Ken Roberts and Sharon Marsh Roberts 
  

what's here

• Routes for bicycling 
• Taxi services
• more

see also

• Map -- overview of routes 
• Reports on Trips and Conditions for Westchester bicycling 
• East side routes -- other counties on the East side of the Hudson River

• main Routes page for Bike Hudson Valley
• routes by Difficulty category
   

Routes for bicycling 

Paths mostly-off-road

Westchester has some nice off-road riding on paved paths -- check out the Westchester County Trailways.  

There is also a long trail with some accessible unpaved mostly-off-road sections that some people ride on:  Old Croton Aqueduct. 

Road routes

Our early experiences with exploring the roads of Westchester county were that we spent lots of time on narrow two-lane roads with much car traffic.  Since then we've started finding some quieter roads, and some rather pretty roads.  But we have not found it easy to link up lots of these quieter and prettier roads into a nice loop route.  

Therefore we advise not trying to explore the roads based on just trying out what might look good on a map.  If you want to bicycle in Westchester county, we suggest getting some advance knowledge from those with some experience -- try Other People's Routes and more links below -- and you can learn from people's stories in the trip reports. 

Something we are working on (as of November 2002) is a one-way sequence of roads that go north to south through Westchester, sampling some of the pretty views by the Hudson River (and continuing on to the Bronx and Manhattan).  At this point it's an exploratory adventure -- see the East side of the River parts of this:  

• GWB to Bear Mountain Bridge loop -- 92 miles (or 83 miles), hilly, notable traffic challenges.  At least two sections on dirt. [ Description | Map | Photos ] 
   

Routes reached by Trains

One very helpful thing about Westchester county is that it is served by two major train lines from New York City -- so this can be a convenient way for many bicyclists to reach Westchester county.  See Routes from Trains -- but note that the Metro North bicycle rules have restrictions and require a special permit for a bicycle -- which require some advance planning.

Using the Metro North trains makes possible some interesting one-way routes between train stations.  Here's some ideas for experienced road riders with good traffic-handling skills to consider: 

• Peekskill to Croton-Harmon (or to Scarborough)
• Peekskill to Yonkers (or all the way to Manhattan)
• Dobbs Ferry (or Hastings) to Manhattan
• Brewster (or Goldens Bridge) to Manhattan, including both the Putnam county bike trail and Westchester county trailways.

• Katonah to Croton-Harmon (or Tarrytown) -- using two separate Metro North train lines

For some possible ideas about specific roads, see the various other routes linked from this page (like sections of GWB to Bear Mt Bridge Loop for train stations along the Hudson line of Metro North), also some of the trip reports. 

 
Other People's Routes

• Long Island - Westchester cue Sheets  
   
• Westchester County Parks -- off-road trailways 
   

• Clearwater Revival bike directions -- several routes that connect to Croton Point Park, some starting from New York City -- presented by Time's Up. 
   
• Traffic-Free Paths for Families and "Casual" Riders, in the Metro NY area -- Short routes in a variety of places -- like the Croton Reservoir, Bronx River Bikeway.
   

• Mid-Hudson Southern Region bicycle/pedestrian master plan

Has maps of current and proposed routes, especially off-road paths.

• New York Cycle Club routes 
   
• Printed book with several Westchester rides:  RIDE GUIDE Hudson Valley New Paltz to Staten Island, by Dan Goldfischer.  White Meadow Press, Warren, NJ, 1996. 
   

[ we'd be glad to include more links here -- by all means tell us about other routes you know about. ]

 
back to Top | Map | East side routes

Taxi services

Calling a taxi services can be very helpful for bicycling: 

• when your bicycle gets messed up bad enough so you cannot ride it -- or weather turns real bad -- and you still need to get home or back to your car.
• to get to and from train stations.
• to set up one-way tours.

It's usually easier to call a taxi if you have some phone numbers of taxi services in the area you're riding. A way to get a list is to do a search for "taxi" on a directory of business phone numbers such as Superpages.com -- Here's some towns and cities in this county on which might be helpful to search:

Yonkers, Hasting on Hudson, Tarrytown, Irvington, Ossining, Croton on Hudson, Peekskill, Yorktown Heights (all in New York state)

Here's some taxi services we found in phone directories around 2003:

• Union Car, Yonkers, NY
• Station Taxi, Yonkers
• Palmeri Limousine, Yonkers
   
• Rivertowns Taxi, Hastings On Hudson, NY
   

• Dobbs Ferry Taxi, Tarrytown, NY
• Knapp McCarthy Taxi, Tarrytown, NY
• Annie's Taxi, Tarrytown, NY
• Tarrytown Cab, Tarrytown, NY
   
• Riverside Taxi, Irvington, NY
   
• BC Taxi, Ossining, NY
• Camp's Taxi, Ossining, NY
• Croton Taxi, Ossining, NY
   
• Larry's Taxi, Croton On Hudson, NY
• J & S Taxi, Croton On Hudson, NY
• Croton Taxi, Croton on Hudson, NY
   
• Two Brothers Taxi, Peekskill, NY
• Hudson River Taxi, Peekskill, NY
• Carter Taxi, Peekskill, NY
• Bynum Taxi, Peekskill, NY
   
• Yorktown Taxi, Yorktown Heights, NY
• Bynum Yorktown Taxi, Yorktown Heights, NY

more . . . 

Westchester Cycle Club 

 
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