This Sunday marked Transportation Alternatives' second annual Tour de Queens. More than 1,000 bicyclists rode the leisurely bike tour of southern Queens, exploring Flushing, Fresh Meadows, Hollis, Saint Albans, Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Corona. Riders were treated to rest stop at York College. This year's tour also included a stretch of Queens Boulevard. Transportation Alternatives is pushing for a protected bike lane on this dangerous roadway, and many riders donned green this year to echo the call for a "greener" Queens Boulevard.

Online registration for the tour filled up in less than 12 hours--the fastest of any Transportation Alternatives tour in history.

"This has been a great year for the bicycle at the Queens Museum, from a BMX ramp to Indo-Caribbean boom-box-bikes in our galleries--capped by the second Tour de Queens. We are thrilled to be partners in promoting bicycling of all kinds in the Borough of Queens," says Tom Finkelpearl, Executive Director of the Queens Museum of Art.

"Queens has more than doubled its bike network since 2006, and the Tour de Queens is where the borough's growing ranks of riders come to celebrate," says Edward Hernandez, chairman of Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee. "Trust me: Brooklyn has nothing on the sites and streets we lined up for this year's tour."

The Tour de Queens is hosted by Transportation Alternatives, and sponsored by the Queens Museum of Art, LaGuardia Community College, York College, Tom Cat Bakery, The Creek, Build It Green!NYC and Bellitte Bicycles. Transportation Alternatives also hosts the Tour de Brooklyn, Tour de Bronx and NYC Century Bike Tour.

Event photos:
http://transalt.org/files/temp/TdeQ1.jpg
http://transalt.org/files/temp/TdeQ2.jpg

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