Today the DOT released the results of years of research confirming the obvious: the number of New Yorkers getting around by bike has skyrocketed in recent years, and is up 320 percent since 1990. The report, titled "Cycling in the City," reveals a number of other ways in which cycling has surged in popularity in recent years—but safe streets advocates say this boom has not been matched with sufficient cyclist and pedestrian-friendly improvements to the city's infrastructure.
The report found that between 2009 and 2014, the number of people riding a bike at least several times a month increased by nearly 50 percent. And that pales in comparison to daily cycling, which has shot up by 68 percent since 2010 and by that whopping 320 percent since 1990 (that's 420,000 daily commuters, up from 100,000). That growth has been the highest in Brooklyn, which has seen a 75 percent increase in daily commuters since 2010—no big shock, considering that borough also saw the greatest population growth between 2010 and 2015.
On the flip side, however, cycling growth has been considerably slower in Staten Island and the Bronx, which saw only 9 percent and 19 percent increases between 2010 and 2014, respectively. Perhaps correlating to this, the DOT's bike projects have included 33 in the Bronx and just 5 on Staten Island in the past decade, compared to 37 in Queens, 78 in Manhattan, and 92 in Brooklyn.
Other key finds: cycling has increased almost twice as much in New York City than its peer cities (Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, and Boston); cycling over the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan, and Brooklyn bridges has gone up by a staggering 893 percent since 1990; and Citibike, which launched in 2013, has seen steady growth in its first years.
Paul Steely White, executive director at Transportation Alternatives, said that while it's absolutely exciting to see evidence that more and more New Yorkers are choosing to use bicycles as a form of transportation, the city needs to do more to protect cyclists, particularly by investing more money in an integrated network of protected bike lanes. The City Council recently asked Mayor de Blasio to increase the DOT's budget by $240 million annually to bring the city closer to eliminating traffic deaths by 2024, as is the mayor's Vision Zero goal—NYPD Commissioner Bratton, meanwhile, recently said he thinks that Vision Zero goal is unrealistic.
"The DOT is off to a good start with its pledge to complete 15 miles of new protected bike lanes this year," White said. "That number must become a minimum going forward. Separated paths like those we've seen in the first phase of the Queens Boulevard redesign, and parking-protected lanes like the ones the city will begin installing on Amsterdam Avenue this month, should be standard treatments whenever the DOT fixes one of the city's most dangerous streets."
Speaking to reporters today, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg admitted that "there's always more work to do" on expanding the city's network of protected bike lanes, and said that she is committed to completing those 15 miles of new protected lanes by the end of this year.
Despite the popularity of bicycling and the Vision Zero's lofty goals, the dangers of cycling in NYC remain stubbornly clear. Three cyclists were killed by drivers in recent weeks: James Gregg and Lauren Davis in Brooklyn, and Heather Lough in the Bronx. In the former two cases, much of the NYPD's rhetoric appeared to blame the victims: officers suggested that Gregg was skitching or attempting to pass the truck that killed him, when that truck was driving off-route on a narrow street, and initially reported that Davis was riding against traffic, before quietly amending that statement over a week later.
At a memorial for the cyclists killed in Brooklyn, Borough President Eric Adams—a former police officer himself—said that "we should not assume that the cyclist was always the person responsible for a crash or had accepted the risk simply by climbing on a bicycle...There must be a blue wall of silence until the investigation is completed and we know the facts."
White echoed that sentiment, saying that "Commissioner Bratton must rein in anonymous police sources who make comments to news outlets blaming cyclists for their own deaths before crash investigations are even complete. This all-too-common practice sends a message to the public that people on bikes have no legitimate place on our streets, and no right to expect protection from law enforcement."
To shed light on the dangerous conditions that bicyclists in NYC continue to face on a daily basis, Gothamist is inviting commuters to film their bike commutes and send us the footage. Learn more about how to do so here.
