Streetsblog New York City

The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 voted unanimously on Tuesday to endorse a community-generated plan to upgrade the Hudson Street bike lane to a parking-protected lane.

Right now, Hudson Street has a buffered bike lane. It’s one of the oldest in the city according to Ian Dutton, a former vice chair of the transportation committee, who proposed the upgrade along with community board member Maury Schott and Mike Epstein, who works in the area. But the lane has become inadequate for safe travel. The paint on the street has been totally worn away and the lane is constantly blocked by double-parked vehicles.

Since it is already buffered, however, upgrading to a parking-protected lane is easy. “All we’re doing is flipping it,” said Dutton. “It has no impact on moving lanes — they stay right where they are.” The only trade-off for the safety upgrade is a few parking spaces that would need to be removed for new mixing zones and pedestrian refuge islands.

“All the statistics point to the fact that parking protected zones reduce both pedestrian, bike and vehicle passenger injuries,” said Schott. On Eighth Avenue, total street injuries fell between 18 and 35 percent after the upgrade. On Second Avenue, injuries fell 11 percent while the number of weekday cyclists using the lane more than tripled.

Hudson Street effectively runs in two segments. Above Abingdon Square, Hudson runs southbound, connecting Ninth Avenue to Bleecker Street. Below the square, Hudson runs north until it becomes Eighth Avenue. If installed alongside existing DOT plans for bike lanes in Midtown, therefore, the upgrade would create continuous protected lanes on Eighth Avenue from 59th Street to Canal Street and on Ninth Avenue from 59th to Bleecker.

Nearly every member of the public who spoke at the meeting voiced support for the proposal; a straw poll of attendees showed seven in favor and one opposed. Testimony submitted by e-mail weighed overwhelmingly in favor of the lane.

Safety — for both cyclists and pedestrians — was the top issue. CB 2  member Denise Collins,  said she worried for parents and children cycling to Hudson Street’s P.S. 3. “There are people who don’t even know that we have a bike lane on Hudson, it’s just totally washed away,” she said. “I hold my heart in my hands sometimes when I see these people on bikes.”

Ellen Peterson-Lewis, a public member of CB 2′s environment committee, noted that the neighborhood has a growing senior population, a group she included herself in. “To have that flip and to have that pedestrian island there,” she said, “I do think this is an excellent idea.”

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Four pedestrians have lost their lives on New York City streets since Thursday. Two of the crashes were hit-and-runs and a third killed a four-year-old child. A cyclist is also in critical condition after a man who wasn’t licensed to operate the tractor trailer he was driving struck her on a Bushwick street Friday morning.

At 12:30 a.m. Sunday, Manuel Tzajguachiac was crossing 65th Street at 20th Avenue in Bensonhurst, according to the Post. As he crossed the street, the driver of a BMW SUV struck and killed him. The impact sent the victim flying through the air but the driver never even stopped, the Post reported. Tzajguachiac moved to the United States six months ago from Guatemala, where his wife and son still live.

The SUV is known to belong to firefighter Pat Quagliariello, whose brother is an NYPD detective. Though Quagliariello told the police that the car was his a few hours after the crash, he isn’t saying whether he was driving the vehicle. Police released Quagliariello because they couldn’t prove he was the driver, according to the Daily News. He has been suspended pending the results of the investigation.

Later that morning, a delivery truck driver hit and killed a pedestrian on Morton Street near West Street, in the West Village. The police said that they have not identified the victim, though the Wall Street Journal reports that he was Dario Digiano, a 21-year-old from Belleville, New Jersey. The driver fled the scene and police are still trying to find him.

At around 2:00 a.m. this morning, a Duane Reade truck driver hit and and killed a pedestrian as he crossed Eighth Avenue at 56th Street.

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Last Saturday, ten cyclists returned to where they had parked their bikes in Hudson River Park to find them gone. They had been attached to a railing along the river and, as reported in Gothamist, confiscated by the park.

By Hudson River Park regulations -- the park isn't run by the city Parks Department -- bikes may only be parked at a bike rack. "Bike racks are designed to have bikes locked to it; our railings and lightposts are not," explained Hudson River Park spokesman David Katz. "This was an iron railing. It's going to get scratched. It's going to get scuffed."

According to Katz, the bikes had been locked to the sea wall railing near Leroy Street for around two and a half hours when park enforcement officials decided they had to go. Katz claims that staff asked nearby park users, including those in the dog run and at Pier 40's athletic fields, if the bikes were theirs. When no one claimed them, they cut through the locks and took them to the park headquarters inside Pier 40. "Since they are in violation of park regulations," added Katz, "they are summonsed."

Ultimately, all ten bikes were reclaimed, said Katz. The owners had all been on a cruise together on the nearby Queen of Hearts boat.

The Gothamist report pointed a finger at the park for not notifying the cyclists that their property was about to be seized. In particular, the lack of signs announcing the rule was seen to make the seizure unfair. Katz claimed that the rule was prominently displayed. "There are large signs at every entrance to the park," he said, including the bike parking rule along with other regulations. 

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Plans for a protected bike path on a short stretch of Carmine Street are in jeopardy following a public hearing held by Manhattan Community Board 2's transportation committee last night. The proposal enjoys unanimous support from committee members and has already won approval from both the full CB and the local block association. But the riled-up crowd that commandeered last night's proceedings may have the final word.

The plan would protect the existing bike lane between Seventh Avenue and Sixth Avenue by restoring on-street parking to the south side of Carmine and converting the two-way street to one lane east-bound. The idea first surfaced two years ago, after merchants balked at the removal of parking to make way for the original bike lane. The parking-protected bike lane had since cleared no fewer than three public votes held by CB2 and the Carmine Street Block Association, which represents the merchants.

"Everyone on the transportation committee said very strongly that this will result in a safer, quieter, more pleasant street for pedestrians and bicyclists," said CB2's Ian Dutton. "In the end we said we would write a letter thanking DOT and agreeing with them, but apparently, due to neighborhood hysteria, now is not the time to endorse."

Here's a taste of some of the arguments opponents put forth last night, as recounted by Dutton. The new configuration will make it impossible to execute illegal U-turns on Carmine. The elimination of the west-bound lane will increase traffic flow. Trash bags will slide into the bike lane, making it slippery and dangerous for cyclists.

This last point was scored by a former saxophone shop proprietor who goes by the name "Dr. Rick." Dr. Rick currently runs this website and last night was heard boasting that he's spent 18 hours a day for the past month convincing people of the dangers that will ensue from the Carmine Street plan.

That's what it takes to drum up a crowd loud enough to cow supporters of safer streets. "Apparently there were some people there to speak in favor of the plan, and they were threatened enough that they didn't speak," said Dutton. "The problem is that the people who show up to these meetings are those who are trying to defend their driving. Nevermind the thousands of people who walk across those intersections every day."

DOT now finds itself in the position of deciding whether last night's mob-like display should override three prior public votes and the proven safety benefits of similar street designs. City offices are closed for the holiday and we weren't able to obtain comment from the agency as of this afternoon. Said Dutton: "We realize that this sets a really bad precedent -- a community board asks for a safer street and DOT delivers, and then a few people overturn it."

With the support of DOT, Community Board 2 and the local block association, a parking-protected bike lane could be in the works for Carmine Street in the West Village. But despite prior approval of the plan, it will again be a topic of discussion at tonight's CB 2 transportation committee meeting.

In late 2007, a bike lane was added to Carmine as part of DOT's Lower Manhattan crosstown bike route. In response to merchant complaints over the loss of delivery access, a community-generated proposal was put forward to convert Carmine to one-way eastbound with parking on both sides and a parking-protected bike lane, a la Grand Street. Though the plan subsequently drawn up by DOT [PDF] has been approved by CB 2 and the Carmine Street Block Association, it remains in limbo due to what has been described as a "one-man crusade" to derail it. For a taste of the histrionics fueling the opposition, click here.

The CB 2 transpo committee has already endorsed the protected lane and tends to embrace street designs that are most beneficial to vulnerable street users. Still, some who have shepherded the plan for two years now fear a "compromise" that could result in the conversion of Carmine to one-way with a conventional Class 2 unprotected lane, rather than the configuration that has brought marked safety benefits (and similar ill-founded controversy) to Grand Street. Needless to say, the more friendly voices heard tonight, the better.

WHAT: Manhattan Community Board 2 Transportation Committee meeting
WHEN: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 6:45 p.m.
WHERE: NYU Languages and Literature Building, 19 University Place (at W. 8th St.), Rm. 102

Opponents of the Department of Transportation's plan for a new Lower Manhattan crosstown bike route are expected to make a show of force at tonight's Community Board 2 Transportation Committee meeting in an effort to preserve a few dozen on-street parking spaces along Carmine and Bleecker Streets. Bicycling advocates are urging their supporters to show up as well.

Opponents began mobilizing two weeks ago after DOT removed all of the parking meters on Carmine Street and erected "No Standing" signs in preparation for the new bike lane. The loss of parking space angered a small but vocal group of local residents and merchants who managed to put the issue back on tonight's Transportation Committee agenda despite an 8 to 1 commitee vote in favor of DOT's plan and full Community Board approval last April.

Item number six on the agenda for this evening's Community Board meeting is, "Request to keep parking along Carmine St. bet. 7th Ave. and Bleecker St. intact and to put the new bicycle lane to the left of the parked cars." A local activist says to expect "fierce opposition from resident car owners and merchants" at tonight's meeting.

While it seems unlikely that opponents will be successful in overturning last spring's Community Board vote, which took place after many hours of deliberation, Transportation Alternatives is urging local bike lane supporters to show up tonight to support the critical east-west bike network link:

The Carmine Street bike lane will connect the Hudson River Greenway to the eastbound Bleecker Street bike lane. This is the DOT's first attempt to make sure that bike lanes don't simply dead-end, but connect with one another in a neighborhood bike network. This network represents the diligent efforts of Manhattan Community Board 2, and it is essential that the work proceed as originally planned.

Tonight's meeting is at 6:30pm in the NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 710. ID is required. 

The city's proposal for lanes on Prince and Bleecker -- streets parallel to Houston, rather than Houston itself -- met resistance earlier this year from those who saw the plan as a flawed compromise for a dangerous, auto-centric Houston Street, as well as those who do not want street parking supplanted by "reckless cyclists."

Ian Dutton of the Houston Street bike safety initiative snapped these photographs of yet another never-before-seen street design feature here in New York City. This is what's called a "Bike Box" at the  intersection of W. 9th St. and Sixth Ave. Bike boxes allow cyclists approaching the intersection with a red signal to position themselves at the front of the line of vehicles. This makes bike travel faster and the right turn onto northbound Sixth Avenue safer.

New bike boxes are also being striped in on Carlton Avenue at Bergen Street and on DeKalb and Flushing Avenues in Brooklyn. Technically, these aren't New York City's first-ever bike boxes. There have been previous attempts to install them in various spots but the design of these new ones seem to be much bigger, clearer, cleaner and closer to what you see in bike-friendly cities elsewhere.

One city that appreciates its bike boxes is London. Traveling on a German Marshall Fellowship in March I met with John Dinunzio, a Project Coordinator with the London Cycle Network (or LCN+), working to build out that city's bike infrastructure. John and his team are big proponents of bike boxes. I saw a lot of them throughout London. London motorists mostly seem to respect the bike boxes. Let's see if New York City drivers do the same.