# bicycling from liberty airport to brooklyn?



## mykle (Apr 10, 2010)

Hello, 

I'd like to ask some locals some advice for my upcoming visit to NYC. I was hoping to ride my folding bike from Newark Liberty Airport all the way to Brooklyn, but with bicycles banned from so many bridges and tunnels, it's looking like an exercise in frustration. The google bike instructions (for what that's worth) includes about 30 miles of pure detour.

I'm sure I could take public transit, but with my bike and my luggage and having to transfer four or five times, it could be a bit of a drag. On the other hand, my luggage is a bike-trailer, so pulling it by bike is a snap. So i'm looking for some kind of half-transit, half riding option.

Can any of you recommend a decent method for getting from Liberty to Brooklyn with at least some biking involved? Should I take the NJY bus to connect to the PATH train to Manhattan and bike from there? Or bike through Jersey City and over the Bayonne to the Staten Island Ferry? Or some other way?

(Also: any theory why *so many* tunnels and bridges are closed to bikes? Maybe I've lived in Portland too long, but ... wtf?)

Much obliged for any advice you have,
-mykle-


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## iraform (Apr 1, 2010)

I'd say you have two choices: Take the train from the airport to World Trade Center and ride to Brooklyn, or take the train to New York Penn Station and ride to Brooklyn. The WTC option puts you a 5-minute ride to the Brooklyn Bridge or a 10-minute ride to the Manhattan Bridge, while New York Penn Station is right in the middle of the Midtown traffic and a good distance from both. For that reason, I would go to WTC, even though you have to make an extra change of trains.
To go either way, you will have to take the monorail (called the Air Train) from the airport to the New Jersey Transit train platform. From there, you can take NJT to New York Penn Station. Or you can take NJT to Newark (!) Penn Station - a 6-minute ride - and pick up the PATH to WTC across the platform. It's maybe a 20-minute ride on the PATH to WTC.


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## Dumbod (Dec 31, 2004)

There is no good safe way from Liberty Airport to Brooklyn by bike. Hell, some would say that there's no safe way by car. 

Newark Airport is surrounded by highways and by the Port of Newark. Even the surface streets are going to be clogged with heavy-duty truck traffic. The least frustrating way to do it is probably to leave your bike folded up and take the bus to Manhattan. 

If you're bound and determined to do it, take the Air Train to New Jersey Transit and then take the train to Hoboken (check the schedules because not every train will go to Hoboken.) From Hoboken, you can take the ferry to lower Manhattan and then ride across the Manhattan (recommended because there's less pedestrian traffic) or Brooklyn Bridges. Alternatively, you could ride north on Sinatra Drive (which becomes River Road) and cross over the George Washington Bridge. It's a nice ride but it will add roughly 55 miles to your trip.


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## freethinker (Sep 10, 2009)

If you decide on taking a train, also check the PATH and NJ Transit web sites for info about bikes. Bike are not allowed at certain times (rush hours, basically) on some trains, and not at certain stations. On NJ Transit trains, you are supposed to use the "handicapped" doors to bring on your bike.


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