Streetsblog New York City

Great idea. I like the bus idea too.

I love the looks and the apparent car-repulsing properties, but how does the paint shed water?

Is it slicker than unpainted pavement?

thats a good idea, but does it need to be insane lime-neon green? how about white? i would not want to live on that street and have to look at that color every time i left my house. and i love to ride my bike.

Yuck, what an eyesore. And that's a lot of paint that's going to look like crap when it starts wearing out unevently. They could have had a similar and more tasteful effect with white striped lines.

Here in Holland, many bike lanes and paths are dark red. This is actually the color of the asphalt (or the tiles), which means that it won't disappear through wear. When there are no free bike crossings (in Holland, on major roads, bicycle paths have their own crossings and traffic lights), the special asphalt continues on over the crossing, especially to alert turning drivers.

By chance I notice a great example on this in Rotterdam. The bikers use the parallel road, but on the major crossing they share the main road. See how the lane is painted red to alert drivers that they have to give way to bikers going straight on.

See: http://maps.google.nl/?ie=UTF8&ll=51.891534,4.479898&spn=0.000718,0.001293&t=k&z=19&om=1

thats a good idea, but does it need to be insane lime-neon green?

I've been told that in some parts of Europe, they use solid blue paint to mark bike lanes. That would be less garish than lime-neon green, though it might be too subtle for New York.

Green has been picked because it's the newly-agreed-upon standard of the Federal DOT/FHWA. NYC DOT had tried a few options in the past, but now that there is a federal standard, they are using it.

I wouldn't mind this bright, cheerful green stripe on my street at all, and it's there as a matter of safety. It looks better than a big, red blood stain. And maybe it's a nod to a greener form of transportation.

Other countries that have more dedication to this use other treatments, whether it be pigmented pavements (which don't wear off) or surface applications. London's TfL has tables and tables listing costs, durability, friction, and other considerations for methods of achieving a colored lane for bike, buses, and other purposes.

It is green alright, and bright. But it is great. I heard a few people are complaining about the color. I say grow up people, it's just asphalt. We are talking about safety here.

Besides, in about a few weeks, the color will not be as vibrant I am sure after the sun and weathering cuts down on the color.

I live there.

I have nothing against bikes. But the f--king paint job is a total aesthetic disaster. This is the prettiest neighborhood in the city, the first historic district, brownstone brooklyn. One thing it surely does not need is a giant neon green stripe.

If someone painted a stoop this color the city would sue them. For good reason. That principle works in reverse. If they want to make the bike lane clearer then put a raised ridge between it and the other part of the road to catch a tire. This is just retarded.

i personally like the way it looks. should have bike icons as well though.

Hmm. I'm wondering whether this street needs a bike lane at all? As a cyclist, I'd feel safer here if they got rid of the bike lane, maybe put big bike icons in the middle of the street. It also doesn't look like a street that is congested with standing traffic very often, where a bike lane would be practical for cyclists to pass.

On the plus side, looks like it's reasonably wide and fortunately not next to parked cars (door zone).

In London, where I currently live, the color of bike lanes is actually green tarmac. While they seem to have different types of this, the one most commonly used is awful in quality. It is very rough and has higher rolling resistance than the street asphalt. It is usually just put on at the very end manually, without a steamroller smoothing it, so the result is awful to ride on. The green tarmac is also usually not at all durable, and chips and cracks quickly, making the ride even worse.

So, what sort of traction does one get on the paint? I'm sure someone thought of this, but I'd be a bit skittish to ride it right after the rain...

In my view the bike lane is a good thing on this street because the raod is so narrow and has parking on only one side, so that if a car double parks or parks at the on the curb opposite the parking lane, the resulting "pinch point" does not leave enough room for a car and a bicyclist to proceed abreast of each other. The bike lane requires a car approahing a pinch point to yield to the bicyclist, let him or her through first. Without the bike lane, I'd expect about 7 of 10 motorists to try to edge out the cyclist (with the bike lane the statistic is problably more like 5 of 10).

For me, the fact that there are no signs is a big plus. Especially for any "historic feel". The green lane speaks for itself, and anyone would know it's a bike lane. What the city doesn't need is more streetside signs to direct drivers. That said, this street probably only needed sharrows. But if this will encourage more bikers, all the better.

Is data being collected on its effectiveness?

I don't have a bike, but walk on Henry St. all the time and actually think the green looks really good. It's a nicer shade than the picture shows and is a good reinforcement that biking is good for the rider and the environment. I'm hoping more lanes will be painted like this.

I like the green streets it shows that we aren't so plain and that we can be exciting.