NY. I've been biking in Brooklyn for 16 years and while there are more bike paths, the sheer number of bikers has actually made riding in Brooklyn less pleasant. Plus, a lot of the new (30 and under) bikers, I hate to say, lack courtesy and don't seem to know how to share the paths with others. Not sure how to change their behavior, but better bike manners would really help.
Separately, for those who want to bike out to the Rockaways, note that the ride over the Marine Park Bridge is pretty harrowing if you have a fear of heights/bridges! The path alongside the bridge is very narrow (two bikes just fit with no extra space), and the floor is actually "see-through." The railing is also very open-feeling. I don't want to dissuade anyone from doing this otherwise cool ride, but I found the ride over that bridge pretty unnerving.
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