\n\t\tDiscover more local reporting on our homepage\t<\/a><\/p>\nFor the next three Saturdays in August, through August 22, with upcoming stops ending in Brooklyn and the Bronx, the Department of Transportation is shutting down major arteries to cars, transforming them into a moving festival of fitness, art, and community.<\/p>\n
Some pedaled all the way from Brooklyn just to soak it in, including two best friends who made the ride a regular tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy is high, the runners, the walkers, the people supporting everything. It\u2019s a beautiful event,\u201d one of them said.<\/p>\n
And that joy wasn\u2019t just for the grown-ups. Families turned the open streets into their own playground, with kids riding in the middle of the avenue and lifted high above the crowd.<\/p>\n
For John Briggs, Summer Streets is a family tradition. He\u2019s been bringing his four-and-a-half-year-old daughter every year, first in a stroller, then on a bike, and now, she\u2019s ready to ride on her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely important. It\u2019s really cool that this thing has expanded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That expansion is no accident. This year, Summer Streets hits all five boroughs, kicking off in Queens and Staten Island last weekend. The event features free programming from partners like New York Road Runners, Citi Bike, and local arts groups, plus rest stops every few blocks offering water and shade.<\/p>\n
For riders like the two friends, it comes down to one simple thing: they wouldn\u2019t trade a car-free morning for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re riding, we\u2019re on our bike because this is lovely, who doesn\u2019t like no cars?\u201d one of them said.<\/p>\n
For more information on Summer Streets, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (PIX11) \u2014 Sneakers hit the pavement and bike chains clicked where cars normally zoom as thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-311767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311767","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=311767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}