Construction on the final segment won't start until roughly 2020, but when complete, the midtown gap in the East River Greenway will be filled. Image: East Side Open Space via Flickr.

The signing of an agreement to close the East River Greenway gap between 38th Street and 60th Street is big news for people who want to enjoy the waterfront on Manhattan’s open space-starved East Side. There’s finally a realistic plan in place to build a continuous route to walk, run, or bike along the water. When finished, it could form the backbone of the bike network on the East Side.

But the deal signed this week is an early step in a complicated and lengthy process; construction will take place in three stages and won’t wrap up for at least a decade. We checked in with City Council Member Dan Garodnick, a strong supporter of the greenway project, to hear how the process will move forward from here.

Building the full esplanade will cost roughly $200 million. To fund the project, the city turned to a land deal with the United Nations. The City will turn over a piece of the under-used Robert Moses Playground to the United Nations for $70 million and pay for the rest with the proceeds from the sale of One and Two UN Plaza, buildings in which the city owns a stake.

The first $70 million can’t pay for the entire greenway, Garodnick explained, meaning work will have to be done in phases. The playground deal will fund an extension of the greenway from 60th Street south to 53rd, where caissons left over from an FDR Drive detour are already in place. That first segment will connect to an existing pedestrian bridge over the highway at 51st Street.

Once the UN buildings have been sold — which Garodnick said could take some time, depending on the market, since the agreement requires them to go for a high enough price to pay for the construction work — work could take place on the southern portion of the greenway.

At the same time, work will already be underway on turning the Con Ed pier between 38th Street and 41st Street into a greenway and parkland. Construction on the Con Ed pier should begin soon, according to a press release from the mayor’s office. But work on the first new segment of the greenway likely won’t start until 2016. At the southern end, work won’t begin until roughly 2020.

Moreover, the agreement signed Wednesday is a memorandum of understanding putting the city, state and United Nations on the path to a completed deal; there’s still a lot of legal work to be done in addition to design and construction. While this deal clears the way for a continuous off-street cycling route along the East Side, it will be a long while before that connectivity materializes.

While the path was closed due to repairs on the adjacent wastewater treatment plant, greenway users were forced to take an arduous and unmarked detour. This reopening restores the connectivity that makes the greenway the most heavily-used bike path in the country and a particular favorite of cyclists who don’t want to ride with motor vehicles.

"Bike Path Closed" is about all the information cyclists will get about the closure of the heavily-used Hudson River Greenway between 135th and 145th Streets. Photo: Noah Kazis

The Hudson River Greenway is the most heavily used bike path in the United States, carrying roughly one-seventh of all cyclists entering Manhattan below 50th Street. In Upper Manhattan, where there are fewer bike lanes and much less on-street protection for cyclists than further south, it is truly the backbone of the bike network.

Despite the greenway’s centrality to the city’s bike network, a ten-block stretch of the path between 135th and 145th Streets has been closed for a week, with scarce effort to provide an alternative route for cyclists and other park users.

Last Wednesday, a fire at the North River Wastewater Treatment Plant forced that plant offline, sending untreated sewage from Manhattan’s entire West Side directly into the Hudson. As part of its round-the-clock repairs, the city Department of Environmental Protection closed the greenway where it runs in front of the plant. A DEP spokesperson said that the greenway was closed to allow for emergency responder access, but would not elaborate further.

The plant is separated from the street grid by both train tracks and the West Side Highway, so it’s not implausible that the greenway space is needed for vehicle access or staging. I did not, however, see any vehicles, emergency or otherwise, on that stretch of the greenway this morning. Since the area in front of the wastewater plant was restricted, it was difficult to get a good view of the entire closed-off greenway segment and what it’s being used for.

As I learned when I rode my bike up to the area to investigate, the closure forces cyclists heading north or south on the greenway into a confusing, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous detour without any sort of signage or guidance.

Just the first set of stairs cyclists must climb to get from the greenway to Riverside Drive at 135th Street. Photo: Noah Kazis

I started out riding north on the greenway this morning to investigate. Between 125th Street, where I entered the greenway, and 135th Street, there was no warning of any impending detour. Only when I reached the yellow tape blocking off the path was I alerted. There a single sheet of paper read, “Bike Lane Closed.”

A security guard told me that I should detour east on the remaining half-block of 135th Street but did not know what to do after that. It turned out there were two options involved, neither of which were indicated by any kind of sign: looping back south and then cutting east to Broadway, or climbing roughly four stories worth of stairs up to Riverside Drive. Since Riverside is relatively low-traffic and marked as a bike route, I chose the stairs.

Biking north on Riverside, there are no signs alerting cyclists where they can cross over the tracks and the highway back onto the Greenway; you have to either ask around or already know. The first crossing that doesn’t seem forbidden comes at 148th Street. Again, it’s stairs all the way down.

Northbound cyclists can cross with a bit more ease, at least while the detour is in effect, by using a ramp at the 145 Street entrance to Riverbank State Park. But cyclists on Riverside Drive are greeted at the park entrance with a bright “No Bikes Allowed” sign, sure to keep most from trying to use it as a crossing.

To use the most convenient route around the greenway closure -- and it's not very convenient -- northbound cyclists would have to disregard this sign. Photo: Noah Kazis

While the greenway is closed, a park ranger told me, cyclists will be allowed to use this ramp and walk their bikes through the park. This concession was only given grudgingly. The ranger said just yesterday state park officials asked the city to send cyclists up the steps at 148th Street rather than through their park.

For cyclists riding the other direction on the greenway, the detour directs you to an elevator up to Riverbank Park, from which you can cross the ramp back onto Riverside, though no directions for what comes next are available.

Headed south on Riverside, cyclists can access the greenway at 125th Street, and again the signage is non-existent and the loops required to make it down to the water aren’t intuitive unless you know the area.

For cyclists, the effects of this detour are substantial, and Streetsblog has received several messages from long-time city cyclists and new bike commuters about their experiences. Those who depend on the car-free greenway for safety and comfort are thrust without warning onto Manhattan streets. Once on those streets, there is no indication of how to get back to the greenway and no alternative protected route.

DEP said they do not yet have a timeframe for when the greenway will be reopened. Until it is, they need to work with the Parks and Transportation Departments to provide clear guidance for how cyclists ought to detour, just as would happen were a major road closed for any substantial amount of time.

In the wake of its long-planned bike lane forum, Manhattan Community Board 12 has finalized a resolution calling for a major study of bike infrastructure of Upper Manhattan, available in full above. Overall it’s a strong demonstration of support for the expansion of bikeways in the area.

Perhaps most importantly, the resolution, which passed by a unanimous vote of 33-0, makes clear that there is broad community support for new bike infrastructure in the area. “Residents of CB12 suggested ways to improve current bike lanes and paths within our community’s parks and streets enjoyed the support from those in attendance in addition to a petition signed by 1,300 residents of CB12,” reads one clause. Given the near-inevitable complaints from some quarter or another that accompany any significant change to the street, such a record of grassroots support is quite valuable.

Based on suggestions, the resolution puts forward a list of bike projects that CB 12 would like DOT to study and report back to them about.

First among them is a safe bike connection between the Hudson and Harlem River Greenways, on or near Dyckman Street. Community members have long proposed that this be a separated bike path. CB 12 also asked for studies of how to improve bike and pedestrian access to the George Washington, Henry Hudson and Broadway Bridges, as well as the West Side Greenway at 181st Street, which currently lets cyclists off at a one-way highway on-ramp, forcing them onto the sidewalk.

Upland from the greenways and bridges, CB 12 urged DOT to study how cyclists can safely move uptown, downtown, and crosstown. Those lanes, they hope, would be integrated with the Parks Department’s long-term plans and connect to bike routes in parks.

CB 12 is famously loathe to lose any parking, and this resolution is true to form. The board urges DOT to search for new parking spots near where bike lanes might remove them, a potential flashpoint if DOT presents specific plans.

Local livable streets activists are pleased with the progress. “Bike Upper Manhattan is glad to see the Community Board as a whole and the Traffic & Transportation Committee reflecting the strong community support for safer bicycle facilities,” said Jonathan Rabinowitz of Bike Upper Manhattan, “and we look forward to the results of the study the board asked for from DOT and its quick implementation.”

At the southern end of Brooklyn Bridge Park, DOT will calm traffic and create space on the street to take cyclists off the sidewalk. Click for a larger version. Image: NYC DOT

Last week we covered DOT’s proposed safety improvements for the north side of Brooklyn Bridge Park, where sidewalk extensions, bike lanes, and planted medians will all be used to help pedestrians and cyclists safely reach the waterfront. DOT is also turning its attention to improving access to the southern entrance to the park, presenting a plan to Community Board 6 tomorrow evening [PDF]. The proposal reclaims some significant tracts of asphalt, giving pedestrians and cyclists more room on a critical segment of the evolving Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

The southern access point to Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Atlantic Avenue meets Pier 6, is if anything less hospitable than the northern one. Atlantic Avenue is a notorious speedway — on a stretch further east, cars were recently clocked at an average of 38 miles per hour — and pedestrians who use it to reach the park must cross BQE ramps. Atlantic comes to an end at the park in the form of a 90-foot-wide asphalt rectangle, where pedestrians and cyclists approaching on the south side squeeze onto a sidewalk only four feet wide.

The most prominent item in DOT’s menu of improvements for park access will re-allocate a chunk of that space to pedestrians and cyclists, carving out a plaza and two-way bike lane from all the extraneous pavement. On the sidewalk side of the bike lane, a ten-foot buffer will ensure that truck drivers leaving the adjacent Port Authority facility can see cyclists.

The proposal extends the two-way bike lane treatment south onto Columbia Street, clearly separating cycling space from walking space — no more fighting over sidewalk scraps. The plan calls for separating the bikeway from traffic with Jersey barriers. The room for this expansion of bike-ped space comes from removing a southbound traffic lane and narrowing the others, which should have a traffic-calming effect. A new pedestrian island will also make it easier to cross Atlantic at Columbia.

The DOT plan also includes a signal retiming and possible red light enforcement camera at the northbound BQE on-ramp on Atlantic.

DOT will present the plan to the CB6 transportation committee tomorrow at Long Island College Hospital at 6:30 p.m.

The East River Greenway currently ends a few blocks south of the United Nations. Under a complicated land swap that is moving closer to completion, the city would be able to eventually connect the greenway through Midtown. Photo: Amy Zimmer/DNAinfo

The State Legislature took another step forward in the long and arduous process of filling the Midtown gap in the East River Greenway two weeks ago. By passing a law that would allow a swap of land between the city and the United Nations to move forward, DNAinfo reported yesterday, Albany cleared the way for a deal to be negotiated.

Under the terms of the arrangement reported by DNAinfo’s Amy Zimmer, the city would give part of the Robert Moses Playground, located just south of the UN headquarters, to the UN, which would build a new office tower there. In return, replacement park space would be added elsewhere and a segment of the greenway could be built between the UN and the water.

The deal would also allow the city to sell two buildings it currently leases to UN-related tenants and use that money to pay for the greenway connector. Though the Parks Department says the greenway will have a functional, no-frills design, the cost is still estimated to reach $150 million.

If it comes together, the deal would lead to the creation of a north-south trunk on the East Side that would provide a continuous, safe route for biking and walking. On the West Side, the Hudson River Greenway is now the busiest bike path in the country and the cycling backbone for all of Manhattan. It currently attracts cyclists from the East Side who go out of their way for the safety of biking apart from city traffic.

The general outline of the deal has the support of the Bloomberg Administration, as well as State Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, City Council Member Daniel Garodnick, and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney. The empowering bill still needs to be signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo to become law.

The Albany legislation includes a sunset provision. If the UN and the city don’t ink a memorandum of understanding by mid-October, the legislation will expire.

Assuming that a deal is worked out — the momentum seems to be building in that direction, but there are a lot of moving parts — a completed East River Greenway would still be many years away. A feasibility study requested by the city in April, for example, would take two years alone.

After a number of delays, CB 12 convened the special forum last Thursday night, with community members, advocates and city officials all participating. Now that the groups have met and discussed topics of interest, the normal public process between the community board and the Department of Transportation for developing new bike infrastructure and street safety projects may move ahead.

With the Hudson River Greenway serving as the central artery for bike traffic in the area, greenway issues were of top concern at the forum. Participants discussed the so-called lighthouse link, which would extend the greenway at water level past the George Washington Bridge, allowing pedestrians and cyclists to avoid the steep hill they must currently climb. They also brought up the entrance to the greenway at 181st Street, which lets off at a one-way highway on-ramp and forces cyclists exiting the greenway to walk their bikes along the sidewalk. The street used to be bi-directional, but one lane was eliminated and replaced with curb parking when the highway entrance re-opened last year.

Local advocates also raised the prospect of building the Dyckman greenway connector, a proposed separated bike lane that would connect the greenways along the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. The connector has so far been left out of DOT’s plans for Inwood but could get a big boost from CB 12 support.

Jonathan Rabinowitz, a member of the local advocacy group Bike Upper Manhattan, was at the meeting and filed the following report.

***

[The] bike lane forum held by Manhattan Community Board 12 was well attended by bicyclists and complete streets advocates. We heard from Hayes Lord of DOT’s Bicycle Program, John Mattera, the Parks Greenway planner, Aja Hazelhoff of Transportation Alternatives, Rich Conroy of Bike New York, Christine Berthet from the Transportation Committee of Manhattan CB 4 (Hell’s Kitchen), Tila Duhaime of the Upper West Side Streets Renaissance, and Brad Conover of Bike Upper Manhattan (my group).

Two of the board’s traffic & transportation committee members were absent, but three board members who spoke up, Gloria Vanterpool, Yosef Kalinsky, and Mitchell Glenn, were very positive about the forum. Gloria, who is the chairwoman of the Committee on the Concerns of the Aging, said that she had never learned to ride a bike but that she was impressed with the complete streets arguments and would support more bike lanes in Washington Heights and Inwood. Another T&T committee member, Edith Prentiss, an advocate for wheelchair users, pointed out that for changes in the streetscape to be successful, the changes would require local disabled residents to be retrained in the new traffic patterns.

The question of adding a bicycle facility to Riverside Drive between West 181st St and the Henry Hudson Parkway onramp was answered by the city thus: “We’re hoping to have some design resolution in the very near future.” Tila was the most eloquent of the several speakers who commented negatively on the current design, saying that she wondered why those eight people parking on Riverside Drive were so important that their spaces could block the installation of safe bicycle facilities for the thousands of cyclists who use the Hudson River Greenway.

John Mattera from Parks spoke about building a ramp from the current Greenway’s northern terminus at Riverside Drive just south of Dyckman Street down to Dyckman Street. That project, which covers a 60 foot drop in altitude, would need two hairpin turns for a safe ramp and cost $4 million to complete.

John also spoke about the new “Lighthouse Link Greenway,” which would initially extend south in Fort Washington Park from the Dyckman Marina for about a mile, not all the way to the Little Red Lighthouse at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. To connect this path to the Greenway at the lighthouse would cost about $15-16 million, the same cost as the new path between 84th and 91st Streets. This new path would have lights and stone benches as well as lookout points for river vistas.

The highlight of the evening, in my opinion, was Christine’s statement that “the bike lane that is the most friendly to your grandmother, to your children, is the protected bike lane.”

T&T Committee Chair Yosef Kalinsky said that there was a strong sentiment to making the streets safer, to connecting communities, and that this could be put into a resolution for the full board in September, at the next meeting of his committee.

One useful tidbit I learned from DOT: Sharrows require 27 foot wide streets; dedicated lanes require 30 foot wide streets, and “On-Street Bicycle Paths,” the current terminology for Grand-Street–type bike lanes, require 34 foot minimum width. Hayes didn’t use the “Class I, II, or III” terminology, which I had thought was confusing.

Right now, cyclists riding the East River Esplanade are forced onto the wide and unsafe First Avenue for 22 blocks in Midtown. Photo: Kim Martineau

New York took a step forward today in attempts to close the 22 block gap in the East River Esplanade, which forces cyclists into traffic in the ultra-congested heart of Midtown and deprives East Side communities of valuable riverfront open space. Thanks to state and federal funding, including an earmark from Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, the New York City Economic Development Corporation put out a request for a feasibility study looking at how to build a greenway along the East River between 38th and 60th Streets.

Building that continuous route would create a long-missing trunk for north-south bike travel along the East Side of Manhattan. The continuous greenway along the West Side is the busiest bike path in the country, and riders from the East Side will go out of their way to use it instead of biking on Manhattan’s wide avenues.

The study covers a variety of topics, from a broad conceptual design to the integration of the bikeway with the street network and from structural engineering to cost estimation. While the study moves the project forward, a completed greenway on the East Side remains years away. The RFP says that the contract for the feasibility study alone would last two years.

Today’s announcement won plaudits from every elected official in the area.

New York City’s greenway system will see steady growth in the next three years, according to city plans released earlier this week. As part of its plans to revitalize the waterfront, the city released a list of 14 funded greenway projects slated to move forward in the next three years.

The city’s comprehensive waterfront plan encompasses everything from protecting water quality to supporting the working waterfront. For a sense of the city’s ten-year vision for its more than 500 miles of waterfront, take a look back at Streetsblog’s coverage the draft plan from September.

Included with the final report is something new: an action plan consisting of 130 funded projects on track for the next three years. Many of these projects have been in the works for a long time, but the list provides a clear roadmap of where these essential pieces of cycling infrastructure are headed during the remaining years of the Bloomberg administration. The Hudson River Greenway is the most heavily used bike path in the country, evidence of the importance of these safe and scenic routes.

Here’s the list, with the lead agency and estimated date for the project in parentheses:

• South Bronx: Complete improvements to the South Bronx Greenway. (EDC, 2012)
• Complete Bronx River Greenway improvements. (DPR, 2013)
• Brooklyn Bridge Park: Develop Brooklyn Bridge Park Greenway, linking the Columbia Street Greenway to DUMBO. (DOT/BBP, 2012)
• Brooklyn Navy Yard: Complete redesign of Flushing Avenue between Williamsburg Street West and Navy Street. (DOT, 2013)
• Red Hook: Build a multi-use path to connect Atlantic Basin to the Brooklyn waterfront greenway. (DOT, 2011)
• Sunset Park: Complete study of bicycle and pedestrian connection from Hamilton Avenue Bridge to 2nd Avenue and Sunset Park path. (DOT, 2011)
• Release Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Master Plan, guiding creation of a 14-mile, multi-use waterfront path between Newtown Creek and the Shore Parkway Greenway. (DOT, 2011)
• Lower Manhattan: Complete construction of 8.5 acres of East River Esplanade South between Battery Maritime Building and Pier 35, including Pier 15, to feature water uses, educational uses, and café. (EDC, 2012)
• Randall’s Island: Complete waterfront pathways, including the Bronx Shore pathway, comfort stations, and seawall repairs. (EDC, 2013)
• Sherman Creek: Complete the Sherman Creek Waterfront Esplanade Master Plan to reclaim the Harlem River waterfront from Sherman Creek Inlet to W. 208th St. (EDC, 2011)
• Washington Heights: Restore the High Bridge over the Harlem River, and restore access paths within Highbridge Park to improve connectivity between Northern Manhattan and the Bronx. (DPR, 2011)
• Complete Manhattan Waterfront Greenway improvements, including Battery Bikeway, Dyckman Ramp, and a segment of the Lighthouse Link. (DPR, 2013)
• Fresh Kills: Construct portions of the new Greenway. (DPR, 2013)
• Stapleton: Begin construction of 6-acre waterfront esplanade. (EDC, 2011)

Conspicuously absent from this list are any projects in the city’s largest borough, Queens. Even so, if all goes according to plan, then New Yorkers, especially residents of the Bronx, will have far better greenway options in three years than they do today.

Upper Manhattan needs more bike infrastructure, including a safe connection between the Hudson and Harlem River Greenways.

Build bike lanes? Manhattan’s Community Board 12 doesn’t even want to talk about bike lanes.

When members of the Inwood-Washington Heights Livable Streets Group showed up with local bike lane supporters to what was supposed to be a public hearing on the issue Monday night, the transportation committee chair informed them that there wasn’t any space on the agenda for the group to make their presentation, much less hear public testimony, according to a report on DNAInfo. That public hearing has now been pushed forward indefinitely.

The procedural controversy stems from a petition started by the Livable Streets group to improve the bike infrastructure of Upper Manhattan. They’re asking for designs like a protected lane along Dyckman Street, connecting the greenways on the west and east sides of Manhattan, and bike lanes over the area’s bridges. You can add your name to the current 826 signatories here.

The livable streets activists were first invited to present their petition to the community board last month. “It was a long discussion that first time, and a very hostile reaction,” recalled Brad Conover. Three of the four members of the Transportation Committee in attendance came out against bike infrastructure, arguing that cyclists don’t deserve new lanes because they don’t follow the rules of the road, and that any lane that took away parking was a non-starter.

At that point, the Community Board decided that it needed to hear from the community, said Conover, and scheduled a public hearing on the issue for this past Monday, November 1. That was confirmed by DNAinfo as recently as last week.

Cycling in Upper Manhattan never was discussed on Monday, however. When Conover and other activists showed up, they asked to make a ten-minute PowerPoint presentation explaining their proposal. The committee said there wasn’t time, setting off a lengthy argument over whether or not to allow the presentation. “At the end of half an hour, they said no,” said Conover.

The public never got a chance to speak either. It was a “miscommunication” that there would be a public hearing on Monday, said the committee; rather, there would only be a discussion of when to hold a public hearing.

Conover said that he thinks the public hearing was cancelled because the anti-bike lane members of the committee felt outnumbered. “The fear in the room was palpable,” he said. “They keep adjourning and delaying until somebody shows up who will speak in opposition.”

The public hearing may take place at November’s meeting of the full community board, or may be put off until the January transportation committee meeting, said Conover.

Though this Riverside Park path was signed as part of the greenway system and provides a crucial link to the Hudson River Greenway, the Parks Department slapped a dismount sign on top of it. The community board is currently looking for a less drastic solution to bike/ped conflict.

The Hudson River Greenway is the busiest bike route in the city, with around 5,000 cyclists riding it during the peak 12-hour period each day. This June, the Parks Department abruptly put up dismount signs at the 72nd Street entrance to Riverside Park, interrupting a popular access route to a major corridor within Manhattan’s green transportation network.

Cyclists, pedestrians, and dog walkers all use the 72nd Street entrance heavily, and while no resolution has yet been reached, many now see adding bike lanes at other greenway access points as the best way to reduce conflict. But even if those plans are pursued, cyclists won’t be able to ride this critical link without fear of getting fined unless the Parks Department changes the dismount policy.

At a meeting of the Manhattan Community Board 7 Parks Committee last night, CB members, the city, and local activists seemed to coalesce around a plan to improve bike access to the greenway at 79th Street, taking some pressure off 72nd and thereby mitigating the rationale for dismount signs. Both committee co-chairs saw the 79th Street plan as a partial solution worth pursuing and steered the conversation toward the more controversial question of what to do on the 72nd Street path.

Parks Department Greenway Coordinator John Mattera explained the 79th Street idea using an electricity analogy. “Bicycles follow the path of least resistance,” he said. If you want to reduce conflict on the 72nd Street path, he added, “the way to do that is to make a lightning rod out of 79th Street.” With fewer cyclists at 72nd, he said, the dismount policy could be swapped for something a little less heavy-handed. Mattera said that he’d spoken with the NYC DOT and that “as sure as anything can be at City DOT,” striping a new bike lane along 79th and leading into the park was part of their plan for 2011.

The plan got a generally positive response as a way of reducing conflicts between park users, though not everyone agreed with Mattera’s proposal. “Another way you guide electricity is by adding resistance, and there should be resistance at 72nd Street,” said committee member Tom Vitullo-Martin.

Though the lightning rod idea was popular in theory, implementing a safe access route from 79th Street could prove difficult in practice. “It’s a great idea, but it’s going to take a whole lot more than paint to make it safe for cyclists,” said Upper East Side resident Steve Vaccaro, who noted that cyclists would be riding by a highway off-ramp.

While everyone agreed that siphoning off some bike traffic from 72nd Street would help, waiting until those changes are in place would leave the dismount policy intact at least until next year.

Momentum on the community board seemed to be in the direction of walking back or replacing the dismount policy. “A 24/7 dismount is way overkill for the degree of congestion at that path,” said committee co-chair Klari Neuwelt, suggesting that it could be in effect only at the hours of peak use. “It has led to a lot of potentially unnecessary antagonism between user groups.”

The city's bike map, co-published by the Parks Department, clearly shows the 72nd Street path as part of the bike system.

Similarly, co-chair Elizabeth Starkey wanted to see a solution that enabled all park users to coexist, rather than putting the entire burden on cyclists. Ideas proposed over the course of the evening ranged from more creative signage urging slow speeds, to placing volunteer cyclists at the path to send the slow-down message, to building some sort of speed bump that only affects fast-moving bikes.

In the background of the whole discussion was the question of whether bikes are even allowed on the 72nd Street path in the first place. Riverside Park Administrator John Herrold claimed they are not. “Cycling is in fact illegal on any park path,” he explained, adding that until recently, the department had chosen not to enforce that rule in Riverside Park.

However, as many in the audience pointed out, the 72nd Street path to the Greenway is clearly marked on the city’s official bike map, which bears the Parks Department seal and Commissioner Adrian Benepe’s name. The inclusion of the 72nd Street path on that map for many years, said Herrold, has been “a mistake.”

Of course, it’s not just the maps. Directly above the “cyclists dismount” signs, markers on the path indicate that it’s part of the Hudson River Greenway.

Cyclists and pedestrians feel the squeeze where the East River Greenway narrows at this Con Ed facility near 13th Street, with zooming FDR traffic a few feet away. Photo: Kim Martineau

Above 34th Street, the East Side of Manhattan is unforgiving for cyclists, without any real provision to ride safely and quickly. The one dedicated path for bicycling, the East River Greenway, is barely usable for practical trips — the gap between 38th Street and 63rd Street being the most prominent of several flaws. On a ride organized by Transportation Alternatives this Sunday, Michael Auerbach of neighborhood group Upper Green Side led a group of about 20 cyclists, including City Council Member Dan Garodnick, on a tour of the greenway path to take in its pinch points, shoddy surfaces, and other shortcomings. Here’s a short photo tour of the trip from 6th Street to 63rd Street, with an assist from TA’s Kim Martineau.

The city has begun exploring a plan that would plug the greenway gap using funds secured through a land swap with the United Nations. If, after looking at these pictures, you’re wondering about what you can do to support a better greenway, it may helpful to keep in mind Garodnick’s parting message from the Sunday tour: “Communicate to your elected officials.”

Photo: Ben Fried

The pathway narrows and cyclists must dismount in front of the Crow’s Nest, sandwiched between the FDR Drive and the East River, before riding through the restaurant’s parking lot.

Photo: Kim Martineau

At 37th Street, greenway users head back toward the wide open streets of the East Side…

Photo: Kim Martineau

…where cyclists on First Avenue make do without bike lanes and navigate around double-parked cars.

Photo: Ben Fried

This father and son are heading across 62nd Street to the greenway entrance on the north side of 63rd. Heading to the greenway here takes you across the path of traffic heading to and from ramps for the FDR Drive, in a part of the city with zero on-street bike infrastructure.

Photo: Kim Martineau

Council Member Dan Garodnick urged the tour group to contact their elected officials in support of the plan to close the greenway gap.

Photo: BicyclesOnly/Flickr

Above 63rd Street, the greenway is pocked with depressions and sinkholes that have been fenced off, like this one near 118th Street, creating pinch points on the route. A recent cave-in on the greenway at 72nd was caused by a breach in the bulkhead, which caused material supporting the pavement to leak into the East River, according to Joshua Laird, assistant commissioner for planning at the Parks Department. Work on plugging this hole in the bulkhead and another one in the 120s is underway, he said. These breaches are relatively easy to fix compared to other depressions in the greenway, where marine organisms have eaten away at the wooden pilings underneath the greenway surface.

“We’re doing some creative budgeting to fix what we can,” Laird said, but it’s going to take a significant investment to complete a comprehensive rehab of the greenway structure. “Until we can figure out a big allocation of funding, it’s going to be one by one.”

A vital link in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway is open, as a path through Brooklyn Bridge Park for pedestrians and cyclists nears completion. Though the park is still far from complete, the path cuts straight through the construction, connecting Pier 1, just below the Brooklyn Bridge itself, and Pier 6, at Atlantic Avenue. 

One thing you should know about the path: It's covered with a thin layer of gravel. It isn't deep or loose, but it will definitely add a new element to your ride. "I don't know if it's the ideal surface for every biker, but we've been open for a week now and haven't had any complaints," said Ellen Ryan of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, noting that plenty of cyclists have already ridden the path. This type of surface, known as "chip seal," is planned for the entire park and was chosen for its durability, cost-effectiveness, and aesthetic qualities, she explained. 

Toward the south end of the park, the path turns into a short, two-way on-street bikeway on Furman Street, separated from traffic by jersey barriers. For cyclists heading to the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge, the gravelly path through the park probably won't be as attractive as continuing straight on Furman, with its smoother surface and shorter route. As things stand, however, that would take them into the path of oncoming traffic:

The end of the bikeway on Furman Street, where the path takes a turn into Brooklyn Bridge Park. Straight ahead is the Brooklyn Bridge. Photo: Dave "Paco" Abraham

More pictures after the jump: 

The surface of the path is covered with gravel, thin enough that the asphalt below shows through in places. Brick strips add another set of bumps. Photo: Noah Kazis

At the northern end of the park, the bike path exits onto a shared lane leading toward the bridge approaches. Photo: Noah Kazis

We've got a few different bikeway-related reader submissions that have come over the wire recently. First up, Dave "Paco" Abraham sends this picture of a two-way barrier-separated bikeway going in on Furman Street by the downtown Brooklyn waterfront. Furman is on the route of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, and with Brooklyn Bridge Park opening piece by piece, it's already pretty common to see people biking in both directions on this three-lane speedway underneath the BQE cantilever.

Paco says it looks like the new bikeway is only going in between Joralemon Street and the entrance to the yet-to-open Brooklyn Bridge Park bike path, about a block away. We have a request in with DOT about the scope of this treatment. Extending it along the full length of Furman would plug one of the last major greenway route sections that feels unsafe to bike on between Greenpoint and the Columbia waterfront district.

Photo: nycbikemaps

Remember this from last week? It's where the East River Greenway caved in at 72nd Street. The Parks Department told us they would have it fixed this week, and here it is, all patched up. Parks didn't tell us, though, whether there's any attempt underway to determine whether all the other sinkholes on the greenway are symptoms of a larger problem.

The final update comes to us from Ed Ravin. Actually it's more like an epic saga with a happy ending. I'll let Ed tell the story:

For years, the East River bridges have been the stepchild of emergency phone coverage. Up until the mid 1990s, the Brooklyn Bridge had four emergency phones hooked up to two regular telephone lines.  If one of the lines failed, all the phones on that side of the bridge would go down with it.

Starting in the early 1990s, the city began installing shiny new emergency phones along the city's highways.  These phones are solar powered and use the cellular network to reach emergency dispatchers, so they have no wires and are much more reliable than the old land-line based system. But as was typical of many infrastructure improvements in the 1990s, the phones were installed only in places where motorists could get to them. Bicyclists and pedestrians, especially on crime-prone East River bridges like the Williamsburg Bridge, were on their own.

A (broken) emergency call box on the Queensboro Bridge in 2001, conveniently placed for easy cyclist access. Photo: Ed Ravin

Adding to the problem was that the old landline-based emergency phones were maintained by the Fire Department, while the new cellular phones were installed by the NYPD's Communications Division. The Fire Department wanted to get out of the phone business (as seen later in the 1990s, when the streetcorner fire call box became an endangered species), and were no longer installing callboxes. So the NYPD was asked to put callboxes on the East River Bridges. They said they'd be happy to do so but needed some other city agency to fork over the money for them.

As with all things for the East River Bridges, it turned out that NYCDOT was the "responsible" agency and we weren't going to get any new phones on the bridges until the DOT paid for them. A cellular phone appeared on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway after some unfavorable press coverage, and that was it. When the Manhattan Bridge path was first opened, there were no callboxes at all, and the Queensborough Bridge (see photo) had not had a working callbox for many years.

Starting in the early 2000s, callboxes have been turning up one by one on the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, but still, there did not seem to be any consistent plan.

I recently moved to Brooklyn and began commuting regularly over the Manhattan Bridge, and was pleased to see that both the north and south paths had two cellular emergency phones, one at each anchorage. And it was a welcome surprise in mid-July when two more phones sprouted up at the towers. It appeared that someone had looked at the needs of the bridge and was finally implementing a plan.

Manhattan Bridge, 2010: Reliable emergency call boxes finally have bike-ped spaces covered. Photo: Ed Ravin

Today I ran into a work crew installing a fifth phone on the Manhattan Bridge's north path, right in the middle over the river. I was told that there are now 8 or 10 phones on each East River Bridge, all of them ringing through to 911 should you ever have cause to pick one up. It's great to see that the emergency needs of the city's bicycle and pedestrian-only places are, finally, part of the plan.

The view of the Henry Hudson path from the Bronx side. Photo: James Rather

The Henry Hudson provides a safer crossing over the Harlem River for cyclists than the nearest alternative, the Broadway Bridge. But, as signs on both ends of the path announce, cycling is not allowed. Here's what happened to reader James Rather when he recently tried to bike across:

As soon as I rode on to the path from the Inwood side, an MTA tollboth officer left his booth, looked at me, and screamed, "Walk the bike!" I yelled, "excuse me?" and he says, "You heard me, NO BIKES." There you have it.

With this policy in effect, there is no decent and safe crossing between Upper Manhattan and the Bronx -- Broadway is unsafe and the Broadway Bridge actually requires that you dismount as well, unless you want to take your chance on the roadway, with most experienced riders choosing the latter option. 

MTA Bridges and Tunnels spokesperson Judie Glave said the agency's guidelines prohibit bike riding on paths no wider than 10 feet. "Our pathways are all pedestrian walkways," she said, including the Triborough Bridge path and the Marine Parkway Bridge path, which connects to the Rockaways. "They're not wide enough to accommodate bike riders and walkers at the same time."

The Henry Hudson Bridge has repeatedly been identified by public agencies as a critical link in greenway plans going all the way back to 1992 [PDF], but the MTA wasted their chance to build a wider path that will accommodate rising demand for walking and cycling. "The growing number of people riding into the West Side need to be factored in," said Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives. "The construction of the Henry Hudson Bridge, which cyclists eagerly anticipated for more than three years, was an opportunity to build capacity for current and future levels of bike commuting."

Even with the current accommodations for walking and biking, the MTA's 10-foot rule strikes advocates as arbitrary, contrary to the green goals laid out in the agency's sustainability plan, and unnecessary, especially given today's level of pedestrian and bike traffic. The NYCDOT-managed Pulaski Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Queens, is less than nine feet wide and sees much more bicycle and pedestrian traffic than the Henry Hudson. "The Pulaski used to have dismount signs," said Samponaro. "The bicycle volume made that completely untenable. It's certainly within the purview of the MTA to be able to change that policy."

Mounting stairs on the Bronx side of the path. Photo: James Rather

On the Inwood side of the path, one sign announces, "Bicycle Traffic Prohibited." Photo: James Rather

A Staten Island catering hall erected this jury-rigged greenway-blocking fence and laid down a makeshift paintjob that "erases" markings on the path. They added the courteous touch of caution tape after cyclist Gregory DeRespino slammed into the fence. Photo: SI Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel

Parks has allowed a catering hall called the Vanderbilt ("Staten Islands only oceanfront ballroom") to fence off a portion of the greenway running alongside the boardwalk in South Beach, according to a report in the Staten Island Advance. The fence forces greenway users to turn around and detour to Father Capodanno Boulevard, and it's already claimed a victim: Local resident Gregory DeRespino landed in the hospital with injuries to his shoulder, neck and calf, after unsuspectingly biking into the fence the morning it went up.

Vanderbilt manager Joe Tranchina received permission from Parks to put up the fence after pitching it as a safety precaution to reduce conflicts between greenway users and the restaurant's delivery vehicles and valet service. Apparently, someone at Parks gave the green light "on a trial basis," according to a department spokesperson quoted by the Advance.

You've got to wonder how the city allowed such an idea to reach this point. A private business just convinced Parks to let it block off the public right-of-way and "erase" street markings with what looks to be a hasty paintjob. Did they even have to fill out any paperwork, or does it just take a few phone calls? Neither the Parks Department nor Tranchina have returned our requests for information so far.

Hat tip to Meredith Sladek for alerting us to this story.

Closing the greenway gap would provide an uninterrupted bike path from Ward's Island to the South Street Seaport. Image: The East River Greenway Initiative

The city would sell the western part of Robert Moses Playground, a rectangle of asphalt at the corner of 41st and First Avenue. An area that attracts occasional recreational use would be annexed. Space used for a dog run, handball and basketball courts would not be touched. In turn, the U.N. would pay the city $150 million, mainly for the right to construct a new building the same height as the current U.N. tower. The funding would be used to complete the East River waterfront esplanade and plug the greenway gap.

A succession of local electeds spoke in favor of the deal, including State Senator Liz Krueger, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, City Council Member Daniel Garodnick, and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who told the crowd, “I want to ride my bike there.”

The details of the plan were fleshed out by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Madelyn Wils of the NYC Economic Development Corporation.

Benepe said the new greenway segment would be a no-frills affair, like the recently completed connector on the Hudson River near Riverside Park. He also emphasized that without funding from the U.N. land deal, the project could not move forward. In addition to closing the greenway gap, he identified a package of public space enhancements the city can provide to offset the loss of part of Robert Moses park:

1. As part of the deal to close the greenway gap, the city could improve pedestrian access to the waterfront at several points.
   
   Expanding Asser Levy Park into the roadbed of Asser Levy Place, between 23rd and 25th Street, which adds roughly the same amount of parkland as would be lost;
2. Converting the former Con Ed site at the 38th Street pier into a park, which could be paved over and devoted to the same uses as the annexed segment of Robert Moses Playground;
3. Improving pedestrian access to the waterfront, including, potentially, an overpass at 51st street;
4. Greening certain areas of the Queens Midtown Tunnel plaza, which might make those areas suitable for some form of recreation.

According to Wils, the window of opportunity to act on this deal is brief. The U.N. is looking to decide where to build their new tower this year, and while they prefer the Robert Moses Park site, they have other options at their disposal.

When it came time for the public to weigh in, comments applauding the deal outnumbered opposition by about two to one, according to my rough tally. (Full disclosure: I testified in favor of the deal in my capacity as a member of Upper Green Side.)

Most opposition stemmed from nearby residents who claimed that Robert Moses Playground is an irreplaceable space for playing ball games -- uses that would seemingly be preserved in the deal described by Benepe. A few others lumped the new U.N. building together with towers planned by developer Sheldon Solow for a nearby site, which they argued would change the character of the neighborhood.

The next step comes tomorrow, when Community Board 6 discusses the proposal and is expected to put forth a resolution including the conditions they would place on their support for any plan. If the conditions are too onerous to be feasible, it could scuttle the deal. If they’re practical and reasonable, legislators can say they have the full support of the community for a specific plan, which they can enshrine in the legislation necessary to enable the completion of the greenway.

If you want to close the Midtown greenway gap, make your voice heard this Sunday.

For 33 blocks in Midtown, Manhattan's East River Greenway disappears, forcing cyclists to detour onto some of the most traffic-choked and dangerous streets in the city. That's a major deterrent to cycling on the East Side. While bike lanes planned for First and Second Avenues will help, there are no protected lanes slated for several blocks in Midtown.

Change may be on the way, however. Over the next week, New Yorkers who want safer cycling conditions have a chance to close the greenway gap. This Sunday, the public is invited to an open house about the Midtown East waterfront, hosted by every elected official representing the area. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who's responsible for the city's greenways, and NYCEDC executive vice president Madelyn Wils will both make presentations at the event, and a big announcement is expected. On the agenda: an interconnected set of proposals, including closing the greenway gap and expanding the United Nations into the Robert Moses Playground.

If you want a complete East River Greenway, this open house is the place to make your voice heard. It's this Sunday, June 6, from 2:00 to 4:00 at the Schottenstein Cultural Center (239 East 34th Street, between Second and Third Avenues).

Just a few days later, Community Board 6 will be taking up the issue at its full board meeting, which will be held next Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Baruch College (17 Lexington Ave, between 22nd and 23rd).

According to a reliable source, the board is expected to put forward a resolution that imposes so many conditions on any greenway expansion that it would amount to a vote against the project. While Sunday is the higher-profile, public event, greenway supporters will also want to attend the community board meeting and help prevent poison pills from being attached to closing the greenway gap. The board's aggressive schedule suggests it could be a controversial meeting.

A rendering of plans for Lafayette Avenue, with a planted median, standard painted bike lanes, and amenities along an expanded sidewalk. Image: NYCEDC

The redesigns of Lafayette Avenue and Hunts Point Avenue, as well as new waterfront park space at Hunts Point Landing, will all begin construction this summer, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Those streets will receive landscaped medians, expanded sidewalks, and new bike lanes. Work on Food Center Drive, which will include the first physically protected bike lane in the Bronx, is scheduled to begin this fall.

Implementation is close enough that people are getting excited about each construction truck that comes to the area, even though so far the crews are just doing regular road maintenance, said Miquela Craytor, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx and a longstanding advocate for the greenway. 

Construction of the Randall's Island connector, which will eventually tie the South Bronx Greenway into the Manhattan bike network, is scheduled to begin in fall 2011, according to EDC. Adding a biking and walking path from the South Bronx to Randall's Island will give residents better access to the island's recreational facilities and provide a safe route to the new bike lanes planned for First and Second Avenue in Manhattan. When the connector is finished, said Craytor, the greenway will be between a quarter and a third complete.

What's about to be built differs somewhat from the original plans for the greenway, first put forward in 2006. In particular, plans to place pedestrian and bike paths along a median on Lafayette Avenue have been revised, with space for biking and walking shifted to the side of the street at the request of the Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Protection.

"We ended up putting quite a bit of that streetscaping to the sidewalk and expanding the sidewalk," said Craytor, noting that the center median will remain planted with trees and shrubs. She isn't particularly disappointed. "We successfully pushed back and ensured that the concept of slowing down traffic and narrowing the street was increased," said Craytor. "This will be an area for people, not vehicles."

More pictures below the fold:

The Randall's Island Connector, running underneath an AMTRAK trestle, will create a new link to bike or walk between the South Bronx and Manhattan. Image: NYCEDC

New public space at Hunts Point Landing, at the southern end of the Hunts Point peninsula. Image: NYCEDC

The greenway segment on Flushing Avenue would connect Navy Street to Williamsburg Street West. Image: Google Maps

Toward the end of the event, City Council member Tish James asked for a show of hands: Who'd be satisfied with a bikeway plan where Flushing stays a two-way street? Most people in the crowd of about 80 raised their hands. It's not clear, however, whether the street can accommodate both two-way traffic and a safe, protected path for biking and walking.

For followers of bike lane disputes, the meeting had a little bit of everything. Some speakers cited concerns for bus riders who'd have to wait on Park Avenue, a BQE service road, if eastbound routes get shifted from Flushing. Navy Yard businesses pleaded to keep truck access the way it is now. Other speakers vented typical anti-bike sentiment, calling for bike licensing, registration and fees. Fears that all eastbound traffic on Flushing (a fraction of the westbound traffic heading to the free Manhattan Bridge) would divert to Park Avenue were widespread. And at times, the evening veered into a heated discussion of whom bike infrastructure is meant for.

The current concept for a Flushing Avenue bikeway. Image: NYCDOT

Rev. Mark V.C. Taylor, pastor of the Church of the Open Door, a black congregation on Gold Street, read prepared remarks accusing DOT of displaying a "deep and profound racism that masquerades as change," adding bike lanes for "young white newcomers." "DOT's concern for black cyclists is non-evident," he said, concluding by asking DOT to "transport ideas like this into the waste bin with ideas like slavery." About a third of the audience belonged to Taylor's congregation.

That came about 30 minutes into a two hour meeting. Once the inflammatory charges were out there, James and others stepped into the role of mediators.

Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development referred to the ongoing push for greenways in the South Bronx and Sunset Park. "Bike lanes are not exclusively the initiative of white communities," she said. "All communities are entitled to safe places to walk and bike."

From what I heard, a major question from long-time local residents wasn't necessarily "Why a bikeway?" but "Why now?" A few people spoke about riding bicycles when they were kids and wanted to know why the city wasn't proposing this sort of thing 20 or 30 years ago.

Part of the answer is that it takes a long time to build something as complex as the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. The basic route was first identified 17 years ago by the Department of City Planning. The idea has gradually accumulated public support, financial momentum, and official approval since then, thanks in large part to the persistence of local activists.

Milton Puryear of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative recapped some of that history as the meeting drew to a close. "This came out of communities from Greenpoint to Sunset Park," he said, including Farragut Houses, the public housing project at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge that's home to 20,000 residents and many members of the Church of the Open Door. In 2004, a team of Hunter College graduate students surveyed 133 residents of Farragut Houses. Twenty-five percent said they biked, and 91 percent said they would use the greenway in the neighborhood. Out of 31 students in Kindergarten through eighth grade, 25 said they rode bikes.

"Almost anyone can afford a bike," Puryear added. "This is a way that people can have mobility. DOT's motives are not sinister."