Bicycle Ridership Over East River Bridges Reaches All-Time High for Fourth Straight Year

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IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 9, 2024
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Bicycle Ridership Over East River Bridges Reaches All-Time High for Fourth Straight Year

More Than 28,000 Cyclists Traveled Over the City's Four East River Bridges Each Day, on Average, in 2024-an 8.4 Percent Increase From Last Year

Each Bridge Experienced Ridership Growth As City Continues Delivering Safe Cycling Infrastructure

NYC DOT average daily cycling rates over the city's four East River Bridges. Credit: NYC DOT.

NEW YORK - New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez today announced bicycle ridership over the city's East River bridges has reached an all-time high for a fourth straight year. According to NYC DOT's annual bike traffic counts, which are conducted from April 1 to October 31 each year, an average of 28,108 cyclists crossed these city bridges each day. These bridges include the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Ed Koch Queensboro Bridges, and represent a key metric for judging city cycling rates. This year's record-breaking bridge ridership represents an 8.4 percent increase from the nearly 26,000 average daily riders recorded over the spans at the same time last year and, remarkably, 17 times greater than the ridership recorded in 1980, when the city first began recording bridge cycling levels in 1980. NYC DOT also recorded record cycling ridership through midtown; new data shows more than 43,800 cycling trips were recorded during an average 12-hour window across Manhattan avenues at 50th Street, a 12.5 percent increase compared to 2023.

"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. 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," said NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez. "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."

NYC DOT develops its daily cycling ridership for East River Bridges by averaging the total daily cycling volumes during warm-weather months, from April to October, excluding holidays and rainy days. Some other key takeaways from 2024 ridership:

• In 2024, each of the four bridges experienced ridership increases.
• The Brooklyn Bridge recorded the largest year-over-year ridership increase, from 4,769 average daily riders in 2023 to 5,504 this year-a 15.4 percent increase.
• The Williamsburg Bridge remains the busiest city bridge for cyclists, serving a daily average of 8,645 riders in 2024-an 11 percent increase from cycling ridership on the bridge last year.
• In September 2024, an average of 31,168 cyclists rode over the East River Bridges each day, marking the first time ever that daily bridge ridership eclipsed 30,000.
• The 1980 average of 1,635 daily cycling trips across all East River bridges is roughly the equivalent of the ridership recorded by the end of a weekday morning rush hour today on just the Brooklyn Bridge.

The ridership increases come as NYC DOT delivered a record-breaking number of protected bike lanes in 2023 and continues to build even more new protected bike lanes across the city in 2024. Many of these projects better connect riders between boroughs, including improved connections to each of the four East River bridges:

• The Brooklyn Bridge with the completion of protected bike lanes on Centre and Lafayette streets, in Manhattan;
• The Williamsburg Bridge with a new bike boulevard on Berry Street, in Brooklyn
• The Manhattan Bridge with a protected bike lane on Navy Street and Ashland Place, in Brooklyn; and
• The Queensboro Bridge with the completion of an initial protected bike lane network in Long Island City, Queens.

The record-breaking ridership also comes as NYC DOT and Lyft finished its phase 3 expansion of Citi Bike deeper into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. These projects encourage more New Yorkers to take up cycling, as evidenced by the significant 108 percent increase in daily cycling over the Brooklyn Bridge since 2021, when NYC DOT installed dedicated, two-way bike lanes on the Manhattan-bound roadway. As the Brooklyn Bridge experienced this dramatic uptick in ridership, cycling levels on the nearby Manhattan Bridge have continued to increase, suggesting the installation of the two-way bike lane has created new cycling trips.

In 2024, NYC DOT is continuing to improve East River bridge access with the widening of bike lane segments along 59 blocks of Manhattan's Second Avenue and the agency also expanded cycling access between boroughs with a new two-way bike path over the Washington Bridge that opened earlier this year to better connect cyclists between upper Manhattan and the Bronx.

For 2025, NYC DOT will begin major bike and public space improvements along Delancey Street in Manhattan, to better connect riders to the Williamsburg Bridge, and on the Queensboro Bridge, the agency will double the amount of cycling and pedestrian space on the span.

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