As I landed in LaGuardia, things did not look good for my planned trip into the city by bike:  it was gray and raining, and radar showed more rain on the way.  I collected my checked Brompton folding bike and eyed the taxi stand.  Despite the directions from the airport to Manhattan Google provided, I wasn’t up for a rainy ride.  As I pondered my options, the rain lightened and finally stopped.  So I took the bike out of it’s bag, folded the bag around my dress coat to keep it dry and attached it to the back of the bike (at right) and took off.

I’m glad I did.  After some route finding challenges leaving the airport, the ride was easy and fun.  It is basically a flat ride except for a gentle rise up the Queensboro bridge shown above.  You leave LaGuardia on 94th, take a right on 34th onto the bike lane, and follow the signs to the Queensboro bridge.  With stops for sightseeing and photos it took about an hour--far easier than biking from SeaTac to downtown Seattle and more scenic too.

Granted it was a Sunday on a holiday weekend, so there was very little traffic and no bike commuters, but there were lots of folks on recreational rides to help me anticipate turns.  The route takes a few zigs and zags to stay out of busy intersections.  There is a bike map app for the iPhone to help with route finding.  However once you are in Manhattan, the east-west route changes to “planned” and you have to use some sidewalks on 59th to get to Central Park.  Once there, I followed the pedicabs (and horse drawn carriages) to my hotel.  The hotel is a great, inexpensive but fashionable place called Hudson NY.

New York has gained quite a reputation for being a bike friendly city.  It is home to David Byrne of Talking Heads and a bike advocate, and Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms.  I’m going to explore it by bike today, July Fourth.