Posted on 05/05/23
| News Source: Forbes
Get ready, New York—get ready for 32,000 bicyclists taking to the streets of the five boroughs to celebrate the joys of pedaling with no cars or pedestrians.
It is the annual TD Five Boro Bike Tour, and in 2023 it lands on Sunday, May 7.
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This is the world’s second-largest bike event (you have to go to South Africa to see a larger one) and it has become as much a part of the New York scene as the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the New York City Marathon.
Biking? “It’s the best way to get from point A to point B,” says Ken Podziba, the president of Bike New York, which runs the tour.
Folks with a long memory might recall 1977, the ride’s first year, when all of 250 people showed up, led by police cars to clear traffic.
Now streets are closed for the thousands of riders. The tour covers 40 miles of streets in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Tourists and locals in the Big Apple can see the start in the Tribeca area and watch them head up much of Sixth Avenue.
“The future of New York is on two wheels,” says Mayor Eric Adams, perhaps a bit prematurely. But he’s a big fan and has been a rider on the tour for some years.