The number of bike riders in the city hit another record last year — but only because Hurricane Sandy sparked a burst of two-wheel commuting, officials said.
The city Department of Transportation reported that it counted an average of 18,717 bikes crossing six heavily trafficked locations on selected days between April and October 2012.
That was a slight decrease from 18,846 in 2011, the first such downturn since 2008 and something of a surprise since the city added 45 more miles of bike lanes in 2012.
But after Sandy knocked out mass transit, the number of bicycle riders went bonkers and the average for the year through February 2013 soared.
“We didn’t anticipate it,” said Josh Benson, the DOT’s bike coordinator. “We were surprised by the big spike after the hurricane.”
More surprising, the huge jump continued into December and January, long after the subways were restored and the gasoline panic ended.
In January 2013, 11,066 riders took to the roadways by bike, up from 7,169 the previous year.
The increase was all the more startling considering that 20 of the 31 days in January 2013 were colder than they were in January 2012.
Benson theorized that once bicycle commuters bought the proper winter gear and found out how easy it was to get around by bike, they stuck with it.
City Councilman Jimmy Vacca (D-Bronx), chairman of the Transportation Committee, questioned the DOT’s figures.
“It is hard to conceive bicycle riding going up dramatically and in the dead of winter. Superstorm Sandy did a lot of things, but to think that hundreds of people jumped on bicycles as never before is hard to believe,” Vacca said.