"Are we gonna get run over?" ('No! Our safety story)

We would not take you out on our streets if it was not safe. These are the same streets I bike with my own child on.

We have been running tours for 18 years as a Street Tour Named Desire, and previously as Confederacy of Cruisers, and besides one kid who once stuck her arm in a stray dog’s mouth (not recommended), we have never had anyone get hurt on our bike tours. We choose our routes carefully, completely avoiding the busier roads with faster drivers. By sticking to the tight-knit community streets, we get more people waving us through than anything else.

Can accidents happen? Sure. When I was 7 years old, I took Judo. I was the smallest kid in the class and I got tossed like a rag doll. Then, on the car ride home, my friend Greg sat on my thumb and sprained it. So, I survived Judo just to get hurt on the way home. Anything can happen in life, but we take every step humanly possible to keep our riders safe.

Built for beginners, casuals, and a 92-year-old great-grandfather.

Yes, A Street Tour Named Desire tours built for beginners, casual riders, and everyone else. We've had proffessionala racers, first timers (with some practice before the tour, and just recently, a 92 year old great grandfather!

If you have never been to New Orleans, you should know that outside of a few manmade dirt piles in our parks, we don’t have hills. It is as flat as a flounder here. Pedaling one of our cruiser bikes is as easy as walking, just twice as breezy.

"Speed Holes?" Our Secret Theory on the Potholes of New Orleans 

I haven’t been able to pin down the exact history on this, but rumor has it New Orleans invented the pothole in 1718. I know for a fact we spent the next 300 years perfecting them.

But as Cassady—the very first guide I hired 16 years ago—used to say: “Those scars on the streets of the Bywater, Marigny, and Tremé are not potholes. They are speed holes. They force the cars to drive slowly, keeping the streets safer for us on bikes.” Cassady was very smart and very New Orleans (he teaches high school now so he can stay dry when it rains).

New Orleans is built over a drained swamp with soft soil, and plenty of it sits below sea level. Crumbling pavement is a local pastime, but it isn't a dangerous one for our guests. The potholes don’t move, we bike slowly, and I’ve never seen a customer fall into one.

Why Reddit says biking in New Orleans is a death wish? Sometimes when I read the local subreddits, I think those commenters live in a completely different New Orleans than me.

Maybe they are trying to bike on skinny, crowded Uptown streets like Magazine Street. Or maybe they choose heavy, 6-lane thoroughfares with zero bike lanes like Claiborne Avenue or the busy parts of Elysian Fields Avenue.

The most common reaction we get from visitors after finishing one of our rides is how incredibly quiet the streets are. That is because we choose our routes with extreme care.

The Safety and Politeness Speech Before every single ride, we give a mandatory briefing. How boring is the safety speech? Not boring at all—we fill it with jokes.

But it isn’t just about safety; I call it the Safety and Politeness Speech. We go out of our way each and every day to remind our guests that we can only give these tours because we make sure our groups are neighborly. We respect the neighborhoods, and they respect us back.

We have been on these roads for 18 years—longer than many people have lived in these areas. We make sure we give the exact same politeness we receive. We simply could not keep doing this if we weren't still getting those friendly local waves as we bike by.