Two-wheel lovers celebrate river path
Downtown Express
By Albert Amateau

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Youngsters from all over Manhattan joined adult bicycle enthusiasts and city and state park officials on Pier 54 at 14th St. on a sunny Friday afternoon last week to celebrate the Hudson River Park bikeway between N. Moore and 59th Sts.

Billed as the Spring 2002 opening of the bikeway, the May 17 event was the official welcome by the city's Department of Parks, the Hudson River Park Trust, and the state and city Departments of Transportation to the river-front pathway used by thousands of cyclists, skaters and walkers.

Riding bicycles refurbished from donated parts by Recycle-a-Bicycle, a Washington Heights group, Robert Balachandran, president of the Hudson River Park Trust, Adrian Benepe, city Parks commissioner and other officials rode through the ceremonial tape to the cheers of onlookers.

"You can ride right up to the George Washington Bridge," said Balachandran, who heads the Trust which is building the five-mile park between the Battery and 59th St. The Hudson River Park bikeway connects with bikeways through Riverside Park South from 59th to 72nd St. and through Riverside and Ft. Washington Parks to the Little Red Lighthouse under the George Washington Bridge.

Except for the stretch between N. Moore and One World Financial Center in Battery Park City, the entire route is open. With the recent completion of the Sept. 11 debris-removal operation south of Pier 25, the rest of the Downtown segment will soon open to cyclists and pedestrians, said Alex Dudley, H.R.P.T. spokesperson. "The best is yet to come," said Benepe, foreseeing not only the completion of the bikeway and walkway, but also the eventual creation of a greenway all around Manhattan Island, as promised by Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

On almost any sunny weekend from April to October, about 5,000 people are on the bikeway, according to Balachandran. The Friday event coincided with the Bike Week, May 12-19, a celebration of two-wheel, non-motorized transportation sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, whose members took part in the event at Pier 54, the former Cunard-White Star pier now a public recreation pier rebuilt by the Trust.

"It's opened up Manhattan for me," said Guy Pettigno, who has been riding his small-wheel bicycle along the Hudson River for about a year. "I can cycle down from the Upper West Side to the Village, Chinatown, and the Lower East Side," added Pettigno, born and bred on Manhattan.

Richard Miller, a Transportation Alternative volunteer, was at the event gathering signatures on a petition to ban cars from Central Park. Kit Hogg, another T.A. volunteer, said she was looking forward to a proposed "commuter bicycle lane" from Washington Heights to the Financial District to serve people who want to bike to work in Manhattan's business districts.

Later that day, a documentary film on the Recycle-a-Bike program, made by teenagers from the Grand St. Settlement House, was screened on Pier 54. The film, made in connection with the Bicycle Film Festival, May 15-19, was first shown Thursday at the Anthology Film Archives theater on First Ave. at Second St.

The Recycle-a-Bicycle program involves school-age boys and girls in Northern Manhattan, the Lower East Side and in Brooklyn. The documentary, shot on video, was completed in six weeks by nine teenage boys at the Grand St. Settlement.

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