There’s a particular kind of energy you get on a big bike ride rolling through your neighborhood. The drivers give you the street. Kids run to their windows. Somebody’s grandmother on the stoop waves and yells, “Enjoy the ride!” And for a few hours, the streets that usually grind with diesel and gridlock belong to the people who just want to see their own city with their own two feet and two wheels.

On Sunday, September 20, Queens is having a cycling party. The inaugural Ride Queens, hosted by Borough President Donovan Richards, kicks off at 10 a.m. from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It will be the borough’s one big, unifying ride that connecting the Queens cycling communities.

A Borough That Already Rides

Ask anyone who’s been pedaling through Queens for a while, and they’ll tell you the same thing: this place is built for bikes in ways the rest of the city hasn’t caught up to. The greenways are long and leafy. The neighborhoods sprawl out in a way that makes a 15-mile loop feel like a road trip through different countries. You can start in a Spanish-speaking block in Corona, roll through the quiet residential streets of Fresh Meadows, pop into the bustle of downtown Flushing, and end up watching the sun set from College Point, all before your legs start screaming.

That geography and scale makes a Queens ride feel different from a ride in any other borough. You’re not looping around a park or racing along highway-like roads. You’re cutting through distinct communities, past storefronts in more than a hundred languages, through parks that range from tiny pocket squares to the entire Eastern Queens Greenway chain.

The Rides That Built This Moment

In the past we’ve had great, group rides in Queens. The Tour de Flushing ran an annual 20-mile ride through the borough’s northeast neighborhoods in the mid-2010s. Pulling in 100s of riders, it demonstrated demand, which eventually lead to $45 Million dedicated to improving park trails.

Then there’s the Queens Women’s Ride, which was not just a recreational tour but also a cycling gender-gap statement. A coalition of women cyclists and bike advocates rolled through Queens to make a clear point: women belong on these roads, and the city needs to make them safer. Part celebration, part protest, part call to action. Riders lined the streets, and for a morning, the conversation about who gets to ride in New York shifted a little.

The Tour de Flushing, The Women’s Ride, and the Ride Queens are all telling people that: this is your borough, these are your roads, and you have a right to travel them safely.

How the Ride Works

Borough President Donovan Richards is hosting Ride Queens. He’s not running this as a race, or a charity event, or a sponsored spectacle. This is a borough ride for Queens, organized by and for the people who live here.

The format is simple: sign up for the ride and just show up at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park at 10 a.m. on Sunday the 20th. You pick your route:

• 12-mile loop: through central Queens, perfect if you’ve got kids on a trailer, if you’re getting back into cycling, or if you just want to keep it social and unhurried.
• 25-mile route: stretching into northern and eastern Queens, which will get you into neighborhoods you might never hit on a regular Sunday.

Stick around after the ride, since there will be international food vendors, performances, sponsor tabling, giveaways and more, all at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Either way, you roll out of the park, ride through communities and greenways that define what makes this place The World’s Borough. We’re expecting up to 2,000 riders so sign up now.

Why You Should Show Up

Queens is a borough of 2.4 million people, and the way we move through it shapes who we are. We’ve always been a borough of people on the move. Biking through it together, on a Sunday morning, is one of the most Queens things you can do. It’s unpretentious. It’s big. It’s a little chaotic. It’s full of great people.

Show up on September 20th. Get to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park by 10. Bring your kids. Bring a friend (or make a new one). Bring some water, a snack, and if you can, some music. Ride the 12-miler so you have enough energy to get some dumpling in Flushing afterwards. Ride the 25-miler and enjoy cycling along the waterfront. Just make sure to come, since the “first ever” Ride Queens only happens once.

For routes, registration, and details: queensbp.nyc.gov/ridequeens