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Expanding bike lanes, handing out free helmets and making lessons free: New York is making great strides in encouraging pedal power at the expense of exhaust fumes, even if some cyclists are still nervous about navigating bottleneck traffic.
For years, the city of 8.5 million—which has the most extensive public transport network in the United States—stood and watched the bike boom take off in European capitals.
In 2013, then billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg launched the Citi Bike sharing scheme and since then, New York has seen the fastest growth rate in cycle use of any big US city.
"The city has come a long ways in terms of having a much stronger commitment to promoting bicycling," says Rich Conroy, education director for Bike New York, a non-profit organization that encourages safe cycling.
"People realize we can't grow as a city by building more streets and adding more cars," explained Conroy.
Get exercise time in, lose weight, get to work, and save money all at the same time. What's not to love?
(Score: 4, Informative) by tonyPick on Wednesday November 22 2017, @02:03PM
Frequent cycle commuter here - and the above is basically spot on. I'd add that fresh snow is actually a lot of fun to ride on with the right kind of knobbly MTB tires, and I'd be a bit warier over packed car tire tracks since sometimes the snow can compress down into a solid slippery block, but tracks versus fresh depends a bit on the exact conditions.
In general there aren't many conditions when I don't feel it'd safe to cycle to cycle through a city in winter, and it's never so bad you can't get off and walk for a few meters, at which point you've got a bike as an inline zimmer frame and a helmet on.
Country lanes, some "tend to refreeze overnight and don't get gritted" back roads, and the odd downhill stretch cover pretty much the only places I'll avoid, and those are the places you don't really want to walk down either.