Last Day To Register For The 2018 NYC Century Bike Tour
PROSPECT PARK – Transportation Alternatives hosts the 29th annual NYC Century Bike Tour on Sunday, September 9, featuring five rides with distances ranging from 15 to 100 miles and starting locations at Central Park or Prospect Park (Prospect Park Southwest at Park Circle).
A 15-mile, family-friendly, protected route starting at Prospect Park was introduced last year. Riders will cross the Manhattan Bridge and travel up the east side to Central Park where all riders will finish and celebrate at the NYC Century Festival. A NYPD officer will escort riders on this tour.
The 35-mile route is the only one that travels a full loop through Prospect Park, continuing on through north Brooklyn and the Queens waterfront to a rest stop at Astoria Park. It then goes on the Triborough Bridge to Manhattan’s Upper East Side and ends at Central Park.
The 55-mile tour passes iconic sights on the Brooklyn shoreline. Riders head south from Prospect Park along Shore Parkway to Brighton Beach and Coney Island, then on to a rest stop at Marine Park. Riders then loop back through central Brooklyn to join the 35-mile route through the Queens waterfront and on to Central Park.
The 75-mile route passes several “classic spots,” hits the beach at Jacob Riis Park and the Rockaways, then travels on to a rest stop at Forest Park in Queens. Riders bike on miles of parkway and complete a lap at the Kissena Velodrome before looping back to Central Park.
The 100-mile or Century route gives riders the full NYC experience—from Brooklyn’s shoreline, to Queens’ greenways, to the Bronx’s Little Italy, and Manhattan’s Harlem River Greenway—before finishing off at the NYC Century Festival in Central Park.
The NYC Century Bike Tour began in 1990 with 200 riders looking for better bicycling infrastructure on NYC streets. Today, approximately 6,000 cyclists of all skill levels gather each year to embark on the “nation’s only all-urban 100-mile ride” that takes them along more than 1,200 miles of bike lanes through four boroughs, raising awareness for the city’s available bike infrastructure.
Some riders at last year’s tour complained about the “city’s obvious disdain” for the ride, noting blocked bike paths and a lack of police assistance in directing traffic on busier roadways. In Borough Park, a rider participating in the tour was killed after a drunk driver plowed his minivan into a group of cyclists as they waited at a stop light at the intersection of 12th Avenue and 39th Street.
Support TransAlt’s mission to make NYC streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. You have until 11:30pm tonight to register for Sunday’s NYC Century Bike Tour. Register here.
