COVID bike boom ends — but cycling still ‘a thing’ in city
The city’s pandemic era bike boom fizzled this summer — but Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman on Thursday pointed to yearslong trends he said show cycling is here to stay.
“Cycling is a thing in New York City,” Gutman said at a news conference. “It is permanent, it is growing and we couldn’t be more delighted.”
Gutman released the Transportation Department’s annual cycling report, which says the number of New Yorkers riding bikes to work nearly doubled from 2011 to 2019, from about 27,000 people per day to more than 52,000.
The report shows cycling in New York has grown five times faster than in other major U.S. cities — but did not draw comparisons to cities in other countries where cycling is more central to urban life.
But as Gutman trumpeted the growing popularity of bikes in the city, data from his own agency show a dip in bicycle use this year.
When the COVID-19 outbreak pushed many New Yorkers away from mass transit and street congestion eased in 2020, the number of cyclists crossing East River bridges was up 21% from 2019.
But the number of East River crossings by bike was down by roughly 10% in June, from more than 25,000 crossings per weekday to 22,580, Transportation Department data show.
Despite that drop, more New Yorkers are riding bikes than before the pandemic — though cars still dominate — the records show.
The number of cars crossing the city’s bridges and tunnels has rebounded to roughly prepandemic levels. And a gradual return to mass transit by New Yorkers coincides with the plateau in cycling numbers.
But the number of cycling deaths is down. At least 14 people have been killed on bikes on city streets this year, according to data analyzed by the street safety group Transportation Alternatives. That’s down from 20 cyclist deaths during the same period of 2020.
“It is definitely safe to ride a bicycle in New York City,” said Gutman. “We’ve had unfortunate trends in some categories. But in terms of cyclists, the numbers have been moving in the right direction.”