Originally Posted by ChiroVette

Just to report back, I did this round trip to Mineola. I went to my buddy's house there, we spent the day hanging out. I ended up sleeping over and rode home early this morning. Left a little after 7:00 AM to get an early start back to Brooklyn.

As I said I would, I scoped out the little section of Conduit Avenue connecting Cohancey Street to 114th Street, and the biggest problem wasn't the traffic, lol though that was bad! But I could have sucked it up and dealt with the traffic for the 0.3ish miles. But it is un-passable going East since it is a one way with insane traffic going WEST. So I was about to just shoot up Albert to Centerville (etc.) but then I saw a really big sidewallk with NO PEDESTRIANS on it. It was on the north side of the big avenue, lining the south end of Aqueduct's property. So with no pedestrians on it, I just jumped on the sidewalk and pedaled to 114th street.

Coming back, I decided to try the same thing. I still had NO desire to pedal Conduit in the street, even for just that really long block, so I jumped on the sidewalk. It was a little after 8:00 AM, and the entire length of it, there was one couple walking. Since they had the right of way, I slowed down and asked nicely if I could pass them, then I ducked into a little patch of grass to the right, in case they didn't hear me, and passed them safely and SLOWLY.

The rest of the route both ways was as described!

Thank you so much for your directions and the time you took to help me, Ferdinand NYC!!

It made a huge difference. I have pedaled down both Jamaica Ave and Jericho Turnpike for very limited stretches, and while they are both passable, I think, the stress level is not conducive to a fun ride, with cars flying by at warp speed treating cyclists like we don't belong on the road to begin with. While riding on those continuous avenues for limited distances is fine, I had NO DESIRE whatoever to do the 8+ miles from Jamaica all the way into Mineola on that insanity.

I absolutely relished the 4+ mile stretch of Linden Blvd from 114th Street all the way through 216th Street. Granted it was morning both times (8ish AM today and about 10:00 AM yesterday). 115th Ave, Dutch Broadway, Meechum, and Stewart were all really nice riding roads. Nassau Blvd was easy both days, though I expected some trouble today since I left around Rush Hour, but was pleasantly surprised that it was a nice, easy stretch.

All in all, a great ride, enjoyable, laid back, relatively flat throughout, and I lucked out with wind since I had a head wind going, but it was pretty light and didn't slow me down.

Very scenic, too and nice to cycle in areas I never really did before.