To bike or not to bike

On Google Maps, sitting at home in the UK, it all looked so easy. No need to commute by subway, I will cycle to school from 72nd and Broadway to Columbia University - there's a bike path that takes me all the way there!

What Google Maps failed to indicate was the series of traffic lights that I would face on Central Park West. Should I risk going through a red, or wait with the cars? The man in the bike shop told he'd been cycling through reds for seven years and only been stopped three times. How's that for odds.

The other thing that Google Maps isn't so clear on is the small but very steep park at Morningside Heights that I would have to negotiate in order to reach school. Nor did it make me aware that I would have to cycle down Broadway to get back home, because Central Park West is a one way road.

Perhaps biking in New York was a touch over-optimistic.