Mapping NYC Open Data: Exploring New York City Bike Routes

B. Bike Routes of NYC

Source: Open Data NYC

Description: The New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT), in collaboration with other city agencies, New York State, and external partners, develops and maintains bicycle facilities across all five boroughs. This dataset contains information on the current and historical network of designated bicycle routes and facilities, including facility types and street details represented as line segments.

The dataset provides comprehensive details on New York City’s bicycle routes and facilities. Key fields include the_geom, used for mapping, and segmentid, which uniquely identifies each street segment. The version column indicates if the segment is from the LION database or custom geometry, and bikeid identifies each bike facility. The LION database is a comprehensive geographic base map used by New York City agencies to manage street-related data. The status shows if a facility is active or retired, and boroughs are marked by a code (boro). Street names and facility start/end points are captured in fromstreet and tostreet, and the dataset distinguishes between on-street and off-street paths (onoffst). Information on facility types, lane counts (lanecount), and bike direction (bikedir) is included, along with installation (instdate) and retirement dates (ret_date). The segment length in feet is listed in shape_leng, giving a clear picture of the city’s bike network.

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What can we learn from this data?

This dataset contains a total of 27,673 bike routes. Manhattan has the highest number with 7,554 routes, followed by Brooklyn with 7,212 and Queens with 6,665. The Bronx has 4,824 routes, while Staten Island has the fewest at 1,418. Out of the 27,673 bike routes, 22,983 are currently active, while 4,690 have been retired.

Out of the 7,554 bike routes in Manhattan, 5,956 are currently active, while 1,598 have been retired. Among the active routes, Midtown has the most with 2,626 routes, followed by Downtown with 1,955, and Uptown with 1,375. Of the 1,598 retired routes, 754 were in Midtown, 692 in Downtown, and 152 in Uptown.

Number of Bike Routes Installed Each Year (1900 – 2024)