Last Year’s Ride (Photo: Street Films)
Oct. 7, 2019 By Allie Griffin
The third annual “Sunnyside Family Fun Bike Ride” returns this weekend to celebrate Sunnyside’s protected bike lanes.
On Saturday, Oct 12 from noon to 1:30 p.m., Queens families are invited to bring their bicycles and join the ride starting at Lou Lodati Playground, 41-15 Skillman Ave. between 41st and 42nd Streets. Riders will meet inside the playground beyond the GrowNYC Sunnyside Greenmarket at noon.
Beginning at 12:30 p.m., participants will circle the neighborhood, touring three parks, two public schools, a public library and the neighborhood business corridors, escorted by officers from the NYPD 108th Precinct. The final stretch of the three-mile bike ride travels along the tree-lined streets of Sunnyside Gardens Historic District on Skillman Avenue/ Lewis Mumford Way.
(Transportation Alternatives Queens/ Sunnyside Family Fun Bike Ride)
At 1 p.m., riders will return to the playground for complimentary pizza provided by Uncle Jimmy’s Pizzeria and beverages donated by both Turkiyem Market and Skillman Pets. The Queens Public Library will also be on hand at the playground with its three-wheeled “bookcycle,” a mobile library for cardholders to borrow books and magazines.
From those who use training wheels to expert cyclists, children of all ages and cycling abilities are encouraged to attend. All riders must have a bicycle in good working condition and children under the age of 14-years-old are required to bring and wear a helmet. Gloves are also recommended. Runners, scooters, skateboards and similar mobility are welcome as well.
The annual bike ride first began as a celebration of the protected bike lanes that the Department of Transportation installed in 2018.
“Safer streets are helping our communities transition away from dangerous, unhealthy, and destructive fossil-fueled transportation,” said Woodside resident and event co-organizer Laura Shepard. “As we teach children how to enjoy their streets responsibly, we’re also working towards ensuring a sustainable future for them.”
Sunnyside Family Fun Bike Ride from STREETFILMS on Vimeo.
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35 Comments
Welp, that event was a dud.
I suggest everyone catch this event. Its the only time you get to see people actually using the bike lane.
But other than that nobody used the bike lanes lmao
Great job waiting for a photo op of bikers riding in the bike lane!!!
I had a great time last year! This year both of my kids will be there!
Barnwell Gianaris calculate that Transportation Alternatives 2% will reelect them. T.A. uses phony family events to pretend not to be funded, selfish, sneaky, mean, and anti-democratic. Expect a lot of dislikes from keyboard warriors.
The family fun bike ride. Pushing a false sense of safety while attempting to normalize an unsafe road design for pedestrians, motorists and yes, cyclists. I ask any TA advocate with kids(I’m sure there’s not many) if they would truly feel safe having their child ride a bike in the city, at any age, even with protected lanes. Yeah? Sure.
Maybe save the copy and paste rant for a different post?
Not offended, just calling it what it really is, an event to pretend how great these lanes are working. While most of the neighborhood knows that they’re a terrible fit for these blocks.
@Teddy.. Thank you for the plain simple truth..You must have hit a raw nerve with someone at the SS post because of the number of dislikes your comment received
Maybe he’s wrong.
OK, so where do we begin with these so call ride friendly bike tours. How about you take these tours around the numerous hotel/shelters around sunnyside/woodside and see if its safe to continue. Or better yet lets have little JVB with his “environmentalist bicycle” friends take the tour around those shelters and see if they will continue to bike there. This is just a waste of our tax payers dollars no one ever wanted these bike lanes only hipster sunnysiders who don’t mind paying 2k for a shoe box of an apartment. These cyclist if they truly care about the environment would advocate for there bicycles to be registered with the DMV pay there fare share in inspections and then we could use there money towards rehabilitation programs, improve our community centers for the elderly and disable. But NOOOO they want to ride on the road for free. Thank God this loser of a white male politician JVB will be out of the office soon, he is what is wrong with politics an old white man representing a district that looks nothing like him.
Racist, ageist, ignorant and bad grammar to boot. Well done!
bxgrl- is there anything that you don’t get offended by?
I pay my taxes and that road belongs to me as much as anybody else. But I can’t go out and kick a ball with my son. We would be killed and it written off as an oopsie. And you want me to pay for your parking on top of that? Pull up and run that Sunday.
nice to know those horribly designed waste of money unsafe bike lanes will finally get some use for a sunnyside fun bike day
A good opportunity to teach these kids the rules of the road that most bikers riding through our neighborhood ignore: stop at all red lights/stop signs, stay off the sidewalk (as an adult) and go with the flow of traffic, not against it.
Ever driven faster than the speed limit?
I assume not, otherwise you’d be a giant hypocrite, and your message would be pointless!
This is getting old.
Awesome! More kids on bikes is a sign of a health, safe, happy city.
Keep convincing yourselves that these bike lanes are important. You’re all blood guilty
> At 1 p.m., riders will return to the playground for complimentary pizza provided by Uncle Jimmy’s Pizzeria
HOW DARE THEY?!
Nice idea if you live in the French countryside. But this is NYC. It’s too dangerous on the roads to have children out there riding. That’s a fact. And it won’t change anytime soon because the same phony people who want bike lanes will also always want Uber and amazon so they can have their packages delivered in a day.
22% of Manhattan residents own a car.
if you know anything about it it wouldn’t hurt your feelings so much
Sunnyside and Woodside are in Queens, not Manhattan. If you knew anything about it, it wouldn’t hurt your feelings so much.
…and had 90,000 riders in one day. Thanks for not refuting that; it destroys your argument of course. I’m shocked you didn’t know CitiBike is in your own boro!
Oh and the majority of Queens commuters take public transit. You can go back to hurt feelings now.
“ Streetsblog” is a political activist website, it’s not a fact base site, your numbers don’t come from Citibike or any official site. And how many riders will there be tommorrow when it’s 53 degrees and raining? Citibike is barely in Queens , like how bicyclists barely follow the rules of the road. You keep making stuff up to fit your absurd agenda and we will keep dealing with reality. Peace out bxgrl, Citibike is in Queens,and your other 37 personalities ( it’s ok to seek help for that )
> your numbers don’t come from Citibike or any official site
Try using this website called Google:
https://twitter.com/citibikenyc/status/1170005697762746371
“Ridership record by taking 91,529 trips in a single day”
How embarrassing.
“Doughboy” is one word, genius
And how do they prove this? There are allegedly 12,000 bikes,and riders are constantly complaining about no parking spots at the stations because they are full. ( if they are being used, spots should be everywhere). and assuming all are fully operational, that would be 7.5 rides per bike, neglecting the fact that citibike barely exists outside of manhattan and how many are in for Maintenance?Trump puts up a lot of “facts”on twitter too. Twitter is for the gullible people who don’t need facts.Like how ThriveNYC is helping thousands of needy people everyday. The mayor tweets everyday it’s successes. There has never been 90,000 bicyclists on Citibank on any 1 day, they can lie all they want. And congrats on another 2 personalities, when you get to 100, do you get a free frosty at Wendy’s?
It’s spelled “Doughboy Park,” it’s not a “dough boy” like a Pillsbury mascot. What is that wall of text about?
I’m confused. How does wanting both bike lanes and places for delivery drivers to do their jobs make somebody “phony?”
If that label applies to anyone (and I’m not sure it does), wouldn’t it make more sense for people who demand free storage for their massive private property and also want Uber and Amazon so they can get their packages delivered in a day? They’re the ones who have been fighting against loading zones that we all benefit from.
The bike ride is not very diverse.There should be some inquiries like there was with ferries being so white!!!
well, technically, they were partially white. the sides had brown and green sludge from the severely polluted water brought out the beauty that is nyc.
And this year my son can ride his own pedal bike