Like everything else in New York, biking is big. Really big.
According to the NYC Department of Transportation, 530,000 cycling trips are made in New York City each day, and 800,000 New Yorkers ride a bike regularly. Manhattan has been a bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community since 2012, and bike lanes have expanded from 250 miles in 2006 to more than 1,200 today, crossing iconic bridges, weaving through parks, and hugging the shores of the Hudson River.
Pedal to New Jersey’s Palisades (or hop a train to the Hudson Highlands) and you’ll find road biking for days. You can even find mountain biking in the city — Wolfe’s Pond Park in Staten Island, Cunningham Park in Queens, Manhattan’s Highbridge Park — and long gravel roads start fanning out just over a dozen miles away.
The 40-mile TD Five Boro Bike Tour, with 30,000 participants, is (no surprise) the country’s biggest bike ride. But there are dozens of annual cycling events here worth checking out — from Twin Lights Ride to the celebrated Gran Fondo New York and a whole lot more.