Advocacy & Safety - Big city cycling: Boston vs. NYC

I'm less than an hour from Boston but hardly go there. In the last few months I've been two or three times in the late afternoon into the night to see friends' bands. Lots of cyclists utilize bike lanes, have lights on at night. It was the first time I got to see the effectiveness (and sadly the ineffectiveness based on some setups) of blinky lights and how visible cyclists are at night; there aren't any cyclists that night-ride where I do except me so it was my first time as an auto driver to see it. It was also nice to see in the absence of bike lanes most all cyclists were riding lawfully, and there didn't seem to be any issues with cars.

Yesterday I was in NYC to see a concert. I arrived around noon, and walking around trying to find a place to eat my first encounter with a cyclist was one flying down the bike lane. I thought sweet, nice safe bike lane. Then I realized he was going the wrong way as he flew head-on into four lanes of traffic, squeezing through cars and somehow made it unscathed, with not a single beep from car. As we kept walking it seemed commonplace for bikes to weave wherever they pleased, run red lights, cross intersections at will. As it got dark I continued to see bikes flying down hills (with no lights at all!) the wrong way on a one way road. I did not see/hear a single cyclist get beeped at the whole night.


I just found it amusing (and partly discouraging, moreso for NYC) that two cities with similar traffic situations and congestion each have completely opposite behaviors for most cyclists.

Boston is tiny compared to NYC. NYC has lot more , volume as well as percentage of bike commuters and bike lanes. Boston is just starting to "get it " , the bike planning and advocacy. Maybe someone can chime in with NYC stats? I ride from the Boston north suburbs to Brighton, not in downtown Boston traffic per say. I would say there are lots of issues with the Boston car drivers and the bicyclists.

I think it has something to do with the layout of the cities and the traffic patterns, but its not something I've been able to put a finger on. I think it has something to do with NYC (at least Manhattan) being a fairly typical grid, and Boston (with the exception of downtown) being a random snarl of narrow roads and special intersections set up for special circumstances. Around Boston, maybe your route needs to be thought out a little more carefully ahead of time, and your movements more intentional.

I don't think that idea quite hits the mark, though. I'll figure it out someday....

Also: Sup South Shore buddy.

I often live in NYC for 2 or 3 months at a time and have done so for the last 25 years but my home base is in Boston. I ride extensively in both cities. I rate NYC more bike friendly than Boston. It hasn't always been that way but over the last 10 years NYC's bike infrastructure has vastly improved and the city has realized, perhaps because it's an island with land use at it's max, that the private auto is not necessarily the best thing for the city and is no longer something to be catered to nor encouraged in terms of urban planning.

I think your experiences are simply anecdotal and could easily have been reversed had you witnessed a group of cyclists in Boston doing similar poor riding habits. I've seen both kinds of cyclists in both cities and think the percentage of irresponsible riders is roughly the same.

Boston v NYC?

So far this season the NYC/Boston game score is 2-1 NYC. Aggregate runs are at 16-14, again NYC.

I've only ridden in these great cities as a tourist. Both were more fun on a bike than in a car, but I would not have done well going across either of them.

I would describe NYC riding and traffic in general as "controlled chaos".

I'm less than an hour from Boston but hardly go there. In the last few months I've been two or three times in the late afternoon into the night to see friends' bands. Lots of cyclists utilize bike lanes, have lights on at night. It was the first time I got to see the effectiveness (and sadly the ineffectiveness based on some setups) of blinky lights and how visible cyclists are at night; there aren't any cyclists that night-ride where I do except me so it was my first time as an auto driver to see it. It was also nice to see in the absence of bike lanes most all cyclists were riding lawfully, and there didn't seem to be any issues with cars.

Yesterday I was in NYC to see a concert. I arrived around noon, and walking around trying to find a place to eat my first encounter with a cyclist was one flying down the bike lane. I thought sweet, nice safe bike lane. Then I realized he was going the wrong way as he flew head-on into four lanes of traffic, squeezing through cars and somehow made it unscathed, with not a single beep from car. As we kept walking it seemed commonplace for bikes to weave wherever they pleased, run red lights, cross intersections at will. As it got dark I continued to see bikes flying down hills (with no lights at all!) the wrong way on a one way road. I did not see/hear a single cyclist get beeped at the whole night.


I just found it amusing (and partly discouraging, moreso for NYC) that two cities with similar traffic situations and congestion each have completely opposite behaviors for most cyclists.

The D.C.-Metro region would be a better comparison with NYC, when it comes to size and congestion. The ever-expanding size of the Capital Beltway is a prime example of that. It started out as two lanes in the 1960's, and now, it is up to eight with ever increasing talk of making it twelve lanes.

I think MOST communities with active, dynamic 21st century interventions that encourage bicycling in situ achieve, thru a hundredth monkey phenomenon, a majority cycling population of remarkably orderly, vehicular, law abiding, signal respecting bicyclists.

I haven't ridden there, but reports of a high percentage of 'blinkies' on bicyclists in Boston indicate a developed American-style bicyclist group ethos. i.e. safety first these motorists are MORONS and can hardly see bicyclists.


NYC is an odd bird. i think there might be a tipping point yet to be acheived in NYC. I think a key ingredient there-looking in primarily via www.streetfilms.org - would be much larger Class II bikelanes and more emphasized traffic signals, and enforcement. Start taking full traffic lanes away from cars. accommodate bikes with a surfeit of infrastructure. Green wave boulevards crisscrossing Manhattan and spoking out from the bridges beyond.

(Boy, i need to bring my bike to the east coast and check out whats going on!)

I probably should have mentioned I was in Manhattan, which is set up like a straightforward grid and the roads are typically much wider than most in Boston. I will agree that the traffic there was more "controlled" chaos, whereas Boston is just complete chaos. And both are horrendous to drive in, I don't know how people do it daily.