How New York City Transformed Its Streets: Bike Lanes, Safety, and the Power of Advocacy

An Ex-New Yorker Returns to NYC, Discovering Modern Bike Lanes, and the City’s Best Bagels

Returning to New York City in 2025 wasn’t just a visit. It was a homecoming with purpose. I came back to the city I love for three reasons. 

First, for me: to reconnect with the place where I went to college, launched my career, and got married.  A city that shaped me in ways no other place ever could.

Second, as a mom: to show my son, an aspiring young chef, the neighborhoods, restaurants, and culinary world that might become his future home as he interviews for jobs, explores culinary programs, and takes in a city completely unlike the Southern California life he grew up in.

Third, as Bike Legal’s bicycle advocate and blog writer: to understand firsthand how New York’s bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure has evolved, and to meet the people and advocacy groups behind the transformation.

Meanwhile, my son and I were doing what so many visitors and locals do best. We were eating our way through Manhattan and Brooklyn. From authentic neighborhood bagel shops to the kind of slice you can only find in New York, our trip doubled as a culinary adventure.

With 12,000 to 20,000 steps a day, we walked nearly every block we could and took in the unique mix of smells, sounds, and energy that only New York delivers.

Favorite Pizzerias:  L’industrie in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, and Joe’s Pizza in Greenwich Village

Favorite slices: The Spicy Salami, the Burrata, and the Fig Jam & Bacon slice, and classic pepperoni

Much of the city felt the same including that familiar, chaotic sensory overload I remembered so well. The steam rising from subway grates, the nonstop honking of taxis, the skyscrapers towering so high they swallow sound and light.

But two things had changed in ways I couldn’t ignore.

First, the skyline. When I lived here, the World Trade Center anchored lower Manhattan and served as my compass. These twin towers were the landmark I used to orient myself and the building where I landed my internship and first real job. That skyline is now marked by an absence that still aches, and by the soaring Freedom Tower that rose in its place.

Second, the sheer number of e-bikes and micromobility. They are everywhere now.  Amazon e-cargo bikes, delivery carts, DoorDash delivery, commuters, teenagers, older adults, and families, all moving through the city in a way that simply didn’t exist when I lived here.

New York evolves constantly, but somehow, it always manages to feel unmistakably like New York. To really understand how far it has come, I had to go back to what the city felt like when I first called it home.

New York City in the 1990s: A City Built for Cars, Not People

When I lived in New York from 1989 to 2000, I was a college kid in Brooklyn and later a young professional in Manhattan who got around exactly the way every broke New Yorker did: with subway tokens or MetroCard, tired feet, and the kind of street intuition you can’t teach in a classroom. Owning a car was impractical. Parking garages were unaffordable, and finding street parking was like winning the lottery.

A Pedestrian’s Nightmare

Crossing the street back then was not for the faint of heart. You didn’t “enter” the crosswalk; you stepped off the curb with hope and a Hail Mary of making it across unscathed. Cars ruled the streets, and everyone knew it. Drivers didn’t slow down, pedestrians learned to speed up.

When I moved to Laguna Beach, CA, in 2000, I was stunned watching Californians stroll into a crosswalk expecting traffic to stop for them, and the traffic did. It felt like watching an alternate universe.

My Prized 1983 Schwinn in a City With Zero Bike Infrastructure

On weekends, I pulled my beloved 1983 Schwinn 10-speed off the wall rack of my tiny apartment for adventures in the great outdoors. I would ride from my Fort Greene neighborhood to Far Rockaway Beach, or over the Brooklyn Bridge through the streets of Manhattan to Central Park. If time were an issue, laps around my local Prospect Park would suffice. 

I participated in the NYC Five Borough Bike Tour which opened my eyes to what riding 40 miles in the city without vehicle danger would be like, for a day at least. 

Riding my bike through New York was my freedom and ability to explore, in a city that offered cyclists zero safety in return.

There were:

• no protected bike lanes
• few painted bike lanes
• no buffer
• no mercy

You claimed your inch of pavement shared with congested traffic and hoped for the best. 

Public Transportation for the Win, Well, Sort Of…

The Subway

The subway was (and still is) the lifeblood of the city, and a sensory assault. A maze of underground train tunnels filled with rats the size of house cats, the eau de urine-and-garbage signature scent, and a soundtrack of screeching brakes and thundering rails.

During the day? Fast and usually safe and efficient.

At night? A totally different story of long wait times where danger lurked behind every stairwell.

I’ll never forget watching a rat crawl up a man’s pant leg as he waited on a bench across the platform. I was headed back to Brooklyn at 1:00am from my waitress shift in Greenwich Village. This wasn’t just any guy; he was big and tough, a tattooed gangster, the type who looked like he ate fear for breakfast. But when that rat hit mid-calf, he screamed like his soul was leaving his body. And there I was, trying not to laugh because I valued my life. 

New York had a way of knocking everyone down a peg.

The Buses

Buses were the “my feet hurt, I’m wearing heels, and it’s too far to walk” option. They were essential for crosstown trips or awkward subway gaps, but they were also painfully slow. With few dedicated bus lanes, buses crawled behind traffic, while riders anxiously glanced at their watches.

New York in the 1990s wasn’t designed for safety, especially not for cyclists or pedestrians. And that’s precisely why my most recent return was so surprising. And honestly? Inspiring.

How New York City Has Transformed Since the Early 2000s

Returning in 2025, I was impressed by how dramatically New York City’s streets had changed. The place where I once fought for space in traffic now has a transportation system that actually considers people on bikes and on foot.

New York City’s First Protected Bike Lane: Ninth Avenue, 2007

New York City’s first modern protected bike lane was installed in 2007 along Ninth Avenue between 23rd and 16th Streets in Manhattan. Built by NYC DOT, it was also the first parking-protected and signal-protected bike lane in the United States. The project transformed a wide, car-dominated corridor by reducing vehicle lanes, adding pedestrian refuge islands, and creating a protected bikeway separated by an eight-foot parking buffer.

Its success proved that protected bike lanes could work in a dense city and became the model for many of the protected lanes New Yorkers rely on today.

Micromobility Has Exploded Since 2020

Citi Bikes, e-bikes, regular bikes, and e-scooters fill the streets, a far cry from the days when cycling was a fringe act of bravery.

Intersections Are Designed for Safety

Curb extensions, daylighting, and pedestrian-first signals are emerging to replace the chaotic and dangerous crossings I remember.

Walking Feels More Intentional

Wider sidewalks, pedestrian only plazas, and traffic-calmed areas make many parts of the city far more welcoming than in the ’90s.

The city isn’t perfect, and plenty of streets still feel dangerous. But the progress is undeniable, and that progress is now being recognized on a national scale.

Brooklyn Leads the Nation in Bicycle Safety: PeopleForBikes City Ratings

Brooklyn is now the #1 large city for biking in the entire United States. Yes, Brooklyn. The same borough where I was nearly doored or hit by cars on my Schwinn now tops the national list with a score of 72.

For the first time, PeopleForBikes evaluated New York City by borough, and the results say everything about how far the city has come:

• Brooklyn: #1 (score 72)
  
• Queens: #4 (score 63)
  
• Manhattan: #10 (score 51)

So how did Brooklyn rise to the top?

A massive, connected, low-stress bike network. New York City now has 1,550 miles of bike lanes, paths, and greenways, the largest bicycle network in North America, and Brooklyn has more bike lane miles than any other borough.

It’s also one of the few places where you’re never biking alone. The explosion of ridership is real: daily cycling trips jumped from 240,000 in 2008 to 620,000 in 2023, totaling more than 226 million bike trips last year. With a borough-wide 25 mph speed limit and protected lanes spreading through neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy, biking in Brooklyn has become fast, reliable, and accessible to riders of all ages.

As one Transportation Alternatives spokesperson put it, “There is safety in numbers. Drivers expect to see bikes here.” And they do, everywhere.

Brooklyn’s success isn’t just infrastructure. It’s also culture: community rides, inclusive bike clubs, car-free loops in Prospect Park, and greenways that give you waterfront views you’d never get from the subway.

Brooklyn didn’t just build bike lanes. It built a system, a community, and a model for the rest of the country. It’s the type of bike lanes and bicycle infrastructure that make the difference. 

And yet, even with all this progress, the safety picture is still far from perfect.

The Current State of Bicycle Safety in New York City

Even with all the progress New York City has made, the streets are still far from truly safe for vulnerable road users and pedestrians. Walking through Manhattan and Brooklyn, I saw a city transformed, yet still struggling with deadly gaps in its network. Traffic violence remains a crisis in New York City.

Cycling in New York City: More Riders, More Risk

Transportation Alternatives’ data makes it clear. Cyclist deaths and serious injuries due to bicycle crashes are rising.

• In 2023, 444 cyclists were killed or seriously injured, a 48% increase since 2018.
  
• Over that same period, bike ridership increased by 22%, driven by e-bikes and the Citi Bike bike share program.

More people are choosing bikes due to the availability of affordable e-bikes and bike share, but infrastructure lags, and too many riders remain unprotected.

Most Deaths Happen Where Protection Doesn’t Exist

The pattern is devastatingly consistent:

• In 2024, 25 cyclists were killed in New York City.
  
• 85% of those deaths occurred on streets without protected bike lanes.

Protected Lanes Work, But New York City Barely Has Them

Protected bike lanes dramatically reduce fatalities and injuries even as ridership grows.

Yet only 2% of New York City streets actually have one.

Two percent of New York City streets have protected bicycle lanes, in a city of more than 8 million people.

Those numbers make one thing very clear. If New York is going to continue moving in the right direction, it will be because of the people and organizations who never stopped fighting for safer streets. In order to make changes you must first understand the challenges of bicycle safety in New York.

The Movement Behind the Change: Transportation Alternatives

Transportation Alternatives is the driving force behind New York’s shift toward safer, people-focused streets. For more than 50 years, TA has organized neighbors, pushed policymakers, and fought to make walking and biking safer in every borough.

The Radical Beginning

Transportation Alternatives didn’t start as a polished nonprofit. It began in 1972 as Action Against Automobiles, a group of cyclists and planners who were simply fed up with cars swallowing every inch of New York’s public space. Led by city planner David Gurin, they staged protest rides through Manhattan, calling for bike lanes, safer streets, and a city that prioritized people over traffic.

At the time, these demands were treated like heresy. But TA didn’t care. They pushed anyway.

By 1973, with a grant from the Kaplan Fund, TA officially launched and began planting the seeds of a movement that would reshape the city for decades.

Early Wins That Sparked a Revolution

The first TA ride in 1973 drew more than 400 cyclists. Red Grooms illustrated the flyer. Pete Seeger played in Washington Square Park. The New York Times covered it.

Their demand? A connected network of bike lanes in New York City, something unthinkable at the time.

That spark became a wildfire.

Turning “Never” Into Reality

Over fifty years, TA pushed for and won changes once considered impossible:

• A car-free Central Park
  
• A car-free Prospect Park
  
• Speed safety cameras in school zones
  
• The redesign of Queens Boulevard (“The Boulevard of Death”)
  
• Citi Bike- bike share program, now an essential part of daily life
  
• A bike lane across the Brooklyn Bridge
  
• The Open Streets movement

Every win came after years of organizing, data, protests, rallies, and relentless community pressure. These weren’t policy nudges; they were paradigm shifts.

Families for Safe Streets: Turning Grief Into Action

In 2014, after too many preventable tragedies, TA helped launch Families for Safe Streets, a group of crash survivors and families whose loved ones were killed or injured in traffic violence. Their stories are deeply emotional, raw, and impossible to ignore. And their advocacy has changed laws, reshaped public opinion, and shown exactly why safe streets aren’t optional; they are lifesaving.

Organizing Across All Five Boroughs

Today, TA runs more than 20 hyper-local campaigns across the city, pushing for:

• New bike lanes
  
• Safer intersections
  
• Daylighting
  
• Better transit priority
  
• Traffic-calming
  
• Equity in public space

They pair neighborhood-level activism with national-level leadership. This combination, grassroots plus big vision, is why New York’s streets look the way they do now. I felt that energy firsthand when I stepped into a room full of these advocates in Brooklyn.

Attending the Transportation Alternatives Advocacy Awards & Member Mixer

On my first day back in New York, I received an email invitation from Transportation Alternatives to attend their Advocacy Awards and Member Mixer in Brooklyn on November 13th. It felt like perfect timing, so I went.

The room was filled with an eclectic mix of New Yorkers: TA staff, community members, borough advocates, and city employees, all united by a shared mission of safer streets and equitable, affordable transportation for everyone. The evening started with a casual meet-and-greet, followed by cocktails and appetizers. Within minutes, I was connecting with people who have been fighting for safer infrastructure and those who wanted to become involved.

The awards ceremony honored advocates from each borough whose work has genuinely changed their neighborhoods. It was inspiring to see every day New Yorkers recognized for years of persistence and community organizing.

The event took place at Other Half Brewing along the Williamsburg waterfront, with incredible views of Manhattan and the Williamsburg Bridge. Standing on the Riverwalk, it was impossible not to feel hopeful about what’s possible when a city of this size commits to safer streets.

That perspective stayed with me as I thought about how New York compares to another place I know well, Los Angeles.  I left NYC in 2000 for Southern California, where I resided for 21 years, raised a family, rode my first century, and formed a women’s race team and club.

New York City vs. Los Angeles Transportation: Why Their Streets Evolved Differently

To understand why New York is making progress while Los Angeles struggles, it helps to look at how both cities developed and how advocacy shaped their streets.

Los Angeles Was Built for Cars

Los Angeles expanded outward across a massive footprint. The region relied on driving from the start, supported by one of the world's most extensive freeway systems. Distances are long, development is spread out, and public transit has never kept pace with the city’s scale. Driving became the default way of life.

New York Grew Differently, But Not Without a Fight

New York City is bound by waterways, dense and vertical, which naturally support transit and walking. But this does not mean the city embraced bike lanes or road diets early on. For decades, New York’s streets were just as car-dominated as Los Angeles's. The shift toward safer, people-focused design happened only because of long, persistent advocacy.

Transportation Alternatives pushed for every protected bike lane, every car-free park, every speed camera, and every safety redesign. None of this was handed down from City Hall. It was earned through organizing, protests, policy work, and constant public pressure.

Different Cultures, But Similar Challenges

New Yorkers walk and ride more because the city’s layout allows it. Angelenos drive more because distances are larger and the built environment requires it. But both cities face the same safety issues on dangerous, fast-moving roads.

Los Angeles Is Beginning to Shift

Despite its car-focused history, Los Angeles voters approved Measure HLA, which requires the city to add bike, bus, and pedestrian improvements during repaving projects. This shows that residents want safer streets and better options, even in a city known for driving.

CalBike’s statewide advocacy has created the foundation for much of this momentum. From modern e-bike legislation to pushing for protected bikeways and safer street standards, CalBike helps set the policy direction for cities across California. In Los Angeles, their work strengthens local campaigns and gives advocates the resources and legislative backing they need to push for meaningful change.

The Future of New York City Streets Under Mayor Zohran Mamdani

New York City is on the edge of another major shift. In January 2026, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will take office and assume control over 6,300 miles of streets and nearly 50,000 intersections. His administration will shape how millions of New Yorkers move every day.

Zohran Mamdani: Love Him or Hate Him, Here Is the Good He Can Do for NYC

No matter where New Yorkers stand politically, the future of the city’s streets will hinge on what Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani chooses to prioritize. Traffic violence continues to take lives, protected bike lanes cover only a small portion of city streets, and many neighborhoods still lack safe, connected options for walking, biking, or taking transit. Mamdani now has a rare opportunity to accelerate the work that advocates, especially Transportation Alternatives, have pushed for over 50 years.



Transportation Alternatives has provided a clear and actionable blueprint. If he chooses to follow it, New York could take its most meaningful step yet toward creating streets that protect everyone.

Immediate Priorities for the First 100 Days

Transportation Alternatives outlines several steps the new mayor can take right away:

• Lower speed limits to 20 mph on eligible streets under Sammy’s Law
  
• Relaunch NY Vision Zero with a renewed focus on street design and engineering
  
• Fast-track redesigns of the city’s most dangerous corridors
  
• Establish one fully redesigned Vision Zero demonstration district
  
• Require speed limiters for drivers who repeatedly speed in school zones
  
• Implement universal daylighting to improve visibility at intersections

These early actions could quickly reduce injuries and create a foundation for broader systemic change.

Key Opportunities for the First Term

Longer-term goals that could reshape the city include:

• Re-timing traffic signals to align with local speed limits
  
• Expanding automated enforcement for failure to yield, blocked bike lanes, and block-the-box violations
  
• Closing slip lanes to slow vehicle turns
  
• Creating low-traffic neighborhoods similar to those used in London
  
• Adjusting vehicle registration fees to account for heavier, more dangerous vehicles
  
• Improving lighting and ensuring snow removal at sidewalks and bus stops

These changes would help address the chronic safety issues that persist across all five boroughs.

A Real Chance to Transform Cycling

New York has made significant progress, but its bike network is still inconsistent and incomplete. Mamdani’s administration could:

• Build a connected bike network within a quarter mile of every residence
  
• Standardize protected bike lane design across all boroughs
  
• Launch a citywide secure bike parking program
  
• Expand Citi Bike with dedicated city funding
  
• Install protected bike intersections
  
• Complete long-planned greenway connectors along the waterfront and between boroughs

These steps would make biking safe and accessible for far more New Yorkers.

Congestion Pricing Proved Change Is Possible

The launch of congestion pricing in 2025 removed 87,000 cars per day from lower Manhattan and provided $15 billion for transit upgrades. Even after decades of resistance, the program succeeded once it became real. It showed that a bold transportation policy can work in New York and can quickly improve mobility and safety.

Cities Around the World Show What Is Possible

Paris added more than 600 miles of protected bike lanes in just over a decade, dramatically increased cycling rates, and reduced traffic injuries and air pollution. New York has the density, demand, and advocacy strength to achieve similar outcomes if the next administration commits to it.

A Pivotal Moment for New York City

The next four years will determine whether New York continues its evolution toward a safer, more people-focused city or slows at a time when momentum matters most. The infrastructure is improving, advocacy is strong, and public support for safer streets is clearer than ever.

What the city needs now is sustained leadership that chooses safety, affordability, and mobility for everyone who walks, bikes, and relies on the city’s streets to live their daily lives.

But What About That Bagel?

When I lived in New York in the 1990s, the best bagel was simply the one you grabbed at your neighborhood deli as you rushed to work. For me, it was always an everything or sesame bagel piled with smoked whitefish salad or lox and cream cheese. There was no social media viral list to consult. 

Today, Instagram and TikTok flood our feeds with influencers declaring the best bagel in the city and where to find it. That was the generational divide between my 23-year-old son and his much older mom. I preferred the bagel shops we stumbled upon, the ones that felt authentic, familiar, and unbothered by trends. He scrolled through reels and reviews, determined to try whatever the internet crowned king.

In the end, every bagel we tried was both delicious and unique in its toasted crunch, delicate center, and flavors of the ingredients.  It reflected the way food shapes New York and brings people together connecting the city’s many cultures.

Favorite bagel shops: Black Seed Bagels in the Chelsea Market, and Brooklyn Bagel and Coffee 

Favorite bagels: Pastrami, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel, Sesame bagel with smoked whitefish salad

Reflections on a City That Continues to Evolve

Coming back to New York made one thing clear: this city is adaptable and always evolving, yet it still holds the grit, energy, and magic only a true New Yorker understands. That magic lies in its resilience, community, and advocacy to protect the safety and way of life for all New Yorkers, no matter how they choose to live, work, or move throughout the city.

As a mom, I saw the spark of magic ignite in my son as he felt the city's heartbeat and the desire to build his dream here. That moment alone made the trip worth every mile.

And as the Marketing Manager, blog writer, and bicycle safety advocate at Bike Legal, I left feeling inspired. New York has transformed in the best possible ways. Protected bike lanes, calmer intersections, and thousands more people walking and biking are now woven into the fabric of daily life. These changes didn’t happen by accident. They exist because groups like Transportation Alternatives spent decades organizing, fighting, and refusing to accept dangerous streets as an inevitable part of urban living.

Still, the work isn’t finished. Bicycle and pedestrian injuries remain high. Many neighborhoods lack connected bike networks. Too many families continue to experience the devastation of traffic violence. But what gives me hope is the momentum. New Yorkers are demanding safer, more affordable ways to get around. Advocacy is strong. The blueprint for a truly people-centered transportation system is already on the table.

Will New York become the national model for pedestrian and bicycle safety? I believe it can.

For me, the magic of New York has never faded. I know I’ll be back more often—next time with my bike, continuing my search for the best bagel in the city.

Bike Legal: Here for You While Advocating for Bicycle Safety and Cyclists’ Rights

Even with improved bicycle infrastructure, expanding protected bike lanes, and the efforts of advocacy groups, bicycle crashes still happen. Distracted drivers, unsafe road conditions, and negligent behavior can lead to serious injuries and long-term impacts on your life. That is where Bike Legal steps in.

We handle everything so you can focus on healing. Our team represents cyclists and fights for maximum compensation and the highest level of client care. If you need a New York City bicycle accident attorney, we are here to help. Read our reviews and case results to see why injured cyclists choose Bike Legal.



📞 Call 877-BIKE LEGAL (877-245-3534) for a free consultation with an experienced New York bicycle accident lawyer.