{"id":235429,"date":"2026-05-18T16:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235429\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T16:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T16:08:07","slug":"dozens-of-uws-cyclists-stage-community-ride-in-support-of-proposed-72nd-street-bike-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/235429\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of UWS Cyclists Stage Community Ride in Support of Proposed 72nd Street Bike Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cyclists at the beginning of Saturday\u2019s UWS ride\/rally. Photos by Lily Seltz<\/p>\n

By Lily Seltz<\/p>\n

Soundtracked by a tinny chorus of bike bells and cries of \u201crolling,\u201d more than 50 people cycled from West 66th Street and Riverside Boulevard to Central Park on Saturday to show their support for a proposed two-way bike lane along West 72nd Street.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s recent proposal, which would connect the Hudson River Greenway, Central Park, and the East River Greenway, has been met by intense opposition<\/a> from some Upper West Siders, who argued at a rally earlier this month that the lane would endanger pedestrians and make it harder for businesses to unload shipments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cyclists, including a few children, moved through the neighborhood traffic, headed for Central Park.<\/p>\n

Participants in Saturday\u2019s ride, ranging in age from young children to white-haired adults, countered that the bike lane would make one of the Upper West Side\u2019s busiest streets safer for cyclists, cars, and pedestrians alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s fatal crash<\/a> on West 108th Street, where, according to police, an intoxicated driver jumped the curb and hit multiple pedestrians, loomed large over Saturday\u2019s otherwise cheery proceedings. While the incident did not involve cyclists, bike lane proponents point to various<\/a> studies<\/a> that show a correlation between the presence of protected bike lanes and a decrease in fatalities and injuries for all road users, including pedestrians.<\/p>\n

This reporter cycled alongside the group to document the trip. At the start of the ride-along, orange-vested marshals led us north on Riverside Boulevard before making a right turn onto West 72nd Street. We proceeded slowly, making a full stop at each intersection, while the adults in the group kept an eye on the youngest cyclists\u2019 occasional swivels and swerves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the time we reached Broadway, the posse of cyclists had become enough of a spectacle to draw extended glances, and a handful of cheers, from pedestrians on the sidewalk and at the crosswalks. Reactions were not wholly supportive: On Columbus Avenue, one passerby yelled \u201cGo back to Brooklyn!\u201d at the group, according to ride-along participant and Upper West Sider Austin Celestin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a short stay in Central Park, most of the cyclist group headed back along 72nd Street toward Riverside. Several offered their assessments of the Saturday event and the proposal for the 72nd Street bike lane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Murray, an UWS resident who said he often rides his bike to his downtown office during the summer, noted that opponents of the bike lane often express concern about out-of-control e-bikes endangering pedestrians. But he holds that danger from e-bikes is overemphasized relative to the \u201cfar greater\u201d danger posed by cars, which \u201cthe city\u2019s current infrastructure supports.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thirteen people in New York City have been killed by motorized 2-wheel vehicles (including e-bikes and motorcycles) this year as of April 19, according to NYPD data reported by AMNY<\/a>.\u00a0 But the city\u2019s Department of Transportation recorded<\/a> a total of 66 traffic fatalities as of May 10 this year. That number includes deaths caused by e-bikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Emily Jacobi addressing the crowd before the rally\u2019s start.<\/p>\n

Emily Jacobi, a senior organizer with Transportation Alternatives and one of the ride marshals, said that she wouldn\u2019t have felt comfortable leading a group\u2014especially one that included several children\u2014if the ride had taken place on a weekday, when 72nd Street is a \u201ccommuting corridor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really unsafe, and we can do better,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carl Mahaney, the director of Streetopia UWS, an organization that advocates for safe and healthy public spaces on the Upper West Side, said he thought the ride had been successful in combating what he believes is one of the biggest misconceptions related to the bike lane fight\u2014that \u201cnobody cycles.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mahaney was eager to push back against another argument made by bike lane opponents: that a bike lane would be bad for local businesses on West 72nd Street, including Tip Top Shoes, whose owner has spoken against<\/a> the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people can access your streets, when they can walk comfortably and enjoy their experience, people will come more often,\u201d Mahaney argued. \u201cIt\u2019s not just the regulars. You\u2019re going to get people who are out for a bike ride [and] tourists who are going from park to park.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin Celestin echoed Mahaney\u2019s point. \u201cPeople who are on bikes, they\u2019re customers too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cyclists at the beginning of Saturday\u2019s UWS ride\/rally. Photos by Lily Seltz By Lily Seltz Soundtracked by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-235429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235429","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=235429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}