New York is the only city in the country where motorists are outnumbered by residents who choose to walk, pedal, or use public transportation, and though car ownership has gone down citywide, bicycling advocates say the city has not done as much as it should for cyclists.

Figures from the state Department of Motor Vehicles show that car ownership in the five boroughs declined by 10% in 2004, and projections from the city Department of Transportation suggest that in 2004 there were an estimated 113,000 daily cyclists in the city, up 61% from 1990.

Despite the increase in bicyclists, there are only 200 miles of greenways and on-street bike lanes in the city, while there are 6,000 miles of streets for motorized vehicles.

“This city’s streets are designed for hulking motor vehicles … the sheer volume of vehicles and the heedlessness of drivers leave no room for error on city streets,” the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, Paul White, said yesterday morning in front of City Hall. “The city has to be doing much more.”

Mr. White’s group, a nonprofit organization that campaigns for decreased automobile use in the city and promotes the rights of bicyclists and pedestrians, was part of an alliance of city cycling groups that rode from Fifth Avenue and Warren Street in Brooklyn to the steps of City Hall.

The ride was planned as a memorial to the 204 city bicyclists killed in the city since 1995. Rally participants called on Mayor Bloomberg to convene a task force to develop an action plan to prevent further deaths and injuries to bicyclists.

A press officer at the Department of Transportation, Kay Sarlin, said such a task force is not currently in the works.

According to recently released data from the New York Police Department, nine cyclists have been killed in crashes since the beginning of this year. Given the increase in cyclists, the percentage of fatalities has dipped in the past few years, but cyclists said changes must be made to accommodate their growing presence.

One bicycle advocate, Noah Budnick, 27, was riding on Sands Street in Brooklyn on March 29 when he hit a pothole and was flung off onto the pavement, landing on his head. Although he was wearing a helmet, he said, he suffered traumatic brain injury and spent three days in intensive care.

“The pothole wouldn’t have hurt a driver in a car, but it sent me flying,” he told The New York Sun. “I’ve always asked myself why the city doesn’t provide cyclists with safe space to ride in when there’s so many of us. For example, there are only two bike boxes” – advanced waiting spaces for bicycles in traffic – “in the entire city.”

Mr. Budnick and other bicycling advocates concede that city government has made great progress in improving the situation for cyclists and pedestrians. Only Tuesday, for example, a two-way bike lane on Sands Street was announced by the Transportation Department. Additionally, the Safe Routes to School and Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming programs have helped make traffic safer in several areas of the city; 100 miles of bicycle routes have been added in the past four years, part of a plan to create a 900-mile network, and Mr. Bloomberg allocated $7 million for the missing link between West 83rd and West 91st streets in Manhattan on the Hudson River Greenway.

“Things have really improved, but not nearly enough,” another cyclist, Matthew Roth, said. “Drivers don’t know cyclists’ rights, and though we’re legally allowed to occupy an entire lane in traffic, they don’t know that, so they drive more aggressively when we do. I’ve even gotten things thrown at me.”

Transportation Alternatives’ “8th Annual NYC Bicycling Report Card,” too, says drivers fail to honor bike lanes, many of which are in poor condition. The report also criticizes the city for lacking an education campaign and mounting weak enforcement efforts. Though the city put out a cycling map this year, the advocates complained that two of the cyclists who were killed were riding routes recommended by the publication.