Bike Commuting Into Manhattan Hits 20-Year High
The New York Sun
By Daniela Gerson

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During a decade of bike commuting, Jennifer Tarentino has been knocked around by car doors, taxi drivers, and “just about everything.” Still, the trim designer keeps pedaling.

“It’s just easier, cheaper, and more enjoyable,” the 34-year-old Brooklyn Heights resident said.

Her 45-minute commute is essentially gridlock-free, but recently Ms. Tarentino said she has found herself forced to share the road with more fellow riders.

Bike commuting into Manhattan from Brooklyn and Queens reached a two-decade high this year, according to the Department of Transportation.

A DOT spokesman, Keith Kalb, attributed a 30% increase over last year to the opening of all four East River bridges to pedestrians for the first time in 2002.

There was also an overall increase in bike commuters in Manhattan, in part due to the completion of the Greenway, the 32-mile trail along the waterfront, Mr. Kalb said. The advocacy group Transportation Alternatives reported traffic of more than 1,000 people an hour on the busiest section of the trail.

Noah Budnick, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, said the increased secure pedaling space might be the primary reason people are taking to bikes, but there are also other factors.

“Anecdotally,” Mr. Budnick said, “there’s more people riding because of the subway fare increase, and, occasionally, I hear people saying they are riding because of safety concerns in the subway.”

Last week, bike commuter Seth Prince was relieved he gets to work on his own sweat. “Right after the bombing in Spain, I was going through Penn Station and I just thought, ‘This is crazy,’” said Mr. Prince, 34.

But it’s not the fear of a terrorist attack that caused Mr. Prince to start biking. “It’s more fun — you get to see what’s going on in the city.” And in the process, he said, he shaves 10 minutes from his round-trip commute each day. On his bike it takes Mr. Prince 35 minutes to get from his Brooklyn home to his Midtown office. On the subway it takes 40 minutes.

After the fare hike, Chris Neff, 29, abandoned the subway for his bike last June.

“They raised the subway fare and I won’t stand underground to pay a fare that’s only worth $1.50 to me,” said Mr. Neff, who works with computers in Chinatown. He estimates he has saved more than $500 in subway fares since he started commuting last June.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Transit Authority said Mr. Neff is probably not alone. The subways experienced a 2.3% weekday ridership decrease in 2003, attributed mainly to the fare hike.

While the monetary issue got Mr. Neff pedaling, the health benefits have kept him riding. After almost a year commuting, he said he’s no longer an asthmatic.

Others took up the habit to get in shape. Robert Castelle started biking from his home in Bay Ridge to Midtown — a good hour’s trip — when he quit smoking three years ago.

After being hit twice by a car in the past two years, Mr. Castelle, 32, said he’s worried he might be endangering his health. He’s not without cause. Transportation Alternatives said there are 4,000 bike accidents in the city in an average year.

But Mr. Castelle said what makes him most upset is that even police officers do not respect bike lanes, noting in his morning commute he had to dodge them near the municipal buildings in Downtown Brooklyn.

Frustrations aside, bikers old and new said the best part of switching their commute from underground was they now enjoyed the trip.

“It’s the best way to go,” said Jim Hayes, 42, a Brooklyn police lieutenant who has pedaled from his Staten Island home for the past 20 years.“It’s an hour, but a good hour, and it sure beats being stuck in traffic.”

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