The Power Biker is a free bike tour of Robert Moses’s impact on New York City. See a preview of the 8 stops below.

  • The tour starts at the end of the 2nd Ave subway, loops around Randall’s Island, and returns to the starting point.

  • The tour is approximately 2 hours long, including 6.5 miles of biking at a leisurely pace (~45 minutes across 8 segments).

1.) Intro and Transit Legacy

While first proposed in the 1920’s, none of the 2nd Ave Subway was built until 2016. Robert Moses is a big reason why. Who was this man, how did he freeze rail development in its tracks, and why?

2.) How did he do it?

Moses build nearly every parkway or expressway, most of the bridges and car tunnels, and the vast majority of parks in NYC (including the FDR and Stanley Issacs Playground where we’ll be standing). How did he do it? Who helped him? What happened to those who fought against his goals?

3.) Parks

Everyone loves parks. Moses made great parks, so everyone loved Robert Moses! The Wards Island park is a great example we’ll experience firsthand to understand his long-held popularity.

4.) Triborough

Popularity only gets you so far. Money gets you further. How did Moses turn a bridge into a source and seat of power that held across mayors, governors, and presidents?

5.) Traffic

How do you solve a traffic problem? More roads (and bridges, and lanes, and interchanges, etc), obviously! As we look up the East River at the Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges, and see planes leaving LGA (all Moses projects), we can start to see the extent of Moses’s ambitions, and the limits of his approach.

6.) The Robert Moses Building

While Moses was a regular visitor to Gracie Mansion earlier in his career, by the end, he made the mayors come to him. How does someone spending their days separated from the city they’re working in (literally on an island!), surrounded by sycophantic staff, stay in touch with the people they’re supposed to be helping? Hint… they don’t.

7.) Housing

What happens when someone with all the power to improve something doesn’t care whether it’s improved or degraded? Let’s find out by giving Robert Moses control of the city’s housing programs!

8.) Calling Bluffs

Moses held multiple, overlapping state and local positions, and had successfully resisted politicians’ meddling for decades. How did Moses lose the power he had kept for so long? And where does that leave us, over 50 years later?

Join a Tour

Sound fun? Sign up to join our next tour!