Riding in the Big Easy: Bike Paths in New Orleans

There are few safe places for bike riders in New Orleans. Intersections, cars, and poor roads make it difficult to train or even ride for fun. There are plans to create more bike paths throughout the city. For now, here are a few currently popular places for bikers:

On any given day, you can catch a plethora of local riders training on St. Charles Avenue along the streetcar line. It offers a decent road surface and interesting sites to see, but it does have a lot of intersections and cars (also mind the streetcars). There are a lot of schools along St. Charles, so be careful of the school traffic and watch out for children. Many riders opt take the ride through Audubon Park when traffic becomes unbearable.

Audubon Park is boasts a paved and level path. The “long loop” that crosses Magazine St. is about 3 miles, but can be extended by using the new bike path on the Levee. The park tends to be extremely crowded except for the early morning. Watch out for children, pets, and walkers on the wrong side of the path.

Lakeshore Drive another one of the city’s most popular biking locations. The complete 10-mile out and back course offers a good surface, little traffic, few intersections and nice scenery.
The perimeter of City Park is a popular route with few intersections and good riding surface with a lot of different options and routes to lengthen or shorten your ride. It has nice scenery and the trees make for a cool summer ride.

The new bike path on the Mississippi River Levee, (” Mississippi River Trail”), is probably one of the best places to train. The path starts at Audubon Park (near the zoo) and goes about 22 miles upriver to Kenner There no intersections and no traffic. It’s a scenic, smooth ride (the road is made of asphalt) though there is no shade.