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Brooklyn and Staten Island have plenty of bike paths, but as of 2018, New York City's plan did not yet include a bike path or footpath on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which connects the two boroughs.
However, there are several ways to get to Staten Island by bike, including a ferry service between Brooklyn and Manhattan and Staten Island, and one of the new Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses, to which bike racks were added in early 2017.
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| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge |
However, these transportation methods are often difficult and time-consuming and prevent bikers from traveling to NYC's fifth borough. The only times the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is open to cyclists is on special occasions, such as the annual Five Boro Bike Tour, where lanes are reduced to create temporary bike lanes for the duration of the tour.
Getting your bike to Staten Island from Brooklyn
Currently, there are several ways you can move your bike from Brooklyn (or Manhattan) to Staten Island, but each method takes significantly longer than just cycling across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
The easiest of these ways is to actually cycle down the waterfront in Lower Manhattan to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, where you can pay to transport yourself and your bike to the island area. In total, the journey from Bushwick to St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island takes just over an hour with the right timing.
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| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge |
Another option is to cycle down to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, which is the southernmost edge of Brooklyn and right next to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. There you can hop on one of the MTA city buses, which hopefully has a bike rack. If you are lucky enough to purchase one of these newer buses, the entire journey will take you about an hour and a half.
Progress on bike paths on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
In late 2015, the New York MTA introduced a bill to install bike and footpaths across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, but as of late 2017, there has still been no progress in getting a bill or construction has begun on that project.
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| Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge |
Instead, lobbyists and lawmakers in the city claimed the project would cost more than $ 300 million, which many critics estimated was costly and perhaps even as a way to dissuade voters from approving the initiative.
Apparently the plan worked. In early 2016, the bike and walkway plan was dropped from the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge redevelopment project list, which now instead has an additional HOV lane allowing more vehicles to travel between Brooklyn and Staten Island without doing anything to address the issue. ... bicycle access between areas.
So it looks like, for now, hopeful cyclists looking to experience Brooklyn and Staten Island in one day will have to settle for a bus or ferry ride in between - not a worst-case scenario, but it definitely discourages hundreds of bikers a day from trekking.