{"id":167144,"date":"2026-03-18T12:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T12:26:11","slug":"bike-40-miles-of-nyc-with-no-cars-at-the-5-boro-bike-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/167144\/","title":{"rendered":"Bike 40 miles of NYC with no cars at the 5 Boro Bike Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 48th TD Five Boro Bike Tour<\/a> will be wheeling its way through New York City on May 3 on 40 miles of auto-free streets, an annual event that draws 32,000 riders from 50 states, 40 countries \u2014 and Long Island. <\/p>\n

Among this year\u2019s local entrants will be Jason McGowan, 53, of Lindenhurst, who first participated two years ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cRiding a bicycle in Manhattan without any cars \u2014 it\u2019s surreal,\u201d said McGowan, an Amityville High School special education teacher and East Islip High School\u00a0 varsity girls softball coach.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s tour will be especially meaningful for McGowan because he\u2019s riding with his daughter, Jayde, 15, in memory of his 9-year-old daughter, Laney, who died in December<\/a> of Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. <\/p>\n

The bike tour, first held in 1977, has become a world-class event attracting riders from as far away as Australia, said Ken Podziba, chief executive of tour organizer Bike New York, a nonprofit bicycling education and advocacy group. Podziba, who grew up in Oceanside, said the \u201cnon-competitive\u201d event draws cyclists aged \u201c4 to 80\u201d who can ride at their own pace and stop along the route to take photographs for social media. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely the best way of seeing New York City,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The first wave of cyclists leaves at 7:30 a.m. from Manhattan\u2019s TriBeCa neighborhood. They\u2019ll pedal uptown through Central Park, passing by cheering crowds, landmarks like the Empire State Building\u00a0and entertainment by a gospel choir in Harlem and an Afro-Puerto Rican band in the Bronx. Energy bars, fruit and water will be available at rest areas along the route, Podziba said. <\/p>\n

After a midway rest stop at Astoria Park in Astoria, Queens, the ride continues on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway \u2014 also closed to auto traffic \u2014 across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in Brooklyn to finish at Fort Wadsworth, part of the Gateway National Recreation Area on Staten Island. <\/p>\n

Chris Westad, 72, of Kings Park, who said he has completed approximately 30 tours since the 1990s, will return again for a ride that he said brings back childhood memories of \u201cthe feeling of freedom being on a bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

WHEN AND WHERE<\/p>\n

The 48th TD Five Borough Bike Tour, Sunday, May 3. Entry points are in lower Manhattan and vary by wave.<\/p>\n

COST<\/p>\n

Standard registration is $178.92; VIP registration is $485.44 and covers official swag, breakfast, VIP lounge access and other perks.<\/p>\n

GETTING THERE<\/p>\n

Riders are required to check in 1\u00a0hour before their assigned start time, according to tour officials. The Long Island Rail Road provides early morning service to Penn Station. From there you can bicycle to lower Manhattan, or take the subway downtown on the 1, 2, 3 or A, C, E trains, Tour officials say.<\/p>\n

TIPS FOR FIRST-TIMERS<\/p>\n

Any human-powered, pedaled bicycle can be used on the tour, including recumbent and tandem bikes, unicycles, tricycles and Class 1 pedal-assist e-bikes. All riders are required to wear a helmet.<\/p>\n

Rentals are available through official tour vendor Unlimited Biking, which will deliver a bike to you near the starting line and pick it up at the finish. 212-749-4444, unlimitedbiking.com<\/a>, $75 -$349.<\/p>\n

The tour heads out rain or shine. Although the route is relatively flat and accommodates all skill levels, its recommended to practice on bike trails or in public parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 48th TD Five Boro Bike Tour will be wheeling its way through New York City on May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33204,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":["post-167144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-litravel","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}