Eyes on the Street: Making Room for the Chrystie Street Protected Bike Lane

Before DOT can stripe a two-way protected bike lane on Chrystie Street, it has to relocate three pedestrian islands to make room for the bikeway. Work on those islands -- at Canal, Broome, and Delancey streets -- appears to be mostly complete.

The protected bike lane along the eastern curb of Chrystie will replace today's un-protected painted lanes, which leave cyclists to mix it up with heavy traffic, including lots of trucks and buses [PDF]. It should significantly improve conditions on Chrystie, which thousands of people use to bike to and from the Manhattan Bridge each day.

The existing pedestrian islands along the route have to be shifted over about five feet to accommodate the two-way bikeway.

The project also includes new concrete pedestrian islands at East 2nd Street, Rivington Street, and Stanton Street, which have yet to be built. The bikeway could be painted before construction of those islands begins, which is the typical order of work on protected bike lane projects.