Every parent knows that the surest way to get children to fall asleep is to roll them around in strollers on bumpy sidewalks. Since I spent a good chunk of the last several years rolling infants through New York, I have the following recommendations:

When our first son was born, we were living in Chelsea. Here you mostly find the standard 4-by-4-foot concrete squares that result in roughly one bump per second. A perfectly fine starter surface for the new father.

With our second child, we graduated to the cobblestone streets of Dumbo, which have the bonus of being broken up by an occasional rail. Pushing a stroller here is physically challenging, but your little darling will be snoring within seconds.

With our third son, I discovered the Champs-Élysées for putting kids to sleep: the west sidewalk along Columbia Heights, in Brooklyn. Tree roots have rearranged the old granite slabs into a bizarre topography. Navigating a stroller through the jumps and jolts is not for the faint of heart, but to my amazement I have never seen a baby fall asleep as peacefully.