Fleeing mass transit New Yorkers turn to bicyles

Roads and highways are wide open, but bike lanes are filling up.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

He's afraid to take the subway, and he doesn't own a car.

So Brooklyn resident John Donahue went out and bought a bike.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK-BASED ARTIST AND FOUNDER OF ALLTHERESTAURANTS.COM, JOHN DONOHUE, SAYING: "It's kind of a weird and interesting time to get back into biking because there's so little traffic, you know?

It's fun in a way.

There's very little traffic.

So it's easy.

It's like they've set it up as like a training center for you or something, you know?" Donahue like many, is looking for a way to get outside, run errands, and maybe get a little exercise at a time of sweeping stay-at-home orders.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK-BASED ARTIST AND FOUNDER OF ALLTHERESTAURANTS.COM, JOHN DONOHUE, SAYING: "There seem to be way more bikes everywhere I go." Cycling doesn't rank very high as a form of transportation in the U.S. According to the Census Bureau, less than one percent nationwide said they commute by bike in 2017.

But amid a city-wide shutdown, New York City declared bicycles an essential transportation item, so many bike shops remain open.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) 718 CYCLERY OWNER, JOE NOCELLA, SAYING: "Definitely seeing a big uptick in people wanting bikes, wanting kind of bikes to get around the city, wanting kind of a solid bike just to kind of give them some mobility in terms of work, but also in terms of just getting out of the house if they are on the kind of shutdown." Joe Nocella owns 718 Cyclery & Outdoors in Brooklyn.

He's doing a brisk business in bikes priced between $1,500 and $2000.

And bikes are booming beyond New York City.

Kent International imports bikes from China and also makes them at this plant in South Carolina, and supplies retailers across the U.S. Kent's CEO told Reuters orders were up 30% last month and are up over 50% so far in April.

Kent is already out of stock on five of his top-selling models and expects that to rise to 10 by the end of the month.

Still, for the little guy, the surge in demand doesn't necessarily make bikes an easy business right now.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) 718 CYCLERY OWNER, JOE NOCELLA, SAYING: "The bike industry, for whatever reason, has pretty rough margins to begin with.

So just being able to stay afloat and pay my bills is a success.

So that's what I gauge our success on."