NY Mag Takes on Bike Commuting

11:30 AM EDT on October 7, 2009

Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine

It's probably a good sign that New York Magazine just published "The Everything Guide to the Bike Commute." When New York tackles a topic, it means it's becoming more mainstream for their own particularly affluent slice of the city's population. And the more people safely taking sustainable, clean forms of transportation to work, the better.

The guide is far from comprehensive, and is geared for the most part to those who are relatively new to biking the city's streets, offering basic safety tips and recommendations on stuff to buy (this is New York magazine, after all). Perhaps the most useful item is a step-by-step guide to the city's new Bicycle Access Law, for office workers who want their employers to offer bike parking.

And even the most dedicated bike commuters will likely be impressed by the magazine's profile of Joe Simonetti. He's a clinical social worker who for 10 years has been bike commuting 44 miles from Westchester to midtown -- a three-hour ride he does twice a week, complete with illegal scenic shortcuts and a breakfast stop.

Mathew Katz

Mathew Katz is a Canadian freelance reporter/producer living in New York City. His writing has appeared in The Toronto Star, The Village Voice, Torontoist, The Huffington Post, and NPR.org. He's also had radio pieces appear on National Public Radio and the BBC World Service. Mathew graduated from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is 2009, and before that completed a B.A. at the University of Toronto. He's an avid baker, and rides a worn-down hybrid bike around the city.

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