vol

Is anyone familiar with riding on Queens Blvd? It's a wide road, but maybe too many cars and they run fast? There is at least one fatal accident on the Queens Blvd I saw on the ghost bike site, though he was running the red light.

SBinNYC

There's a big problem in crossing Queens Blvd on a bike.

The transition time for green to red on a NYC traffic light is 4.5 seconds (3.0 sec yellow and 1.5 sec both sides red). A bike going at 10 mph will traverse 66 feet in 4.5 seconds. Queens Blvd is 170 feet wide from curb to curb. That means a bike seeing a green light and trying to cross Queens Blvd may get only 39% across the roadway before cross traffic sees a green light. If there's a collision, it's not all that obvious that the bike was running a red light.

There are some other problems. If the biker saw a light changing while he was crossing, then he might stop at one of the traffic islands. However, lights for cross traffic extend for only half the crossing width. Thus after a bike rider crosses half the boulevard, he is potentially in no-man's land. He's got no clue that the light may have changed while he was crossing.

It's worse for streets that cross at a diagonal. The crossing at 51st Ave is 390 feet. The crossing at 69th St, the location of a Ghost Bicycle, is 180 feet wide.

51st Ave is my preferred route to Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn. My failsafe technique for crossing Queens Blvd is wait for a red light and cross only when that red light turns green. That way I'm sure that I will have the full green cycle and enough time to cross.

vol

Thanks for the information! Your knowledge of this blvd. is incredible!

That's exactly where the accident I referred to happened.

So far you were talking about crossing the Queens blvd. What about riding on it, safety-wise? If you want to go from the close-to-Manhattan side of Queens to the western side (E/F/R trains direction), what is the best way?

AdamDZ

There is a reason Queens Blvd is known as the Blvd of Death. It has some of the highest rate of pedestrian deaths and I suppose it's not that much safer for cyclists. Ironically, one of NYC cycling advocates was killed while crossing the Queens Blvd and yes, he run a red light. Perhaps that's the ghost bike you saw. I used to live in Forest Hills and avoided the Blvd at all cost. Perhaps it has changed for the better in the last few years, but I doubt it's much safer.

vol

Oh my, didn't know that! Thanks for mentioning this! I rode only once right up to the 69th st, but I walked across the blvd. I usually like wide road and thought it not a bad blvd. to take. (The link in my last post is probably about the advocate you were referring to?)

FattyArbuckle

The fatality rate is down from what used to be an average of 10 people per year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Boulevard#History

If I'm on QB, it's always for less than a mile, during daylight, & obviously only on the pothole-ridden service road. Or I'm crossing it, preferably not @ Yellowstone where it's 16 lanes wide. What a monster...

I don't think there's an easy way. I use this route to stay as close to QB as possible but stay on mostly residential roads. Unfortunately you gotta use a footbridge across the L.I.E. though. There's probably a better way out there...

Somebody on this site once said the street layout of Queens was made by a spider on LSD. At first I agreed, but after a summer of riding here, I guess that's what happens when you have a lot of pre-existing obstacles like criss-crossing railways, highways, industrial areas, cemeteries, and farms. Particularly in central Queens there are a lot of neighborhood pockets where there are only a couple ways in or out.

v70cat

Yes QB is not a good place to ride and I avoid it. I do ride the sidewalk over the train tracks to access the 59th St bridge.

v70cat

Going for a bike ride right now it is 33 degrees, I will see how my new booties and related cold weather gear perform.

v70cat

Photo of Bayside near Fort Totten. It was a great day for a ride.

v70cat

Here is a story about a commuter/rider from Queens

SBinNYC

That depends on the locations in Manhattan and Queens and what your definition of "better" is.

For midtown, UES and UWS locations in Manhattan and locations in Queens north of Metropolitan and Jamaica Aves, the Queensboro is probably the shortest and most direct route.

For Manhattan areas below Houston, I've prefer using the WB even though I live new LGA. Similarly, people going to/from southern Queens may prefer using one of the downtown bridges and riding across Brooklyn. There are not decent connections between the Queensboro and southern Queens. Newtown Creek gets in the way.

Not the Slowest

Hmmm, QB may not be as bad as some of you make it. In fact I can tell you that part are much safer for cyclists than many pedestrians.
My commute from teh 59th St Bridge to the end of QB(not today) allows me to see the good and bad of the roadway and actually I find it a very easy and fast morning commute. Since most major stores do not open until after 9am and are on the opposite side of the roadway I can fly towards Jamaica. The most dangerous areas are by Highway entrances for the BQE, LIE and Van Wyck. Knowing
where they are simply requires you to stay to the LEFT most lane. My return commute does have the issue of many more cars in the service lanes and bottle necks by Queens Center Mall etc.
Are there better=safer ways to go back towards the city, Yes. I leave those for the warmer days when a longer ride is less of an issue and a Subway bailout is not a factor (ie Mechanical or similar).

As my commute can take an 1:40 or so and is 23 miles, I like to choose QB as my "known" evil. Other routes with Stop signs allow too many chances for drivers to run them
and thus run me over.

Rob

v70cat

Another day another ride and photo

nvincent

I rode that path a few times during the summer and fall. It's a really nice ride but it can get a little congested at times with all the joggers and people walking their dogs. My bell doesn't always get them to move out of the way, so a lot of times there's a bottleneck and I have to hit my brakes unnecessarily. It gets quieter going northbound towards Fresh Meadows, but then I get all these squirrels darting across the path right in front of me. One time for sure I didn't think I would brake in time and I would get a mangled squirrel in my spokes. But at the last second it did some crazy acrobatic move and jumped out of the way.

nvincent

LOL, I've had the pleasure of almost crashing into her as well. She should just do like the rest of them and stick to that jazzercise dance routine they do on the grass.

v70cat

I was riding the Motor Parkway path about a week ago and startled a lady as I passed. She yells ass, yet I did nothing wrong? Funny how walkers and riders are supposed to share the path and I was a "ass".

They have a sign asking riders to go slow but nothing asking the walkers to share the path.

v70cat

Snow, today I wanted to get out for a ride but we are supposed to get over 10 inches of snow.

I guess I will set-up the trainer and give it a run. Got to work off some of the holiday weight.

AdamDZ

Studded tires?
Check....
Snowboarding goggles?
Check...
Sealskinz?
Check...
Amfib bibs?
Check...

Looking forward to riding my bike tomorrow morning

AdamDZ

Uh oh.... announcing defeat! Snow is knee-deep and the streets aren't plowed yet here.

10 Wheels

You walking?

v70cat

Tuesday is a better shot.

sourdoughT

I was looking forward to your tale of conquest!!

AdamDZ

Nah. Stayed home My train wasn't running either, so....

AdamDZ

Well, tomorrow will be a challenge too, I'm sure. Although, plows finally made it to my neighborhood so hopefully by morning more streets should be passable.

AdamDZ

OK, I made it today without any problems. I took sidewalks to the main streets that were plowed, but since the sidewalks along those were buried under piles of snow pedestrians walked on roadways which force the few cars out there to drive slowly and carefully. I had to walk through piles of snow twice maybe. Some blocks had hard packed snow which wasn't bad and the Williamsburg Bridge bikeway was plowed and salted! So it was slow and harder than normal (30psi, studded tires) it was actually kind of fun. But I'm going to leave early so I can ride still during daylight.