Northeast - Paths on Roosevelt or Randalls Island
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fenester
10-12-06, 10:48 AM
I'm going for a leisure ride Sunday with some friends and was thinking of checking out the paths around Roosevelt Island or Randalls/Wards Island parks.
Does anyone have any positive/negative commentary on those?
Also, the 2006 NYC bike map shows most of the bike path on Randalls/Wards is not completed. Does anyone know if there is currently enough path to make it a nice ride?
Thanks in advance for your feedback!
-Fen.
cc_rider
10-12-06, 12:39 PM
I was on Ward's Island last month on the NY Century ride.
Connection from Queens is ok. About 2 miles on a narrow sidewalk / bridge next to the highway.
On Ward's / Randall's Island I got lost trying to find the footbridge to Manhattan, but I had fun exploring.
Paths along the water edges were rideable but rough. The main paths near the play fields are in better shape.
http://www.transalt.org/bridges/triboro.html
photos http://wolfram.org/photo/once/wards_island/
fenester
10-13-06, 02:26 PM
Hey, thanks for your reply!
I did a Roosevelt Island ride last year. Since it's supposed to be a car-free community I thought it would be a geat place for bikes. Not so. The bridge that links Roosevelt Island with Queens was particularly dangerous. There's a sign that says "no bikes on sidewalk" so I used the roadway and nearly got thrown from my bike when my front wheel got caught in some gap in the metal roadway.
The island's roads probably havent been repaved in over 50 years.You'd have a much better time riding the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway or exploring the Brooklyn/Queens Waterfront.
I rode Roosevelt a month ago - I didn't see the no bike sign till I was going the other way. I'd still ride on the sidewalk the way cars were whipping around at 60-70 to speed over the bridge! Otherwise I liked it - especially the far south of the island if you have a mountain bike and like riding in gravel. Very peaceful once you're on it and the Manhattan skyline is a nice change of scenery from Queens and Brooklyn ;)