That can’t be the whole story. They just striped a bike path through City Hall Park to connect Warren Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. If they really wanted to, they could have done the same thing in Washington Square Park.

Parking-protected bike lanes were passed over in this project in favor of painted curbside lanes because the streets are too narrow. (A parking protected lane has to be extra wide because of the door zone). Running lanes through the park was excluded because bikes are not allowed in parks.

1) Cyclist are rarely ever ticketed for anything except riding on the sidewalks. It is quite common to see a cyclist riding the wrong way run a red light in front of a cop. They are instructed to ignore it. The concept of being confined anywhere is a complete joke here. You can ride anywhere but the sidewalks if you’re brave enough.

2) The citywide speed limit is 30 mph, but that doesn’t help much when taxis just barely miss brazing your body and a pedestrian darts out from between two parked cars and a delivery truck is double parked in front of you. There is simply too much to be wary if for most people to ride in traffic here.

3) When there is a buffer, most cyclists ride in the buffer, so it’s really a 9 foot bike lane. The main problem, though, is that trucks and cars double park there constantly.

4) Finally, in Manhattan there are no low-volume North-South residential streets. Every street is an arterial with high volumes of traffic. Therefore, in many cases a bike lane is absolutely necessary, preferably a protected one. I am hoping that the city is claiming space for cyclists now with these buffered lanes, with the future intention of creating protected lane with that space. This is what they did on Eighth Ave, and I hope they do it on Seventh Ave in Harlem as well.

I don’t know about NYC, but in Oregon, a state law stipulates that we MUST use the dedicated bike path when one is present. So at least here, such paths would interfere with our current manner of riding, as our failure to use them could get us ticketed.

You may feel comfortable riding in the middle of the street but it should be pretty obvious that you are heavily outnumbered by people who prefer to have a space on the street away from cars.”

I don’t really place myself in the VC camp or the facilities camp. I think riders can integrate on city streets, but only if the streets are below a certain speed limit, namely 25 mph (or 35 if the lanes are sufficient wide). I’m fine with Portland’s bike boulevards, as they give a sufficient amount of space to accommodate riders of all styles and skill levels. I’m not okay with being confined to a 5-6 foot path, and being subjected to ticketing if I stray from it.

My recipe for bike-friendliness:

1. Reduce the speed limits for all in-city surface streets to 30 mph.
2. If a city MUST have high traffic arterial roads, ensure that a low speed route runs roughly parallel to it. This would require connecting some disconnected residential streets in suburban areas, either with new sections of street or bike/ped cut-through paths.
3. More bike/ped freeway and railroad crossings.
4. Shared lane markings or “sharrows”.

And in New York, we need to add, directly on the bike lane something like “This lane for bikes only – no parking”

I’ve heard from drivers that, especially at night, they can’t figure out where the bike lane is because its not clearly marked.

Sweeping and maintenance issues. Nuff said.

It really is too bad that those expensive streets are inadequate for cyclists to ride on.

There has been an influx, I think by way of streetsblog.net (a great thing, otherwise). Bicycle boulevards and what-have-you may be perfectly pleasant in places where traffic is calmer and there is a social stigma against honking, but not so much right here right now. My main problem with taking a lane is being honked at ruins my morning, and I’m not interested in hardening myself to pretend it does not. In NYC we have had made much progress even with painted lanes and especially with physically separated ones, so if the road-taking cyclists elsewhere would please leave us to it…

DOT needs to develop a consistent language of bike facilities that is not cluttered and ugly like the current designs. Less marking of the street and more medians, planted and raised areas will do the job. Putting up bright colored signs and adding sharrows draws attention to cyclists but it also signals to neighborhoods that if you get a bike lane it will come with some ugly accessories. I know we’re just getting started, but we need to move toward more elegant solutions and away from temporary looking, but useful quick fixes. If getting a bike lane meant serious street improvements more people would want them in their neighborhoods.

Signage in Amsterdam

http://x71.xanga.com/f14c33f629133161372039/z121487593.jpg

Signage in NYC
http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10_29/bb01.jpg

http://www.nycbikemaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/sharrows-on-bowery-street-connecting-bleeker-and-2nd.JPG

You may feel comfortable riding in the middle of the street but it should be pretty obvious that you are heavily outnumbered by people who prefer to have a space on the street away from cars.

This isn’t to say that this is the best possible facility but it stands to be a much more heavily used route than an unstriped street.

There’s already a perfectly good bike route in place. It is known as a street.

You can request bike racks from the city using the following online form:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/rackfrm1.shtml

The following page has information about where the racks can be placed/requested:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikerack.shtml

I have not requested any racks for my neighborhood yet, but I’m sure there are some other Streetsblog readers that have and may have information for you on the process.

Best of luck,
Christian

Also, why doesn’t the city propose putting the bike lane beside the sidewalk and placing a physical barrier between the parking lane and the bike lane. I’m sure the answer will be price, but it seems like the safer way to go. With a strip of curb, it doesn’t matter if people double park or drive recklessly, the bike lane will be protected by a row of parked cars and a strip of curb or grass.

As a resident of the South Village who is really tired of having to circle the park whenever I use Fifth Avenue to get home I’d much rather see bicycle access through the center of Washington Square Park. Wouldn’t it be lovely to add bike racks around the fountain so that cyclists can enjoy Washington Square just like everyone else?

Bike lanes to access the Greenway should be a no-brainer especially if the MTA is doing away with the crosstown bus. We already have a lane on 9th Street, and partial lanes on Far West Christopher. If we’re going to lose the busses anyway then why not expand on the existing bike lanes?

What Im getting at, is if there space, people will use it (double parking)