Get on your bikes and ride … across a bridge! At least that is what New Yorkers are doing at an increasing rate, according to the city’s annual bike traffic count released on Monday.
The NYC Department of Transportation’s (NYC DOT) annual bike traffic count over the East Side bridges has reached an all-time high for a fourth consecutive year. The count, which is conducted from April 1 to Oct. 31 each year, recorded that an average of 28,108 cyclists crossed the localized spans in 2024.
The bridge tally provides a key metric for the city to judge cycling rates. This year’s record-breaking bridge ridership represents an 8.4% increase from the nearly 26,000 average daily riders recorded over the East River crossings at the same time last year.
DOT officials said that this year’s number is 17 times greater than the number of riders in 1980, when the city first began recording bridge cycling levels across the East River on the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridges.
“More and more New Yorkers are opting to get around by bike because it’s a fast, convenient, and safe way to travel around the city,” NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said. “Another year of record-breaking ridership over our four iconic East River bridges illustrates how NYC DOT’s efforts to build safe cycling spaces has spurred tremendous growth. We look forward to continuing this bike boom, which is good for our environment, the health of New Yorkers, and for reducing New Yorkers’ dependence on congestion-causing vehicles.”
Of four bridges that were counted, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge — unsurprisingly — was the most popular this year. The world-famous crossing saw the largest year-over-year ridership increase from 4,769 average daily riders in 2023 to 5,504 in 2024 (15.4%).
But the Williamsburg Bridge did well with cyclists, too. It remained the busiest for bridge bikers, and this year, an impressive daily average of 8,645 cyclists crossed the span— an 11% increase from last year.
More New Yorkers use bikes than ever before
To put things into historical perspective, an average of only 1,635 bike trips took place each day across the bridges in 1980 — almost the same number of trips made today during the weekday morning rush hour on the Brooklyn Bridge alone.
It is not all about the bridges, though. The DOT also tracks bike ridership in Midtown, Manhattan. This year’s data shows more than 43,000 cycling trips took place during an average 12-hour window acrosss several Manhattan avenues at 50th Street, which the city said is up 13% from 2023.
DOT officials credit the increase in biking to the installation of more protected bike lanes last year, even though NYC Mayor Eric Adams missed legally mandated bike lane benchmarks for the second year in a row in 2023, according to DOT statistics.
Meanwhile, the city’s many cyclists continue to enjoy biking in city streets, bridges and parks.
Dom Lucente, an avid cyclist from Staten Island, said biking is a great way to get around the city, and he has met many like-minded people while cycling on and off through the years.
But three years ago he purchased a bike and kicked his active hobby up a notch, biking through local woods, on streets and even across Staten Island’s Goethals and Bayonne Bridges.
“I really just enjoy being out in the woods, having that freedom to be out there and just relax,” he said. “I realized that it cleared my head. You don’t realize you’re using so many different muscle groups, your arms, your legs, your back. And you’re thinking about we’re going going so your mind is not centered around the rest of the world.”
Over the previous three years, he increased his time on his wheels and even joined a community of mountain bikers.
“They’re doing more than just mountain biking,” Lucente said. “And it’s really just a mental and physical positive thing. And now I’m an instructor and ride every weekend.”
Bike lane expansions
Meanwhile, the DOT and other city officials are continuing their crusade to update, widen, or install both protected and non-protected bike lanes throughout the Big Apple.
Most recently, the DOT announced a redesign plan that would make Broadway from 38th to 40th Streets in Manhattan nearly car-free, with two-way bike lanes from 39th to 40th Streets.
While not specifically bike-centered, the mayor also announced on Sunday a new $152.7 million vision for Manhattan’s iconic Fifth Avenue that includes reducing the number of traffic lanes from five to three and widening sidewalks by 46% between Central Park and Bryant Park.
