Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Using a bike to get between Queens and Manhattan just got safer and easier.

Transportation Alternatives' fourth annual Tour de Queens once again didn't disappoint. Yesterday, 2,000 riders navigated the 18-mile, family-paced course, experiencing neighborhoods from Forest Hills to Jackson Heights. As usual, the festivities started and ended in fabulous Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the shadow of the iconic Unisphere.

Prospect Heights resident Steve O'Neill has been biking for most of the 15 years he's lived in New York City. Steve commutes daily to Columbus Circle, and last year he added a new leg to his trip. Every day he drops his son Beckett off at school in Park Slope, and the new Prospect Park West bike lane helps him do that safely.

Marcus Woollen has a great story to tell about what bicycling can do for your mind, body and spirit. Fifteen months ago, his doctors declared him obese, he decided he needed to get healthy and find a way to fit exercise into his busy schedule.

Over the last four years, New York City has seen a transportation renaissance on its streets, striking a better balance by providing more space for walking, biking, and transit.

What's a road diet? Quite simply, traffic-calming expert Dan Burden told Streetfilms, "A road diet is anytime you take any lane out of a road."

On a grey, chilly Sunday, an estimated 750 people, many of them on training wheels and balance bikes, turned out to ride the Prospect Park West bike lane and show their support for the traffic-calming redesign. Since the two-way, separated bike path debuted last summer, it's become indispensable for many parents who use it to take their children to school and get around the neighborhood. On weekends, the lane is full of families heading to the green market at Grand Army Plaza and kids riding to Prospect Park.

In the fifth chapter of "Moving Beyond the Automobile," we demystify the concept of congestion pricing in just five short minutes. Here you'll learn why putting a price on scarce road space makes economic sense and how it benefits many different modes of surface transportation.

While we were out videotaping for another Streetfilm, Gary Toth, the director of transportation initiatives with Project for Public Spaces (his resume includes 34 years of management experience at NJDOT), took a moment to give a short explanation on what "floating parking" is, why using it is a very smart budgetary decision by the NYCDOT, and why a buffer-zone exists between exiting drivers and cyclists.