Manhattan CB8 Comes Out Strong for Protected Bike Lanes on East Side

After the roll call at tonight’s full Community Board 8 meeting, the tally for a resolution supporting protected bike lanes on the East Side stood at 38 yeas, 1 nay. Lots of hard work went into this vote — congrats to all who made it happen. More details tomorrow.

  • the Dynamic Mumeshantz

    Wow, not even close! Word had it might be 50/50. Nicely done Community Board 8, you’ve proved critics wrong! COngratulations!

  • glenn

    Very nice work everyone!! A long time coming and a well earned victory for safe streets and sustainable transportation.

  • Marty Barfowitz

    This might be a watershed event. One of the city’s stodgier Community Boards voting overwhelmingly in favor of serious bike infrastructure. Totally incredible. Whomever did the legwork to make this happen, you deserve some kind of award. Definitely a 2009 Streetsie nominee.

  • jon

    where would these go?

    any plans to do an allen/pike-like boulevard repair to park avenue? bring it back to original design by removing a lane from each direction to make a wider parkway? center lane protected bike lanes?

  • glenn

    First and Second Avenues are the most logical, but we’ll see what the DOT puts forth

  • Geck

    Protected Bike lanes in conjunction with real protected BRT lanes on First and Second Ave! That would be something.

  • J

    Wow, the vote at CB7 was only 28-7. I think that since these are protected, communities are more willing to get behind them, since they can actually see themselves, their kids, their parents using them. A buffered lane would probably have a harder time getting passed, since it has limited ped benefits, and is not going to allow most people to use it. Perhaps DOT should consider this when proposing any new facility on a wide road. How about protected lanes on AC Powell Blvd in Harlem??

  • JK

    With CB 8’s vote, there are now more people in New York City living in community districts which have asked for protected bicycle lanes than live in all of Portland, Oregon.

  • Grinner

    That is fantastic news! Nicely done, CB 8.

    Is Mt. Thompson’s second act in office going to be to nix these planned bike lanes?

  • The vote at CB 8 last night was thrilling, but comparisons with the CB 7 vote are tricky, because the CB 7 reso actually asked DoT to provide a concrete plan for protected paths on two specific avenues (Columbus and Amsterdam) and “felt” like a commitment to actually go forward with the plan, while the CB 8 reso was a more open-ended, “study the problem” kind of affair. That was the genius of CB 8 member Michael Auerbach’s resolution–it allowed us to move things to the next stage, even though it is debatable as to whether UES livable streets advocates are in a position right now to actually win a concrete vote to install bike paths. We need to use all the time available to us while the DoT is preparing its proposal to develop and expand the base of protected path supporters on the UES, get not just individuals but community organizations on board, etc. as has been done on the UWS.

  • Glenn

    Good points BO. I assume the resolution was not changed. People should read it
    http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/10/09/cb-8-transpo-committee-approves-ues-protected-bike-lane-reso/

    It is for a study so the DOT will need to do its homework and come to the board with a full plan and the potential safety improvements.

    We need to continue to build support and work with the DOT to make sure the design is good and has community input.

    But what this does is takes the idea of doing nothing sort of off the table. And that’s a powerful thing. Now let’s get the details right.

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