September 22, 2021 - Wanamaker Place

Wanamaker Place is tiny. South of East 10th Street and North of East 8th Street, the road, as designated, only carries between Lafayette and Broadway, yet it leads to one of the best stretches of roads in Manhattan to bike across. If you’re going up Lafayette, turn left, keep cycling, and take your time. Not every road (or avenue or street) with a bike lane actually makes a way for bicycles. Wanamaker Place, which quickly turns into East 9th Street, and then (on the other side of Fifth Avenue), becomes West 9th Street, does.

It’s a one-way; and yesterday, myself and three or four other cyclists all made our way west at the same time. We were just cruising, and as the brownstones adorned with ivy drifted by, everything felt natural and easy. Not once did a car honk, floor it, or creep up against the bike lane ––– one even waited as I drifted around another car that had pulled to the side. At Sixth Avenue the light held red for a while. No bother. We took a breath and took a few swigs of water. Then at the click of green, some of us carried on west and others turned right on Sixth, heading north through the Village.