If you’re a regular traveler like me, you already know this: most airports are awful. You’re constantly rushing through a crowded terminal, competing with a harried mess of humanity, only to then cram yourself into a narrow seat for a few hours until you get to your next terminal purgatory—meanwhile, dragging your luggage the whole way. Germs waft through the air. Couples argue about holding each other up in the TSA line. As I write this, I’m sitting in the F concourse at Minneapolis Saint-Paul listening to a kid whine at NASCAR-engine levels about not getting soft serve ice cream and his Chick-fil-A nuggets.

Airports are the worst.

Except
not all of them. Around the world, there are a growing number of destinations that are making their airports, well, welcoming. A shocking idea, I know. I’ve been to a handful of these miraculous creations (compared to the usual dreadfulness)—international airports like Vancouver, Zurich, and Munich. They’re clean, organized, and, best of all, have a place to get some fresh air before your next long-haul flight. With this new wave of amenities (and your travel sanity) in mind, here are the best airports in the world, from Asia and the Middle East to right here in North America, that offer incredible open-air areas to soothe your traveling stress.

Singapore Changi Airport, Singapore (SIN)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Climbing Area

Changi Airport is a perennial winner of the , thanks to a seemingly never-ending list of Disneyland-like attractions, including a onsite, a on the roof of Terminal 1, and the , at seven stories high. There’s even an indoor forest, called , with walking paths and a glass walkway that rises 23 meters above the terminal floor, allowing you to trek amongst the treetops. (To see how impressive the full list of attractions is, you can scroll through it .)

For nature lovers, though, the true gem is Changi’s series of gardens, including Cactus Garden, Sunflower Garden, Enchanted Garden, Petal Garden, and Butterfly Garden. Together, they offer the most complete botanical adventure you’ll get at any airport on earth. And even though some of the gardens are indoors, it’s hard to tell.

The , for example, is set in a large conservatory designed as a tropical forest, with an 18-foot high grotto waterfall. It’s home to over 1,000 butterflies from as many as 40 species and, on your way to your gate, you can stop by and stand amidst the flora as the butterflies flutter around you. For a splash of yellow, the is worth a quick stop if you have some time to kill in terminal 2, and the , also in Terminal 2, is designed to offer Shangri-La-like atmosphere, with the sounds of a forest pumped into is a large room dominated by four giant glass bouquet sculptures that are filled with a variety of flowers and ferns.

Perhaps most Zen of all, though, is the on the roof of Terminal 1, which features over 100 species of arid plants from Asia, Africa, and the Americas—everything from prickly pear cactus to giant ponytail palm trees. It also has a bar and shaded tables, so it may just be the best place to grab a local while you hope for another hour delay on your flight out.

Denver International Airport, Colorado (DEN)

Don’t Miss: The Ice-Skating Rink

This pick comes with a minor asterisk: the primary outdoor area is before you go through security, so you’ll need to enjoy the al fresco offerings in advance of your flight, but the options are worth the early arrival. The space is called the , and it’s a large synthetic turf located between the Jeppesen Terminal and the Westin Hotel, underneath the airport’s famous faux mountain peaks.

In summer, the turf is set up with cornhole games and wooden benches for lounging, and there’s often live music or other events throughout the season (all of which are free to the public). In the winter months, typically from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the area features an open-air ice rink with free loaner skates.

Of course, don’t fret if you’re running on time and need to get through the TSA line: inside the airport there are three outdoor lounges with seating and fire pits, at Concourse A-West near gate A15; on Concourse B-West at gate B7; and at gate C67 on Concourse C-East.

Zurich Airport, Switzerland (ZRH)

Don’t Miss: The Outdoor Walking Paths

If you find yourself craving one last view of the Alps before your flight home, , the primary hub for Swiss International Airlines, has an executive lounge with an outdoor terrace that has impressive views of the mountains beyond. The at the Midfield Terminal is open to all travelers for a fee (roughly $50) and, in addition to the outdoor terrace views, you get access to all of the lounge’s food and drink options, and other amenities.

But the real reason Zurich Airport is on this list is because of its adjacent , a 20-acre park filled with forested walking paths and a modest hill with good views from up top. It’s a great place to unwind during a long layover or if you get caught waiting for a delayed flight. You’ll need to leave the terminal to access it, but the short walk and fresh air are worth it. During much of the week, there are park rangers who will take you on a , explaining the flora and fauna and how it was designed for maximum relaxation (check the rangers’ in advance). There’s even a free cable car to whisk you into the park in the most Swiss way possible.

From the arrivals area, walk across the parking area to the Circle, the large building adjacent to the terminal that hosts restaurants, hotels, and stores. From there you can take the cable car into Der Park.

Vancouver International Airport, Canada (YVR)

Don’t Miss: The Digital Light Show

For most passengers headed through , their first introduction (or last farewell) to British Columbia is YVR’s Chester Johnson Park, located directly adjacent to (and underneath) the Canada Line train station. The park is designed to feel like an , with rock-lined paths, native trees, driftwood benches, and a large wooden sculpture—the Musqueam Welcome Figure—curving throughout its length. It’s also home to the Green Wall, a 17-meter-high vegetated art installation made up of, at last count, 27,391 individual plants.

As for inside the airport itself, there’s a new 47-foot-high open-air atrium in the international terminal, with three full-grown hemlock trees in the center. Until recently, the glassed-in atrium was only visible to passengers as they commuted past, like looking into a giant terrarium, but you can now open a door and walk out into the atrium for a breath of fresh air. At night, the trees and rock landscape are lit up by digital light projections—faux waves crashing over the rocks, for example—and a corresponding soundscape. The whole experience is designed to showcase the sights and sounds of B.C., and it does just that and more. It may be the most successful attempt of any airport in the world to bring a little bit of the region’s natural landscape into the airport itself.

Incheon International Airport, South Korea (ICN)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Gardens

Among the many attractions for passengers flying into or through South Korea’s —the country’s main international gateway and one of the busiest airports in the world—is a sprawling, in Terminal 2.

The green features are spread throughout much of the large space, with a mix of flowers, trees, ferns, and bamboo growing from planters situated throughout—in the floors, dividing walls, large garden spaces, and above kiosks’ ceilings, with strands hanging down. Smaller water, rock, cactus, and pine gardens are strategically located across the airport campus, too. Technically, none of these areas are outdoors, but the enormous roof above the main area, with translucent panels in the center, makes it feels as such, which is why we’re including it on this list.

We’re also including Incheon because of the airport’s ongoing plans to add even more green spaces that utilize a variety of plants to create a living, breathing indoor space with healthier air for all visitors. As part of its , the airport also plans to add a terrace with an outdoor garden, so passengers can decompress before their (likely long) overseas flight.

Long Beach Airport, California (LGB)

Don’t Miss: The Palm Treed Courtyard

, bills itself as “America’s coolest airport,” and while that moniker is a bit of a stretch, it does have an impressive courtyard with a series of tall palm trees and a drought-tolerant garden. The airport, one of the five major commercial airfields serving the greater Los Angeles metroplex, is the second smallest, with just 11 gates. In such a tiny airport, the 4,200-square-foot courtyard is definitely a unique amenity, one that punches well above its weight.

The courtyard is also ringed by dining options from local establishments, so it’s an excellent place to grab a bite to eat while you wait for your flight out. For those heading to this side of L.A. or points south along the coastline, LGB is definitely a good choice over LAX (see below).

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

Don’t Miss: The Private Lounges

For anyone who has traveled through recently, you know it’s a mess, thanks to a $30 billion overhaul one of the world’s busiest airports is getting ahead of the , in L.A. By the time construction is done, it will almost be a brand new airport, with new terminals, an elevated train, and an on-site rental-car facility to help eliminate the shuttles current clogging up the passenger pickup/drop-off areas. Already some of the upgrades are beginning to appear, including a series of new lounges with outdoor terraces.

The in Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B) has a large outdoor deck with fire pits, trees, running water, and great views of the Hollywood Hills in the distance ($75 for standard access). The United Club in Terminal 7 is much smaller—more a balcony than a lounge—but it’s spacious enough to get some fresh air and does have good views of the tarmac ($59 for a single-entry pass).

The new , which is open to Delta customers traveling with a Delta One ticket, is the company’s premium lounge, with table service at every seat, a sushi bar, and eight relaxation pods. It also has a large private Sky Deck on the roof, with a landscaped terrace full of chairs, sofas, and enough plants to keep it feeling like a lounge, rather than an extension of the tarmac.

LAX will remain a very urban airport, but with a few spots to sneak in some last-minute SoCal sun, these lounges are worth it, if you can afford them.

Hamad International Airport, Qatar (DOH)

Don’t Miss: The Indoor Tropical Garden

Yes, this is another entry highlighting a space that is not, technically, outdoors, and yet we promise that visiting ’s “The Orchard” will feel more like being in nature than just about any of the other places on this list.

It’s a massive, 64,000-square-foot set beneath a soaring, translucent roof shaped like the inside of a shell. More than were sourced from around the world to create the indoor garden, and at its center is a “water feature” that is best described as a spiraling waterfall emerging from a slanted halo. At points the faux forest is so lush that you almost forget that you’re surrounded by roughly five dozen shops, lounges, and restaurants, with hundreds of rushing bodies scrambling to catch their flights. It’s almost worth a trip to Doha just to see it—or at least a long layover.

Munich International Airport, Germany (MUC)

Don’t Miss: The Next-Door Surf Park

This wouldn’t be Bavaria without beer, so it’s fitting that not only does have a beer garden onsite, it’s also an open-air one, with a covered glass roof. Called the, it’s the first brewery in an airport on earth. It has an indoor tavern for drinking, but the patio offers both fresh air, protection from the occasional rain shower, and food and beers, like the Fliegerquell Lager and the Kumulous Wheat.

Munich Airport also has a 900-square-meter , with seating and binoculars to take in the alpine views on clear days. Across from Terminal 1 is , an extensive outdoor area with grass lawns and trails, a playground area, interactive exhibits, benches for sitting, and a 90-foot-high hill overlooking the area. It’s an excellent place to stretch the legs before a long flight or burn off some of the kids’ energy before boarding.

Oh, and just in case you have half a day to kill, there’s a brand-new surf park, , just around the corner from the airport. It’s Germany’s first wave pool and the largest in Europe, at over 215,000 square feet, capable of churning out waves .Ìę Getting there is a cinch: it’s just a five-mute car ride away, literally in the shadow of landing flights.

Bonus Picks: Other Noteworthy Outdoor Areas in North American AirportsÌę

While these airports do have notable outdoor areas, they really can’t compare with our picks for the best airports in the world featured above. That said, they’re still worth calling out on honorable mentions—especially for domestic travelers—for these specific reasons.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Texas (AUS)

The accessible to Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, has a large outdoor terrace with seating overlooking the tarmac and Hill Country beyond. The Delta Sky Club, directly adjacent to the Sapphire Lounge, also has outdoor seating, and more outdoor areas are in the works as part of the airport’s multi-billion-dollar expansion.

San Francisco International Airport, California (SFO)

For ticketed passengers, there’s a free in the international terminal with seating and excellent views of the airfield and beyond. Three bronze sculptures by local artist Woody Othello decorate the space, at the end of Boarding Area G. For plane-watching, there’s also the , located atop Terminal 2. It’s a good, free place for the public to come (no ticket necessary) to see some of the largest aircraft serving SFO. The SkyTerrace is open Friday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia (ATL)

The in Concourse F has an outdoor deck for its club members, with seating for roughly 40 guests and a free bar. As with all of Delta’s clubs, there’s free food and drinks, as well as WiFi.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York (JFK)

For travels heading through JetBlue’s Terminal, there’s a roughly 4,000-square-foot post-security rooftop lounge with green spaces, seating, a children’s play area, and even a dog-walk area. The rooftop lounge also offers passengers views of the Manhattan skyline and of the iconic TWA terminal, which is now the . The , as it’s called, is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and the entrance is across from Gate 28.

Ryan Krogh is a freelance writer and editor based in Austin, Texas. He mostly covers the subjects of travel and the outdoors, and is always looking for a way to get some fresh air in airports worldwide.ÌęÌę

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When I’m standing in the Meadow in Yosemite, adjusting the telescopes that point to El Capitan, tourists of all ages often ask me how I got started in climbing and how they could try it out. I tell them the truth: I started in a climbing gym.

When they ask how much it costs, I’m still honest: Depending on where they live, it could be as low as $60 per month, or as high as $150, but for me, it’s usually been around $90 per month.

That’s when their faces fall.

It’s another daily reminder that climbing, as a sport, is knee deep in an economic identity crisis. In campgrounds and wilderness areas, my friends and I sleep in our cars and forego the common luxuries of showers and kitchens in order to climb as much as possible. On my feed, videos of shredded boulderers in action suggest an ascetic freedom–empty hands, lone chalk bag. But for most climbers, the opportunity to climb outside only unlocks after they hone their skills in the gym–and even dirtbags only rarely escape that fact. It was in the gym that I learned to belay, lead climb, and practice cleaning anchors until I could bet my life that I had it right. While outdoor climbing still looks and feels like an anti-materialistic pursuit, its common prerequisite, indoor climbing, has quietly followed skiing into the category of high-income, elitist sports.

Fortunately, the American Alpine Club (AAC) has noticed. On July 12, the AAC announced via email that high gym membership prices are officially an access issue.

“Many climbers are introduced to the sport through a gym, and therefore a holistic approach to climbing access requires us to consider challenges across the climbing spectrum, including indoor climbing,” they wrote.

To solve this problem, the AAC says, climbing gyms can start offering discounted pricing for lower-income climbers, also known as a Pay What You Can (PWYC) pricing model.

“Addressing equity issues in climbing is not mutually exclusive from best business practices,” wrote the AAC, noting that “sustainable PWYC models” often come with “the added benefit of increasing these gyms’s memberships.”

The AAC followed up that suggestion by publishing a free, 26-page Pay What You Can for gym owners. The toolkit analyzes nine different components of PWYC programs, asking questions like “Honor System or Proof of Need?” and “Self Funded or Community Funded?” It then concludes with specific recommendations for each component based on real PWYC gyms.

The AAC (a nonprofit) has added a carrot to these recommendations by announcing that, in partnership with The North Face, they will offer $1,000-4,000 grants for gyms who need the extra boost to start PWYC programs of their own. Applications are due August 31.

But Wait, Is Climbing Really “Too Expensive”?

By the numbers, yes. Climbing gyms, today, regularly charge more than $100 per month and $1,000 per year (with a discount for paying annually) for membership—far more than most Americans are able or willing to pay.

For example, in Denver, one can get a monthly pass to Movement ($102), the Spot ($115), Übergrippen ($98), or G1 Climbing ($91). In Atlanta, where the cost of living is 11% cheaper than Denver, the average price dips slightly—Central Rock Gym ($80), Wall Crawler Climbing ($79), and Overlook ($1o7)—but in New York City, where the cost of living is 47% higher than Denver, gyms such as MetroRock ($125), Brooklyn Boulders ($129), Central Rock Gym ($135), Movement ($135), Bouldering Project ($120), and VITAL Brooklyn ($145) have much steeper fees.

According to the Aspen Institute, American families making $100,000 or more (the top 33% of households) spend an average of $1,099 per child on sports–enough, if barely, to afford most annual climbing gym memberships–but the average family making $50,000 or less only pays $476 per year–which means they’re firmly priced out of today’s climbing gyms. (This is one reason, by the way, that work in gyms for minimum wage: even low-paid employees get free memberships.)

For adults, the numbers are even more dire. The average American spends just $33.89 per month to work out, which falls about $67 short of a $100 climbing membership. Indeed, only 15 percent of American adults are currently accustomed to spending more than $100 per month on gym memberships.

For gym owners who hope to grow their membership base, finding creative ways to lower their prices could help drastically open up their audience.

Option 1: Volunteer MembershipsÌę

The most famously progressive gym in the country, Memphis Rox, opened in March 2018 with financial inclusion as a founding principle. “We exclude no one, regardless of ability to pay,” says their mission statement.

Memphis Rox, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, lets members exchange five hours of volunteering for a 4-week membership. The gym’s 32,000-square foot campus houses a community closet, food bank, and food garden, and volunteers support those programs. Since 2018, members have performed at least 2,000 hours of community service.

Despite their zero-dollar option, Memphis Rox—located in Memphis, where the cost of living is 16.6% lower than Denver—charges just $55 per month and $630 per year for traditional adult memberships.

Some for-profit gyms have also tried volunteer membership. The Pad Climbing, which operates four gyms across California, Nevada, and New York, charges $85 per month for traditional adult memberships. Yet their PWYC program allows members to set their own price, with special requirements—volunteering, caregiving for a relative, or showing evidence of financial need—for those who choose to pay under $50 per month. Some pay as little as $1.

Did offering such cheap membership options bankrupt the gym? Surprisingly, no. In 2023, the Pad supported reduced-price memberships for 527 people out of 860 applicants. On their website, the Pad announced that fundraiser events, optional premium-price member support, and contributions from the gym itself had allowed them to “pay for” the full $16,781 value of the program—with more than $300 left over to re-invest into this year’s program.

The downside? In its compare-contrast analysis, the AAC noted that volunteerism-based programs, compared to discount-only programs, typically increase the burden on staff to track hours and manage scheduling.

The Popular Alternative: Sliding Scale or Tiered Membership

Among for-profit gyms looking for a quick-and-easy PWYC system, the most popular setups so far are sliding scale or tiered discount memberships. For example, the Spot, which operates five gyms around Denver and Boulder, charges $115 for one month’s membership but offers three lower price tiers: $62, $42, and $32.

In 2022, the Spot awarded 450 of these lower-tiered memberships. Had the affected members all paid full price, the gym would have earned $22,000 more—but the Spot doesn’t consider this a loss.

“$22,000 in membership dollars saved,” reads their proud announcement in Climbing Business Journal.

Other gyms offer only one discount level, most likely because the accounting is simpler for the gym and its staff. Movement Englewood, for example, offers the TEAL membership for the flat rate of $31 per month, or 70% off the standard $102 rate. Launched in April 2024, the TEAL program currently has 516 members across all 30 Movement gyms.

The AAC notes that sliding scale models offer the most flexibility to a participant’s financial situation, but tiered prices are typically easier to integrate into gym check-in software.

For PWYCs to Work, Gyms Need to Rethink Cost and Profit

A standout section of the AAC’s report was the firm reminder—demonstrated by the owners of The Spot—that PWYC programs shouldn’t necessarily be tracked as gym expenses, and that owners shouldn’t necessarily worry about finding alternate sources of funding to offset what they supposedly would have made if their PWYC participants were also paying full price.

“We found this was oftentimes a perception issue rather than a true financial concern,” writes the AAC in their report.

“For example, ‘We have 30 members who are paying $40/month on an $80 membership; we’re losing $1,200/month through this program!’ could alternatively be viewed as, ‘We added 30 members to our gym who are paying $40/month who can’t afford an $80 membership; we have increased our monthly revenue by $1,200,” the report said.

But whether a gym is truly winning over new members in a lower-income tier depends on how the PWYC program is being marketed. If a gym wants to attract new members with discount prices, the AAC warns against simply advertising “in the gym’s physical and digital spaces.” Instead, the report recommends advertising PWYC programs “through local non-profits, school programs, or other community outreach,” to ensure that each new member is indeed a new source of revenue.

Let’s Not Be Like Skiing

As the high-income recreational sports market becomes more saturated, climbing gyms may choose to grow in the direction of supporting underprivileged participants. If they don’t, climbing will be even more restricted to an activity for the rich. For those of you who argue that it already is, remember that it can get even worse. Just look at what’s happened with skiing, where the vast majority of resorts do not prioritize equitable access or offer reduced pricing for lower-income athletes. The result is a sport with rampant inclusion issues: 88% of ski visits are made by white people, and more than half of skiers make two times the national average salary.

Despite attracting participants with plenty of cash to spare, ski resorts have not succeeded in building wealth for their local communities, and staggering income inequality has become a predictable component in each one. In fact, Teton County, home to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, has the highest income inequality of any county in the U.S. Yet climbing isn’t that much cheaper. While renting ski equipment (at least $30 per day) costs far more than renting a pair of climbing shoes (typically $5-6 per day), and the average day pass at ski resorts like Vail ($259) and Breckenridge ($241) are nothing short of exorbitant, most annual climbing memberships in the Denver area actually cost more than an IKON base pass ($969).

And while climbing gyms do not tend to highly skew the cost of living in otherwise remote rural towns, as ski areas do, climbing gyms are already markers of gentrification in many cities—and their proliferation in places like Brooklyn’s and Los Angeles’ , have coincided with severe housing crises in . Pay What You Can programs give climbing gyms a chance to build in the opposite direction: toward inclusion.

If we care about stopping climbing’s acceleration toward elitism, then we should all take the AAC’s advice to our local gyms and push them to apply for the North Face grant before August 31. And when they miss the grant deadline, let’s push them to create a PWYC program anyway. We need to close the climbing wealth gap while we still can.

I want to live in a world where inclusive pricing is so common that, when Yosemite visitors ask me in the Meadow what joining a climbing gym costs, the answer won’t make them grimace at their shoes. Instead they’ll nod with excitement, squint up at El Capitan—and maybe, for the first time, see themselves up there.

Four Main Takeaways from the AAC’s Toolkit

• Across the 47 gyms with Pay What You Can programs in the study, the “vast majority” had “net positive” but “not substantial” effects on their revenue—which means that, while it’s good business, it’s not something that most gyms will be able to structure their entire business model around.
• Most PWYC programs require 1-4 hours per week of staff time to maintain, so they can be managed as an additional duty by one staff member
• Most PWYC programs operate successfully on an honor system rather than requiring proof of need. The incidents of members lying about their financial situation for lower rates were, on average, “less than one member per gym” with “negligible” economic consequences.
• One case study gym, which introduced a PWYC program with two tiers—30% and 75% off a full membership—saw their membership increase by 8%

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Learn how humbly launched in a simple search for running companions. The growth of the now-thriving, international club is a testament to its inclusive nature. It’s also changed Kilmer’s perspective on running’s ability to connect and inspire in a dynamic city that often isolates individuals.

Independent since 1906,ÌęÌęempowers people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world.

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There’s no place like New York City, especially if you’re a runner. Whether you’ve raced multiple marathons or you prefer a mellower pace, you’ll always have a new route to explore, a run club to meet up with, or an event to sign up for.

“Any kind of running experience you want to have, you can have here,” says Dave Hashim, a New York City–based who recently completed the , where he ran around the borders of all five boroughs.

For Caitlin Papageorge, president of , part of the city’s love affair with running stems from the way its citizens normally get around.

“New York is such a pedestrian city,” she says. “I think for that very reason, it sets New York up really well for a great running scene.”

Ready to experience what New York has to offer? Here’s your quickest path to connection with the city’s broad and diverse running community.

Routes

: No trip to New York is complete without a jog through Central Park. Hashim recommends following the main paved path for a seven-mile loop, but make sure to lap the Harlem Meer, in the park’s northeast corner—it’s an often overlooked but especially beautiful area.

: Stretching 12.5 miles from Battery Park all the way up to Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan, the Hudson River Greenway offers superb views of the Hudson River and nearby parks all along its length.

: Get off the beaten path with a four-mile run around Roosevelt Island in the East River. Both Hashim and Papageorge recommend it for its quiet atmosphere (there’s very little traffic), interesting architecture (like an abandoned smallpox hospital), and panoramic vistas of the Manhattan skyline.

: Brooklyn’s McCarren Park is a popular spot for runners thanks to its public track. Head here for a sprint workout or a warm-up lap before a longer run—just keep an eye out for obstacles like wayward soccer balls or the occasional ice cream cart cruising around in lane one.

Events

: The 5th Avenue Mile proves that short distances can attract stiff competition. Elite sprinters battle here each year, and the course itself is a star: Competitors race from 80th Street to 60th Street, passing distinguished institutions like the Frick Collection art museum.

: This 13.1-mile spring classic has become a destination race for good reason, providing a scenic tour of two boroughs packed with iconic landmarks. Join 25,000 racers on closed NYC streets, from a Brooklyn start, across the Manhattan Bridge, heading up through Times Square, to a home stretch in Central Park.

: This race takes place in Prospect Park, Brooklyn’s answer to Central Park, and honors Al Gordon, a New Yorker who began running marathons in his 80s. While the distance is short, the course showcases the park’s beautiful scenery and includes some hilly terrain for an extra challenge. “I just love being there,” says Papageorge. “It’s underrated.”

Resources

Clubs

: Looking for someone to run with? Take a tip from , a seasoned marathoner who started this club to help runners of all experience levels find community in the sport. The beginner-friendly groups gather every Saturday morning.

: This nationwide running group has a strong presence in New York City. While the group runs every Monday are a big draw, joining Endorphins also gets you access to online resources like Q&As with running coaches and physical therapists.

: This club’s mission is twofold: Increase AAPI representation in running and get New Yorkers onto the dirt. If you’re itching for trails, join one of the club’s all-are-welcome group runs, which explore the wealth of wilderness areas just a short train ride outside the city.

: Front Runners is where New York’s LGBTQ+ and running communities overlap, and the group creates a positive, inclusive atmosphere at its weekly Fun Runs. If you become a member, you can also join the group’s coached workouts and triathlon training sessions.

: Why not start the weekend a little early? Almost Friday is the group to do it with: this friendly club meets every Thursday morning on the Hudson River Greenway for a chill run by the water. It’s the perfect midweek pick-me-up.

Stores

: New Balance’s Upper West Side location—just a few strides from Central Park—will be your go-to spot for running shoes, gear, and advice. Key highlight: The store is equipped with a 3D foot scanner to help you get the perfect fit in your next pair of shoes.

Independent since 1906,ÌęÌęempowers people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world.

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We think of New York as having a rat problem, but cats are doing just as much damage. They hunt staggering numbers of birds, they carry parasites that cause birth defects, they spread diseases that wash into the ocean and kill sea otters and seals. NYC’s cat population is exploding. Reporter Meg Duff investigates what, if anything, might be done about that.

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Flaco is dead. Long live Flaco.

In case you were unaware, one of the most whimsical and curious stories in the recent memory of New Yorkers came to an abrupt and sad end last Friday, February 23. A building superintendent on Manhattan’s Upper West Side , a massive Eurasian eagle owl who had escaped from the Central Park Zoo in early 2023 and then spent more than a year roaming the city, well, free as a bird. Officials performed an initial necropsy on the deceased owl, which showed it , likely the result of flying into a building. Additional testing for the presence of rodenticides, other toxins, or diseases is still being performed.

Flaco had been been raised in captivity and he was freed by a brazen act of vandalism—someone had intentionally shredded the protective zoo netting of his enclosure. The crime generated a handful of news stories, including The New York Times.ÌęWhat happened next seemed to catch everyone—includingÌęTimes writers—off guard. Flaco set up residence in Central Park, and curious New Yorkers adopted him as an unofficial mascot of the city. Crowds formed whenever Flaco perched in a tree. Photos of him napping on fire escapes or rooftops flooded social media. News outlets covered his every move—like when he and triumphantly barfed up his first owl pellet. Each new Flaco development generated more buzz.

Throughout 2023 and into 2024, the TimesÌęran an entire series of stories on Flaco and his fanatical followers. ? ? ? There were many Flaco questions, and theÌęTimes sought to answer them all. was either written or edited by Ed Shanahan, a veteran reporter and editor of breaking news on the Times’ÌęMetro desk. Shanahan edited the news story announcing Flaco’s freedom, and he wrote the one announcing his death, among other pieces. I recently called him up to try and understand why a feathery owl so thoroughly captivated New Yorkers and the city’s official newspaper of record.

șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű: How did you get on the Flaco beat? Did you raise your hand for the assignment or just routinely stumble into it?
Shanahan: I edited the initial news story. It was a typical Friday and we had heard about this owl being let loose from the zoo, and it seemed like such an unusual occurrence. It’s a crime story, so there’s going to be that attention on it. It’s an animal out of captivity, so I wondered if they can get him back. Then, I kept an eye on Twitter over the course of the first week, and there were people photographing Flaco and posting images there, so it was easy enough to see what developments were going on. After the first week, it seemed like there was not going to be a quick and easy resolution to this, and the mere fact of him remaining on the loose made it compelling to me. I guess I made enough of a case to my boss that was like: Hey, let’s do an update here.

Why do you think so many people were interested in the initial news stories?
There is an active and growing birding community in the city that got turbocharged during the pandemic. They are extremely active online, and this community very much latched on to Flaco. This gave me a sense that there was an audience for more coverage. Is it good for a bird to be out there? Would he be better off in the zoo? These were questions that folksÌę wanted to answer. Then, as time went on, Flaco started teaching himself to hunt, how to land on a branch, how to develop these skills, and that was also compelling. One time, when I went to check on the bird, there were a good number of people standing under the tree he was in. One woman said she had been at a dinner party, and the whole party had erupted in applause when they had seen on Twitter that Flaco had coughed up an owl pellet. I thought: There’s something going on here.

New York City has a long history of captiving animal stories, from the tiger in an apartment, to the , to . Why do you think Flaco in particular connected with readers on an emotional level?Ìę
I think it has a lot to do with how he got out of the zoo. He had gone from captivity to something like freedom—the idea of him having been in a cage his whole life, and now he’s out on his own and has to stand on his own two talons. He had to do things he’d never done, like hunt. It’s not like he had been free, and then taken into captivity, and was now just getting back to hunting and living in the wild. Also, you cannot discount the sheer magnificent beauty of the bird. Owls are so expressive with their front-facing eyes, and people generally are drawn to them. We have a lot of ideas about owls, like they are wise. He was also gigantic. Writing about animals is tricky, because people project things onto them. So you had Flaco the outlaw. Flaco the immigrant. I didn’t traffic in those ideas, but I can see how he had meaning for a lot of people.

I also wonder if his badass name helped capture attention. I wonder if as many people would have read about Doug the Owl.Ìę
Yes, it’s a great name and extremely catchy. I now know that, in Spanish, Flaco means skinny, and I think that was another part of him that was appealing. The bird was definitely not skinny. It’s like the big guy who people call “Tiny.” There was something funny about it.

I read online people saying it was just a matter of time before he was killed.Ìę
Yes. Based on the comments I got from experts, this was an extremely dangerous situation for the bird, and there were all of these threats he faced, even if he was able to learn how to eat and unleash his owl instincts. For people who know birds, they knew this about the situation. I don’t want to say he was doomed, but in a way he was. It was amazing that he lived as long as he did. Most experts told me that. For people who were not bird experts and latched onto Flaco for whatever inspirational value, I can understand why it’s hit so hard that he has died.

Video credit: David Lei

Every New York City story is a politics story. Did Flaco become a battleground?
A column was printed inÌęThe New York Post after he died that focused on the vandalism and the crime aspect, and how whomever did this did a disservice to Flaco. The writer took a dig atÌędistrict attorney Alvin Bragg, whoÌęThe Post says is soft on crime. Otherwise, there were a lot of people in the birding community who felt that the story wasn’t treated seriously enough. Flaco faced danger. He presented a danger to native species. There was a fear he might prey on the Peregrine falcons that live on the Upper West Side. But pretty much everyone was rooting for Flaco, no matter their background.

What does Flaco’s death represent within the wider scope of this story?
The hardened newsman in me sees his death as the likeliest outcome once he was placed in an unnatural and dangerous setting. He did a great job to last as long as he did. But I think it was preordained that he wasn’t going to die of old age.

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Last week, Jared Leto top roped on the Empire State Building. Yes, top roped on it. In a high-vis jumpsuit reminiscent of a Santa costume. Leto did it legally, too, which means that someone, somewhere, took the time to approve permits for this internet-breaking “feat.”

His climb began on the 86th floor (not street level), concluded on the 104th, and took approximately 20 minutes. Today, when you Google “Jared Leto Empire State Building,” there are 9,610,000 search results.

Ostensibly Leto’s childhood dream, the televised ascent was also a way to promote the fading rockstar’s upcoming band tour. A press release from the Live Nation wrote: “Having always been fascinated with the incredible landmark since he was a child, Leto said, ‘The building is a testament of all the things that can be done in the world if we put our minds to it, which is largely the inspiration behind our most recent album, It’s the End of the World But It’s a Beautiful Day.’”

Don’t bother re-reading that. Considering Leto’s climb, the distilled takeaway is a familiar one—if you’ve got even a modicum of talent, anything in this world can be accomplished if you’re wealthy. Which is so obviously the state of the modern world that I sometimes think problematizing publicity stunts like this is a waste of my time. Furthermore, why highlight mediocrity? (Sorry Leto
 those edges are, what, 30 millimeters? Basically huge hand holds mixed in with no-hands stances.) And as the dilettante’s morning TR-session was shockingly above board, safe, and seemingly offenseless—predictably, the morning’s Today Show article led with “Jared Leto got about 30 seconds closer to Mars”—what’s really the harm?Ìę

As it happens, climbing’s greatest problem is its incomprehensibility. I’ll excuse you if you don’t climb and think that everyone who does should be referred to as Spiderman. Or if Free Solo and The Alpinist have formed the basis of your understanding of our seemingly simple yet in fact elaborate sport. As one hiker once asked my friend who had just finished the hardest multi-pitch of his career: You realize you could have just walked up the back, right? The varied interpretations of climbing illustrate that there are rules to this sport’s game, and those rules are entirely self-directed. Climbing, in other words, gets to be what you choose to make it. The catch: the sport really only thrives in the context of explanation.

Nascent enthusiasts, inaccurate media, and false idols like Leto shock and confound the masses rather than further climbing as a sport. The more eyes the better, right? But the result is further misunderstanding about what climbing is—what’s cool and what isn’t, what’s hard and what’s, by the looks of it, 5.10—which darkens the fog.Ìę

Consider this: Our biggest traffic drivers last year had to deal with Alex Honnold, an auto-belay accident which led to an unfortunate anal impalement, and six-pack abs. If I title this article “Alex Honnold, Who Has a Great Six Pack, Was Impaled Anally Due to an Auto Belay Accident” I imagine it would also drive a lot of people to the site. But that doesn’t make it good for the sport.Ìę

I have no problem acknowledging that Leto is in fact a decent climber. His footwork is precise enough, and he clearly has some endurance. But if news outlets worldwide are talking about someone who climbed something, shouldn’t it be because their feat is worth talking about? Just this past week, Frenchman Charles Albert claimed the first ascent of another boulder which could be among the hardest in the world. He did so barefoot. may have just become the first women to flash V13 boulder problem (depending on how the grade solidifies over time), Adam Ondra established yet another difficult sport climb, and Laura Rogora sent “Lapsus,” another immensely difficult route. Each of those involved far more work, dedication, and soul than Leto’s 20 minute session.

Plus, well, Leto top roped it. I feel I needn’t say more, but allow me to state—for the record—that Leto’s ascent of the Empire State Building does not count.

Also Read:

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Ethiopian Tamirat Tola and Kenyan Hellen Obiri ran masterful races to win the New York City Marathon on Sunday morning, but they earned their victories in decidedly different fashion.

Tola, the 2022 marathon world champion, pulled away from countryman Jemal Yimer with a quick surge near mile 19 and went on to win in a course record 2:04:58, while Obiri outlasted a strong pack ofÌę women bunched together through mile 24 to win in 2:27:23.

But one of the biggest stories in the race was how well American women Kellyn Taylor and Molly Huddle ran in their postpartum return to the marathon. Taylor, less than 11 months after giving birth to daughter Keegan last December, led a large contingent of runners in the women’s race through the 23rd mile mark, en route to finishing eighth in 2:29:48. Huddle, who gave birth to daughter Josephine in April 2022, finished ninth in 2:32:02.

RELATED: Our Greatest Marathon Training Advice

Both runners, who are still breastfeeding this fall, will be running in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon on February 3 in Orlando, Florida, in an attempt to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team that will run in the Paris Olympics next summer.

A field of 50,000 runners ran the point-to-point race through New York City’s five boroughs amid ideal fall running conditions with temperatures in the mid-50s. (For complete results or to track a specific runner, visit the )

Tola Breaks Away

The men’s race was fast from the start, as a small pack at the front stretched out the pro field before the first several miles. By the halfway point, five men were on course-record pace, (1:02:43), but soon Tola, Yimer, the 2023 Los Angeles Marathon champion, and Albert Korir, the 2021 New York City Marathon champion, were alone at the front as they crossed the Queensboro Bridge and entered Manhattan near the 16-mile mark.

From there, Tola and Yimer surged away from Korir during the long straightaway on 1st Avenue with a 4:28 mile. The two Ethiopians ran stride for stride for about two miles, but Tola looked much more comfortable and seemed intent on breaking the race open as they ran through the 30K (18.6-mile) aid station. He gained a few strides over Yimer by mile 19 and then definitively gapped him on the short, hilly section through the Bronx.

From there, the 32-year-old Tola, a two-time fourth-place finisher in New York, was untouchable, continuing to push the pace to the finish line in Central Park. He broke the longstanding course record of 2:05:06 that was set in 2011 by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai.

Tola finished third in the London Marathon (2:04:59) back in April, but then he dropped out of the 2023 World Athletics Championships marathon in Budapest in mid-August because of stomach problems.

“I am very, very happy today,” Tola said. “Through 20K, there were some very good runners with me, but I continued to work on the up and down parts of the course. I knew the pace was not too hard for me, so I continued to run as fast as I could.”

After being dropped from the lead pack, Korir didn’t fade, but instead rallied over the final five miles en route to a runner-up finish in 2:06:57. Shura Kitata, a two-time New York City Marathon runner-up, was third in 2:07:11, while Abdi Nageeye, a Somali-born Dutch runner, was fourth in 2:10:21.

Edward Cheserek, a Kenyan athlete who was a record-setting high school runner in New Jersey and a 17-time NCAA champion for the University of Oregon, finished eighth in his debut marathon inÌę 2:11:07. Futsum Zienasellassie, a member of the HOKA NAZ Elite team based in Flagstaff, Arizona, was the top American in the race, finishing 10th in 2:12:09.

Obiri Pulls Rare Boston-NYC Double

The women’s race started at a relaxed pace with a dozen runners in the lead pack through the halfway split (1:14:20). Taylor and Huddle were consistently in the mix along with Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey and a deep contingent of Kenyans that included Obiri, Viola Cheptoo, Mary Ngugi, Edna Kiplagat, former world record holder Brigid Kosgei, and last year’s winner Sharon Lokedi.

Although Huddle, 39, fell off the lead pack near mile 20, Taylor, a 37-year-old mother of four, who was sixth in New York City in 2021, ran stride for stride with the lead group through mile 23 at aÌę 5:18-mile pace after it had dwindled to just nine runners. From there, Cheptoo pushed the pace—running the 24th mile in 5:09—and only Obiri, Gidey, Kosgei, and Lokedi could keep up.

RELATED: 24 Hours with One of the World’s Best Marathoners

With a mile to go, Obiri was in a battle with Gidey and Lokedi, and it looked like any of them could win it. But as the runners passed through Columbus Circle on the way back into Central Park, Obiri began to surge. She and Gidey broke away in an all-out sprint over the undulating final 400 meters, while Lokedi fell a few strides behind.

As Obiri began to open up a lead, she kept looking over her shoulder, but Gidey couldn’t respond, and Obiri broke the finish tape to win with a six-second margin over Gidey (2:27:29). It was the reversal of their final sprint in the 10,000-meter run at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, where Gidey outkicked Obiri for the win.

Lokedi was third in 2:27:33, followed by Kosgei in fourth (2:27:45) and Ngugi in fifth (2:27:53), making it one of the closest finishes in New York City Marathon history.

A year after making her marathon debut in New York—she finished sixth in 2:25:49—Obiri, 33, has emerged as the top women’s marathoner in the world. She won the Boston Marathon in April in 2:21:38. She became the fifth woman ever to win Boston and New York in the same year, the first time since Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen did it in 1989.

“I knew it was going to be difficult because Gidey and Lokedi are both very fast,” said Obiri, who trains in Boulder, Colorado, as part of the On Athletics Club and coach Dathan Ritzenhein. “But the marathon is all about patience, and so I kept saying, Let me be patient. Then with 400 meters to go, I tried to sprint and get away and it worked.”

Five of the top ten women finishers are mothers, including Obirri, Ngugi, Kiplagat, Taylor, and Huddle.

Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner, 28, won the women’s wheelchair race in a course-record 1:39:32, while 37-year-old countryman Marcel Hug, a 12-time world champion and six-time Paralympic champion won the race for the fifth time in 1:25:29. The U.S. Paralympic marathon team was selected from the New York City results, as Daniel Romanchuk (second, 1:27:38) and Aaron Pike (fourth, 1:39:58) were the top American men, while Sussannah Scaroni (third, 1:48:14) and Tatayna McFadden (sixth, 1:53:31) were the top two U.S. women.

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Rahsaan Thomas still remembers immense leg cramps the day he completed his first marathon in 2017. On a cold Friday morning in November, he tied up a pair of donated white-and-grey Nikes and pounded around a quarter-mile loop of gravel, dirt, and concrete in a yard surrounded by barbed wire fences at San Quentin State Prison, a maximum-security facility 25 miles north of San Francisco, California.

Thomas grew up in Brownsville, in east Brooklyn, one of New York City’s poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods. He was 29 when he was arrested after he fatally shot someone and injured another during a drug deal. Three years later, Thomas was sentenced with 55 years to life for a second-degree murder conviction.

RELATED: Why I Run in Prison

While Thomas was incarcerated, he had dedicated himself to rehabilitation. He became a staff writer for the San Quentin News, a regular contributor to , and he developed into an acclaimed journalist, co-hosting the Pulitzer Prize-nominated podcast “,” an audio production created from within San Quentin highlighting daily life in prison. Thomas also worked with several criminal justice reform groups in addition to earning an associate’s degree. And he found running.

26.2 to Life

At San Quentin, Thomas had joined the prison’s in 2013, a running program led by volunteers and implemented as a way to encourage those incarcerated to run 1,000 miles or more while serving time, says the club’s head coach Frank Ruona, a former army officer and accomplished marathoner. Ruona oversees the prison’s annual marathon, which is the subject of a new documentary , directed by Christine Yoo.

“Being able to go inside prisons is very important in order for people to understand what’s really going on in the system,” Yoo says. “This is how we can begin to address reducing incarceration. We owe it to ourselves as a society not to just lock them up and throw away the key, because these are human beings who are being punished for being poor and on drugs or have developed criminal behavior as a result of growing up in abusive households, which loops back to poverty and drugs. It’s an overwhelming and depressing situation. But what I learned from the 1000 Mile Club is that it’s possible to change lives, to make a lasting impact, that with support, rehabilitation is a realistic goal, and it can change the prison system as we know it.”

Yoo says she hopes the film will inspire the incarcerated population and prison administrators to better understand the benefits of rehabilitation and want to start their own running clubs.

Running, Thomas says, gave him a breath of freedom, though it was short-lived. He ran for acceptance and simultaneously for punishment and redemption. As grueling and painful as it felt, Thomas wanted to prove that, if he could finish a marathon, he could endure anything. So he kept going around the loop, which comprised six 90-degree turns in the prison’s yard, surveilled by armed guards in towers. Thomas, nicknamed “New York,” circled it 105 times alongside a couple dozen other incarcerated men, all of whom were members of San Quentin’s 1000 Mile Club.

Dressed in loose, knee-length grey shorts and a white sweatband around his forehead, Thomas moved gingerly, urging himself not to quit. He struggled through muscle cramps on the way to finishing the marathon distance in 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 23 seconds.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Thomas, 53. Now, he will run his first marathon outside the prison walls.

“My Knees Complain”

Thomas was granted a commutation, a reduced sentence, from California Governor Gavin Newsom. After being incarcerated for nearly 23 years, he was released with parole on February 8, 2023. He celebrated that day by eating steak and French toast for breakfast, before he shopped for clothes and called his mother and his son.

Five months later, in July, Thomas began training for the New York City Marathon, as part of a pact he made with Claire Gelbart, whom he met at San Quentin when she volunteered as a journalism teaching assistant. They agreed to run a marathon together in the future if ever he was released.

“I’d always wanted to walk from Brooklyn to Harlem just to see New York,” Thomas says. “The opportunity to run all five boroughs to see the whole city really appeals to me.”

But he knows all too well that preparing to run a marathon is an art of consistency. “My knees complain,” he says, laughing. “I’m slow.”

A Natural Leader

Fitting in the training has been a calculated effort since his release nine months ago, as life has become as busy as ever. Thomas, who currently lives in the Bay Area, is awake by 6 A.M., often starting the day at the gym for an hour before plugging into continuous Zoom meetings before mentoring youth at San Francisco’s juvenile hall.

His priority is bringing awareness to , a nonprofit Thomas co-founded and launched in June 2020 while he was incarcerated. Its mission is to use art and writing to break cycles of intergenerational incarceration and poverty and achieve public safety without violence. In October, Thomas started a with the goal of raising $120,000 to support Empowerment Avenue’s programming initiatives.

RELATED: Running in Prison Changed Everything

Mass incarceration “only punishes symptoms like poverty, a lack of opportunities, isolation, and a culture that breeds hate,” Thomas wrote on the fundraiser page. The idea behind Empowerment Avenue is to offer a different approach by connecting incarcerated men in filmmaking, art, and journalism with respective industries to bridge creative partnerships.

“It’s about showing the world something different and at the same time getting people paid for their work so their individual lives will be better,” Thomas says. “People coming home broke and not having the opportunity to make money legally [or] being excluded from society is not a good thing.”

Thomas learned by experience while at San Quentin, where he began his writing career from his four-by-nine-foot cell. He says Empowerment Avenue helped normalize inclusion of his work as a writer from behind bars.

“When you include people in society and provide economic opportunities to heal, you get people that don’t come back to prison,” Thomas says. “You get people that become productive members of society.”

Empowerment Avenue’s fundraising initiative comprises tiered goals: $5,000 can support the expansion of a writing development program at the Dr. Lane Murray Unit, a women’s prison of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Gatesville, Texas; $10,000 can aid a year of books, magazines, stamps, and other supplies for Empowerment Avenue writers and artists; upwards of $40,000 will support the production of an exhibition curated by an incarcerated artist as well as funding for a film.

Thomas says his goal is to employ the formerly incarcerated on staff as he continues to expand Empowerment Avenue. He hopes that by running the New York City Marathon he can bring necessary awareness that can help make an impact.

“We’re a proof of concept. We’re showing the public the importance of having access to society, getting our messages out, holding the system accountable,” says Thomas. “No matter how hard it is, you’ve got to keep going. I keep going.”

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In 2007, on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, New York City debuted its first-ever protected bike lane–”protected” meaning that it featured physical barriers for bicyclists from motor vehicle traffic, in this case via a row of parked cars. There’s no such thing as an unoccupied parking space in Manhattan, so a row of parked cars is tantamount to a wall.

In the ensuing years, as the city’s bike lane network expanded (we’re at over 600 miles of protected bike lanes now), there has been no shortage of threats to destroy it. Some of those threats were mostly idle, such as now disgraced politician Anthony Weiner’s in 2011 to “have a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your fucking bike lanes.” Others have been more real, such as the city’s when it comes to the many motorists who park in them. Recently, a new threat to the network has emerged, and it’s perhaps the most insidious yet: People who ride motor scooters in bike lanes.

Now, when I say “motor scooters,” I’m not referring to those stand-up electric things that look like pogo sticks on wheels. I mean yes, there are lots of people riding those in the bike lanes too, but that’s . No, what I mean is actual gasoline-burning motorized scooters—the ones many Americans collectively refer to as “Vespas,” even though they’re almost never Vespas, or sometimes “mopeds,” which makes even less sense since the “-ped” part of “moped” means “pedal” and these things don’t have them. Whatever you call them, basically they’re motorcycles with leg shields that you don’t have to shift. While people using motor scooters in New York City is nothing new, they were always relatively few and far between. Now, they’re everywhere you look.

Of course there’s nothing inherently wrong with motor scooters. In fact, motor scooters are people’s main form of transportation in many parts of the world, and if you’ve traveled you’ve probably seen . They’re relatively cheap, they’re efficient, they’re practical, they’re easy to ride, and they take up a hell of a lot less space on the road than a typical SUV. On the surface, more of them in traffic-clogged New York sounds like a good thing.

Unfortunately, these motor scooters aren’t replacing SUVs at all. Car traffic here is just as bad as its ever been—so bad in fact that we’re about to try . Instead, these scooters are merely adding to all the cars, and trucks, and micromobility e-thingies, and all the rest of it. And increasingly, instead of using the streets, their riders are simply using the bike lanes. O that as much as 25 percent of traffic on the Manhattan Bridge bike path now consists of some sort of motor scooter, either gas-powered or electric. Motorists in the bike lanes have always been an unfortunate fact of life here, but you could at least count on certain bridge and park paths being car-free, since even the most determined drivers couldn’t get their vehicles onto them.

Alas, this is not a problem for the motor scooter riders, who can simply slip in between the bollards, and with a twist of the throttle race right through the park or across the span. The presence of motor scooters on these narrow paths that were once sanctuaries for bicyclists is irritating, vexing, jarring, infuriating, and potentially dangerous. As a bonus, their machines are typically unregistered, and it’s fairly safe to assume someone riding an unregistered motorcycle on a bike path is also unlicensed and uninsured, raising the question of what happens if one of them hits you. Unfortunately, some bicyclists are now finding out .

So how did this happen? Well, one reason is that food delivery people because their e-bikes are inconvenient to charge and occasionally burst into flames. I suspect another reason is that, as e-contraptions that defy categorization continue to proliferate, they’ve outstripped the state’s capacity to register and account for them, and so the very idea of doing so has mostly gone out the window. Therefore, at a certain point, even if they weren’t involved in the business of delivering food, people probably looked around at all these high-speed e-things whizzing around and realized, “Fuck it, I’ll just ride around on an unregistered motor scooter.” (Or some enterprising vendors realized, “Fuck it, I’ll just start selling unregistered motor scooters.”) And all of this is happening against a backdrop of , as well as advocates and policymakers pushing the idea that the .

Bike advocates have long pushed for bicycle infrastructure on the basis that, , people need to feel safe. Moreover, a robust bike network “, and gives even more New Yorkers, including children, seniors, and families, safe access to this joyful and healthful transportation.” But how safe are children, seniors, and families supposed to feel when their path is full of people flying by on motor scooters? Thanks to drivers, the streets are inhospitable enough, so if the bike lanes are also full of motorized traffic then that’s nothing less than an existential threat to the network’s ostensible purpose. Anti-bike lane op-eds are mostly just sound and fury signifying nothing, but a bicycle lane full of motor scooters immediately ceases to be a bike lane at all.

Nevertheless, advocates and urbanists seem loath to call out this very real threat. Instead they keep remind us that (duh), and suggest that the motor scooter riders only use the bike lanes because they feel unsafe too. (Though the number of motor scooter riders I see popping wheelies and running red lights would seem to indicate the contrary.) We don’t need enforcement, they say; all of this can simply be . More recently, though it’s been framed as a justice for workers issue, rather than another case of motorized anarchy plaguing New York City. In my opinion, this feels both deflective and reductive, given that unregistered motor scooter use is by no means limited to people engaged in food delivery.

There’s no question that New York City yields a disproportionately large amount of public space to the automobile. At the same time, this would not be the case had we not surrendered so much of that space in the first place. So as New York City’s nascent bike lane network experiences an unprecedented incursion of motorized traffic, it’s at least worth discussing whether or not we should take more focused and decisive action now, rather than relying on making “more space for all modes,” which is the sort of change it takes decades to effect. Hey, maybe New York City’s bike lanes becoming “any motor vehicle that’s not a car lanes” is inevitable. But what if enforcement (which we’re now seeing, at least ) isn’t such a dirty word after all? What if is like when the city finally relented and ? What if it’s just the thin end of the wedge?

Yes, in the long term, it would be great if New York City had a bicycle lane, and an e-bike lane, and a motor scooter lane, and a lane for people who like to ride . But until then, it’s fairly simple: if you ride a motor scooter or a motorcycle, there’s already a lane for you, and it’s the motor vehicle lane. Hey, if it’s not to your satisfaction, you can always start an advocacy group. Want advice on how to do that? Just ask the cyclists, they’ve been advocating for themselves for well over a century.

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