New bike lanes added to RFK-Triboro Bridge

Cyclists now have a quicker and safer way to get between Manhattan and the Bronx, with the MTA announcing Monday the opening of a new set of bike paths on the RFK-Triboro bridge.

MTA chariman Janno Lieber, clad in bicycle shorts and an MTA t-shirt, heralded the openings aside his bike on Randall’s Island.

“While transit remains the go-to travel option for the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers, there’s been tremendous growth in alternative micromobility options like bikes and scooters,” Lieber said. “Far from being a threat to mass transit, the trend gives the MTA an opportunity to extend the transit system’s reach deeper into communities that have less fixed rail service, or are a little further away from a train station.”

MTA’s construction and development boss, Jamie Torres-Springer — who also rode a bicycle to the event, albeit in suit pants — said the new paths were all part of a 2023 action plan for the agency to expand bicycle and pedestrian access.

On the Triboro, the project means new bicycle and pedestrian pathways on the Manhattan and Bronx spans of the structure.

“With this segment completed,” Torres-Springer said from the foot of a new ramp up to the Manhattan branch of the Triboro Bridge, “for the first time ever, pedestrians and bicyclists have a continuous, car-free path between Manhattan, the Bronx and Randall’s Island — with Queens to follow shortly.”

A renovation of the Queens Span’s pedestrian path — which has stairs and officially does not allow cyclists — is due for completion in 2027.

The new Triboro bike path is also expected to link up with the Manhattan’s east-side Greenway.

The path comes as the MTA has recently widened the narrow walking path along the Henry Hudson Bridge at Manhattan’s northern tip and made it into a bikeway, as well as the addition of a bicycle-friendly ramp at the southern end of the Cross Bay Bridge in Queens.