Apparently there were even more frustrating delays than usual at the annual Five Boro Bike Tour yesterday; Twitter is littered with complaining cyclists who were stuck standing around in massive bike traffic jams repeatedly throughout the day. (Enjoy the schadenfreude, bike lane-hating drivers.) This comment from @jivecracker seems pretty representative: "Terrible planning, execution and communication by the organizers of the #5boro bike tour." Some participants, who each paid $75, say they had to wait upwards of two hours to get through an insane cyclist bottleneck on the BQE, and one Gothamist reader describes the scene: more ›

If you're wondering why some streets are closed in the city today, it's because it's the Five Boro Bike Tour. According to Bike New York, the ride starts in Lower Manhattan and then "heads north through the heart of Manhattan to Central Park and continues on to historic Harlem and the Bronx, returning south along the East River on the FDR Drive. From there it crosses into Queens and then Brooklyn, where cyclists take over the highway before making the thrilling climb up--and down--the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. The route is 42 miles, mostly flat except for the bridges." Here's a PDF from the NYPD outlining all the street closures. more ›

With approximately 30,000 participants, it's not unexpected that a few cyclists might get in an accident during the 5 Boro Bike Tour. Still, it's alarming to read emergency wire updates like the report that there was an accident on the Queens side of the upper level of the Queensboro Bridge. Multiple cyclists are down and the extent of injuries is still unkown. more ›