Via: BikeBiz.com

And it’s all because of the city’s week-long public transportation strike. This strike is now over but it forced many New Yorkers to walk and cycle to work. NYC bike shops did a roaring trade, reports NYNewsday.com.

Bike advocacy group Transportation Alternatives surveyed key bike routes during the strike and reported that bicycle use had increased by 500 percent over normal working days.

City officials did their bit to encourage cycle use. NYC’s contingency plan encouraged businesses to relax any no-bike policies.

Keep Reading.

There is a website mentioned in this article that gives commuting tips and city maps to people that have discovered the great art of commuting to work since the strikes, you can visit the website at www.bikethstrike.com.

Some interesting facts about the strike:

• Because the strike was ruled illegal the transit workers lost three days of pay for every day they didn’t show up to work
• The city of New York lost somewhere between $440 million to $660 million a day during the strike
• Schools started two hours late that week
• Only cars with 4 people or more were allowed past 96th street.