New York’s Five Boro Bike Tour Returns This Weekend, Along With Bridge, Tunnel, and Street Closures

A variable message sign on the Throgs Neck Bridge advising of the upcoming Five Boro Bike Tour
Sunday is the annual Five Boro Bike Tour in New York City and the city’s Department of Transportation is urging motorists to take public transportation or alternate roads to avoid bridge and road closures.
“Motorists are strongly advised to take mass transit or seek alternative routes farther from the tour route,” the agency said in a statement.
Organized by Bike New York, the tour is a charity even to fund Bike New York’s education programs.
The 40-mile (64-kilometer) tour takes place on the first Sunday in May each year and has over 32,000 riders on average.
The tour’s route takes the riders through all five of New York City’s boroughs and across five major bridges.

The route begins in Lower Manhattan, heads north via Sixth Avenue, through the interior of Central Park, continues through Harlem and then into the Bronx via the Madison Avenue Bridge. Re-entering Manhattan, the tour travels south along the East River on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt East River Drive. The route crosses the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, also known as the 59th Street Bridge, into Queens before heading south across the Pulaski Bridge via the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway into Brooklyn, continuing over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island.

The entire route, including bridges and expressways, which normally prohibit cyclists, is closed to automobile traffic for the ride.
The event began on June 12, 1977, as the Five Boro Challenge with about 250 participants on an 80-mile (130 km) course. Mayor Ed Koch championed the idea of a city-wide bike tour and the following year the route was shortened. Citibank became the sponsor in 1979 but withdrew in 1990. TD Bank purchased the naming rights in 1992.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)