Watch me bicycle through Manhattan and trying out the extensive bicycle infrastructure that New York City has put in place over the last 15 years. Impressive! And a good inspiration for cities around the World also to get started.

The motivation for New York City was simple: They needed to find a way to accommodated 1 million more people in the city, while at the same time making the city more livable, the street life more vibrant and retail businesses more thriving. Giving more space to pedestrians and cyclists was found to be the right way forward, having sought inspiration from the Danish bicycle capital Copenhagen.

The video starts from near Central Park, crosses Times Square, passes by the Empire State Building and continues to Greenwich Village where video battery died. At the end, some additional video clips shot on my phone are included from Central Park, the long bicycle corridor along the Hudson River (east coast Manhattan) and the 9-11 Memorial park.

Video highlights include:
0:08 Lots of steam coming up up through the street
0:45 A look at the bicycle, from the shared bicycle scheme Citi Bike
2:00 Mentioning some key players in New York City's bicycle transformation: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, urban planner Jan Gehl, as well as various grass-root movements.
2:35 Skyscrapers
2:49 Turning onto Broadway, which has some of the first bicycle infrastructure in New York City
3:38 The protected bicycle lane (inspired from Copenhagen)
4:36 Passing by the Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Broadway
6:15 Entering Times Square
8:00 Walking on Times Square
9:21 BEFORE and AFTER photos of Times Square
10:49 Ooops, almost not stopping in time!
15:19 Ooops, ending up in a "busses only" zone on 5th Ave
16:21 Empire State Building, in front of. Tallest building for almost 40 years!
20:20 Example of how bicycle lane suddenly appears. But they can also suddenly disappear and leave you a bit stranded, not exactly sure of where to position yourself on the road....
20:52 Example of re-claiming the street for the public good (park/recreation/cafes)
22:00 "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere!" Using Frank Sinatra's quote for bicycle implementation in cities across the World. If super dense New York City can find the space for bicycle lanes, so can you!
22:45 Retail statistic: Sales went up 49% after implementing bicycle lanes. Good for business!
28:38 Conventional Bicycle Lane (example)
30:00 Entering Greenwich Village, the "artists haven"
30:16 Listing some of the many famous people associated with Greenwich Villages over the decades
30:37 Greenwich Village was also referenced by Jane Jacobs in her book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities"
31:00 My video camera dies....!
31:06 Additional footage shot with my handphone
31:09 Central Park incl. map and amazing aerial photo
31:49 Hudson River bicycle path, very long route
32:20 World Trade Center Transportation Hub - absolutely beautiful - like a soaring eagle. The original station was completely destroyed by the collapsing Word Trade Center buildings
32:26 The 9-11 Memorial - simple, beautiful and impactful. In honour of the 2977 people who lost their lives during the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 9 Sept 2001.
32:46 The map route of my ride (or most of it) on Strava

Hope you enjoyed the movie. It was recorded using a chest-mounted GoPro 8.

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Here are some good NYC bicycling resource links:
1) Detailed bicycle map for New York City. The map can be downloaded as pdf or as Open Data Portal (shapefile)
https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bic...

2) Article "How Janette Sadik-Khan built New York City’s bicycle renaissance"
https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/9/12/...

3) Interview with Danny Harris, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives! about the grassroot activism that helped to bring about New York City's bicycle infrastructure transformation:
   • The transportation renaissance in NYC...