Fewer New Yorkers are cycling: city report

The number of New Yorkers who regularly ride a bicycle dropped 5 percent in the last two years, data released by the city Tuesday showed.

Approximately 787,000 adult city residents rode at last once a month in fiscal year 2019 — down from 828,000 two years earlier, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s annual “Mayor’s Management Report.”

The numbers come from the city Health Department’s annual surveys, conducted via interviews with a 1,000-person sampling of Big Apple residents.

They match up with other recent measurements of cycling in the city that have shown an increase in bike trips within Manhattan but a decrease on trips over the East River bridges, which have historically tracked with citywide cycling overall.

Citi Bike membership, nevertheless continues to grow, the report shows — up to nearly 155,000 people in fiscal year 2019, which wrapped up June 30.

Bike advocates said they’re stumped by the drop, but posited that it was due to a lack of bike lanes in the outerboroughs.

“We really don’t know what’s happening with bike-riding in the city,” said Bike New York Communications Director Jon Orcutt, a former city DOT official who noted the Health Department survey’s small sample size and broad scope.

“Bike ridership is going up a lot in Manhattan, but it may be going down elsewhere because we don’t have the same investment in bike infrastructure,” he added.

The Mayor’s Management Report also shows cyclist and pedestrian fatalities increased by 4.3 percent — 209 to 218 — from FY 2018 to 2019.

The report also said the pace of bike lane installation has slowed — from 82.9 miles of lanes added in FY 2017, down to 70.5 miles and 67.5 miles in the next two years.

After a spate of cyclist deaths this summer, de Blasio announced a $58.4 million plan to expand the number of new protected bike lanes, from around 20 miles per year to 30 miles per year.

But the city only plans to install 50 miles total in the next two fiscal years, according to the management report.

Orcutt said his group is okay with that as long as it yields more lanes that are actually protected from car traffic by physical barriers.

“We’re moving to majority protected mileage. That’s a good thing from our point of view,” he said. “We’re not convinced that other lanes do that much.”

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