By Dustin Brown
Some say they’re crazy, and perhaps they are.
They brave fierce winds and blazing sun, heavy rains and sometimes even snow as they trek across the Queensboro Bridge.
But the hundreds of Queens commuters who reach Manhattan by bicycle every day have their own notion of what counts as crazy, and you can bet they won’t trade their windswept hair and muddied wheels for the cramped subway car anytime soon.
“It’s amazing because for me, it’s exciting watching the city,” said Mireya Garcia, 33, a housekeeper from Astoria who bikes to the Upper East Side and then downtown. “It’s so beautiful, and it saves money from my tokens.”
Transportation Alternatives, a citywide bicycle advocacy group, estimates that between 150 and 200 commuters cross the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., said the organization’s project director, Noah Budnick. About 13,000 of the city’s 105,000 daily cyclists ride in Queens, whether they are commuting, playing, delivering food or going shopping.
The borough’s bike commuters were treated to a special pit stop Friday morning as they approached the Queensboro Bridge, where representatives of Transportation Alternatives and the Queens borough president’s office handed out bagels, juice and bicycle maps as part of Bike Week 2002, which ended Sunday.
The borough’s 84 miles of bike paths and on-street bike routes ranks it second in the city in the length of its bike network, behind only Brooklyn at 92 miles and ahead of Manhattan, which has 79 miles.
Although the borough is so large its established bike network often goes unnoticed — even by avid bicyclists — the paths have a practical purpose beyond recreational rides because they are well-connected with one another, Budnick said.
“It really integrates bicycles as part of the transportation network in the city,” Budnick said.
Queens also offers other advantages for cyclists, such as a varied network of side streets.
“It’s better because there’s a lot less traffic,” said Douglas Arevalo, 29, a bike messenger from Jackson Heights. “You have a bigger choice of streets to take. You don’t have the traffic volume you have in Manhattan.”
But for Enid Rivera, 42, who treks from Jamaica to Manhattan every day for her job as a graphic designer at the Daily News, the only way to go is Queens Boulevard, the notoriously dangerous thoroughfare that cuts through the center of the borough.
“I wish I could have another safer direct way, but that’s the only road,” she said as she stepped off her bike to enjoy the breakfast spread. “It’s not as bad as people make it out to be. I think it’s more dangerous for pedestrians and cars.”
Not everyone shares her bravado, however.
“If you share a road with an auto, there’s always a chance,” said Todd Gwinn, 42, a librarian at Mid-Manhattan Library who commutes from Sunnyside on a folding bicycle, which he can take inside after riding. “I just have to live with that. That’s the price for riding a bicycle.”
But the city also is planning numerous improvements to the borough’s bicycle infrastructure, starting at Queens Plaza itself, where the Department of City Planning’s proposed redesign calls for a bike path to run from the Queens Boulevard Bridge to the Queensboro Bridge. The lane would circle around a proposed seating area where the JFK Commuter Triangle now sits, and then travel the length of Queens Plaza North inside a planted median, interrupted by a cross street only once.
Another major project, the North Queens Greenway, is a proposed bike path running along the perimeter of the borough’s shoreline from the Pulaski Bridge in Long Island City to LaGuardia Airport, where it would connect with the Flushing Promenade.
“Putting a bike path along the water creates a very efficient and popular commuter route,” Budnick said. “So based on what we’ve seen on the Hudson River Greenway, it’s a great way to encourage people to ride to work and to ride for shopping and for recreation in general, because it’s a safe place, it’s off the street and it’s fast.”
The borough already has greenways, or off-street paths, along the Flushing Promenade, Little Neck Park and the former Vanderbilt Motor Parkway.
New bike lanes are expected to open by June in Bellerose and in Queens Village along Winchester Boulevard between Union Turnpike and Braddock Avenue, and from there along 222nd Street to 100th Avenue.
Reach reporter Dustin Brown by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 154.
