Northeast - route from Philadelphia to Brooklyn

I'm trying to find any information on a bike route for riding from Philadelphia to Brooklyn. This would be a one day ride for training purposes.
I tried the search function but found most of the rides are heading out from New York City but not to Philadelphia.
Would just using google or mapquest and requesting a walk route work?

Walking routes on google are a good place to start.

It will be very tough to find a route leading up to the Hudson River. The tough part is getting from Newark to Bayonne. I'm working on creating one, but I have to scout it out a bit. When I was in high school, I took the Bayonne bridge from Staten Island into Bayonne, but I don't remember it well. You could do the opposite and take the ferry from Staten Island into Manhattan and then the Brooklyn bridge into Brooklyn. You can't cycle on the Verrazano bridge, however.

Another idea is to take the George Washington Bridge. The route will be more pleasant, but it will add quite a few miles to your route.

try a search on bikely.com ?

Thanks for the tip about that site! But I couldn't find anything leading between Newark and Bayonne. It's very industrial and I suspect all bridges over the Newark Bay are highways. Asking google maps for a walking route, it recommends the Lincoln Highway route.

I'll try to scout it out in the next few weeks, OK? I live near Newark, and I'm often in NYC and Hoboken, so I could take this route in my car. Eventually, I would like to pedal from home (in Maplewood) to NYC, just to say I've done it.

When will you be taking this ride?

Wow, I just learned a bit of history about Lincoln Highway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Highway)!

Actually I'm checking for a friend who is going to do the ride. He is training for an Ironman and commutes by bike from the suburbs into Philadelphia. He is planning on doing the ride on Friday, May 22.

There are better options, but these work
http://www.nycc.org/rl_db/ride.aspx?id=234
http://cs.nyu.edu/cs/faculty/goldberg/NYCC/ride_library/PHILLY.html

have fun

Rob

The first route that Not the Slowest offers confirms that the best way between Jersey City and Newark is indeed over the Lincoln Highway bridge. Or maybe I should say it's the least sucky way. The rest of the route looks good.

Now your friend may consider taking a ferry from Weehawken to Manhattan or a subway (called the PATH) from Hoboken to Manhattan. Would that be allowed? It would save a ton of time, and it's jumping a one-mile wide river.

hey noglider i'd be interested in what more you might find out about options biking out of newark, specifically from either broad st station or penn station to points north; my brother lives up in rutherford and the train connections to secaucus and then again to rutherford are a real drag - it shouldn't take an hour and a half (once you add up all the waiting around) to go that last 10 miles or so! i know i could bike it in less, and be less annoyed... just don't know what safe bike routes there are leaving newark.

If you could be more specific, I could help. Going from Newark to where?

path does have certain rush hour restrictions, but I am unsure of the hours.

In anycase check this out, I beleive they use the Adventure Cycling Route.
I received a laminated cue sheet binder at the Bike NY the other week, they may send you one for free.

Starts in JC, scroll to end of page, you need two parts JC-New Brunswick and
NB to trenton
http://www.greenway.org/gw-nj/route.html

I did the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia's ride as they have listed on the cue sheet on their website. It worked great and will take you all the way into Hoboken to catch the ferry to Manhattan. The cue sheet was great and any unusual circumstances were well documented. Hopefully not too much has changed since 2007 when the cue sheet was made.

http://phillybikeclub.org/newbcp/doc/rides/2007_NH_NYC-125.pdf

path does have certain rush hour restrictions

No bikes on PATH Monday - Friday, 6:30 - 9:30 am, and 3:30 - 6:30 pm (folders excepted).

One of these days I'm going to try riding to Newark from JC - but it's not for the faint of heart. I can tell you, as a driver, I would never expect to see a cyclist on Lincoln Highway. Best bet is to stick to the sidewalks as much as possible (there will be few - if any - pedestrians) and be super careful crossing the on- & off-ramps.

The power of bikeforums! You ask a question, and you get local expertise for anywhere.

I heart bikeforums too. Who wants to do nyc2philly on the 31st of May (or thereabouts)

I wish, but I'm busy that day. My other passion is singing. I'm singing a celebration at my synagogue during the day and performing in a concert with Harmonium (http://www.harmonium.org) at night.

The Lincoln Highway bridge is indeed a stressful crossing. I did it 10 years ago with a fully packed bike (1940s Schwinn fat-tire cruiser-type, on a trip from Manhattan to Cape May, NJ and then on to Bethany Beach, Delaware) and an additional wrinkle was that I had to lift the whole thing (heavy with all my camping gear and stuff) over a guardrail with traffic whizzing by my back. The crossing is also described here on this very handy site:

http://www.transalt.org/files/resources/bridges/newark.html

By the way, this is my first posting on this forum - hello to everyone and thanks for all the great info!

I want to do the same trip again next week (but with a somewhat more modern bike) and am not thrilled at the prospect of repeating that crossing. BTW - the NY Waterway ferry from the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan also has a stop in Jersey City (Paulus Hook) that's closer to the Lincoln Highway bridge.

My question - has anyone ever tried the crossing that's located two bridges to the north of the Lincoln Hwy bridge? It goes between Newark Avenue in Jersey City and Newark Pike on the other side, and later becomes Harrison Avenue. It looks like a local-type street and Google's satellite view shows cars on it so it appears to be operational. It looks like you take a left onto 4th Street in Harrison and then shortly thereafter cross a bridge into Newark. Has anyone ever tried it?

If you could be more specific, I could help. Going from Newark to where?

rutherford... rutherford train station (station square) is a good landmark.
(park ave & erie ave -- 40.829016,-74.101077)

I haven't ridden there, but I asked google maps how to get there by foot and it gave me this route (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=07101&daddr=%2B40%C2%B0+49'+44.46%22,+-74%C2%B0+6'+3.88%22+(40.829016,+-74.101077)&hl=en&geocode=%3BFVkAbwIdqk6V-w&mra=ls&dirflg=w&sll=40.788005,-74.13685&sspn=0.109435,0.114326&ie=UTF8&ll=40.78912,-74.130077&spn=0.109433,0.114326&z=13). Do you know the area at all to know if it's reasonable?

Newark and Bayonne

Newark to Jersey City is possible.

From Jersey city side go down Communipaw ave. (which becomes 1-9 lincoln hwy) There is a rarely used pedestrian path that is most likely overgrown with tick infested plants and covered with all manner of garbage and bits of trucks that fell off at high velocity. Vaya Con Dios, where long pants.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.726322,-74.096135&spn=0.005545,0.011373&t=h&z=17

My question - has anyone ever tried the crossing that's located two bridges to the north of the Lincoln Hwy bridge? It goes between Newark Avenue in Jersey City and Newark Pike on the other side

I haven't been on that route on my bike, but I'd say there are parts that would be terrible/very dangerous (a la Lincoln Hwy), and parts that would be - er - let's say viable - on a bike.

Newark Ave in Jersey City is fine, until you get to the Charlotte Circle (where it crosses 1 & 9).

The segment from the circle, over the Wittpenn Bridge, and on Route 7 until 7 and 508 split would be terrible. Can't remember if there is a sidewalk on the bridge - I'll take a look next time I'm driving there. No way you could ride on the bridge roadway. From the bridge to the 7/508 split is expressway with cars going 50+ mph in narrow, curving lanes. There is a shoulder on parts of this but probably not the whole thing.

Once you get past the 7/508 split interchange, things improve. Both the Belleville Pike (7) and Newark/JC Pike (508) are local roads with traffic moving ~40 mph, shoulder part of the time, lots of truck traffic. Not someplace you'd ever choose to ride, but not as dangerous as the other part of the route.

Are you talking about danger of a collision or danger of crime?

Are you talking about danger of a collision or danger of crime?

I do not travel that route regularly.

From Communipaw ave. to the Bridge was overgrown and garbage strewn, you are separated from the trucks by a concrete barrier, but you are about 3 ft from them, and based on the garbage stuff does fly off the trucks that could kill you. Once on the bridge you are fine, it is even enjoyable. Then exiting the bridge is another overgrown garbage strewn 200 ft or so.

At that point you are on a little peninsula, it is fairly straight forward to the second bridge. I think I took a detour South on S. Hackensack, and came back around and crossed the second bridge. At that point it is very hard to get the last 1000 ft to Newark. It is a very congested truck, inland port type thing. From google maps it looks easier than it is. I am not sure exactly what root I took at that point. You can get to Wilson fairly easily and there is a fairly wide shoulder, but it is about an extra mile or two.

On the route to central Newark I did not feel in danger of crime as there was few people not involved in the trucking business. There was a lot of traffic and even some police. There is no housing so you are not going to find a ghetto crime scene until you are in Newark proper.

All in all a very bad bicycling experience just to save $3 on the PATH train.

^ The Wittpenn Bridge - 7/508 route is the same deal.

You're crossing through a swamp that has a few areas of landfill, on which are found bulk mail centers, warehouses, container yards, etc. So you've got lots of trucks, lots of cars. Not much in the way of people who aren't on their way someplace in a vehicle. Collision is the big concern.

Yeah. Newark is a trip, isn't it? But it's places like that that make the world go 'round.

Still, for all the horror stories, I gotta try cycling those routes at least once. I live so close, in Maplewood. Where do you folks live?

I live in Brooklyn NYC.

As to Newark, I actually like Newark. I even rode from Newark to Asbury Park. I did not see any crime or bad scenes. Perhaps with the economic downturn things have changed. The Henry Hudson, Mataswan to Atlantic Highlands, multi use path is very nice.

Since I take the PATH, I am not even saving money going from Jersey City to Newark.

Sorry I wasn't clear. My comments about Newark were not about the poverty or crime. They were about the high density of heavy industry and shipping.

But I have seen some awful areas of Newark, too. Very scary and terribly sad.

Thanks so much for the info on the Wittpenn and Lincoln Highway bridges. That's really good to know. Too bad - the skinniness of the line on the map seemed to indicate that the Wittpenn could have been a nice sleepy little street crossing. I guess not! I've decided to abandon those routes altogether.

Yikes, on my trip ten years ago I saw a lot of the same kind of garbage that fell off trucks - it should have occurred to me that the stuff would be deadly if my head was in its path flying off the truck.

I was avoiding the notion of taking the Path train because I didn't want to carry my loaded bike up and down stairs, but I checked the website and it says that the World Trade Center and Newark Penn stations are both wheelchair-accessible, so I think I should be able to take my bike on an elevator.

On my trip ten years ago I remember I got a bit lost trying to get from where the Lincoln Hwy bridge dumped me, and then around the airport and through the dock area trying to find a way to Elizabeth. I found myself on an endless loop on the car approach to the airport, the same route you'd take if you were dropping someone off. Spun around that twice before I found my way out. But then I got my reward on Doremus Avenue - I found a nice Snap-On tappet wrench (just the right size for my for pedals) lying in the street. Still have it.

So I'm off tomorrow morning for Cape May and then Delaware if all goes according to plan. Thanks again for the route tips!

Bon voyage!

Didn't want to carry the loaded bike on stairs? Why, in my day, I did that while wearing teflon coated cleats! And we liked it that way!

This thread was incredibly interesting. I will do this someday. I lived in Brooklyn for a year and currently reside in Philly. Thanks for the information everyone.

Oh, I'm glad you said that. I got so deep into the nitty gritty details, I was wondering if I was boring everyone.

Oh, I'm glad you said that. I got so deep into the nitty gritty details, I was wondering if I was boring everyone.

on the contrary i think you should author an e-book about your experiences riding in northeast new jersey which on the whole is not very well documented at all!

Honestly, I haven't ventured east of my home town (Maplewood) very much. I had a real scare in Newark in my car once, and that hasn't kept me out of Newark, but I'm wary. And there isn't much reason to go there anyway, unless I want to have a big adventure going to Jersey City or Hoboken, because it would involve going through a lot of unfamiliar territory. I'm not terrified of riding through poor neighborhoods. I did it a lot living in NYC, but as I said, I'm wary.

after biking along clinton ave in trenton on my return trip from the gardens for sculpture (which is an awesome place to visit, btw), i tend to agree.

lower income neighborhood = fewer curb cuts at street corners, and in general poorly maintained sidewalks and streets... leading to a generally tiresome experience avoiding potholes, raised sidewalk slabs, debris, etc.

the irony is, i had an easier time on greenwood ave on my way To the gardens... greenwood ave is route 33. i wouldn't expect a numbered route to be more bike friendly than a local/rural route, but there you have it.

p.s. my garmin nuvi 205 set to bicycle mode immediately suggested greenwood ave upon exiting trenton transit center. that's a good little gps!