DOT Floats Greenwich Avenue Protected Bike Lane to Manhattan CB 2

DOT may create a safer cycling connection between Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue with a two-way parking protected bike lane on most of Greenwich Avenue -- if Manhattan Community Board 2 votes for it.

Greenwich is a short street but an important east-west connection in an area where the Manhattan grid breaks down. Even though there is no bike infrastructure on Greenwich, cyclists already account for 35 percent of all southbound vehicular traffic during the morning peak, according to DOT, and the agency's 12-hour weekday counts tallied an average of more than 850 cyclists.

DOT is floating a design for a two-way protected bike lane between 13th Street and Christopher Street along the north curb, leaving short blocks at either end unprotected. That was one of two options for Greenwich Avenue the agency showed to the CB 2 transportation committee meeting last week [PDF].

To make room for the bike lane, Greenwich north of 10th Street would be converted from two-way motor vehicle flow to one-way. South of 10th Street, the motor vehicle flow would remain two-way, which avoids disrupting the M8 bus route. The short block between Christopher and Sixth Avenue would have a two-way bike lane but no parking protection. At the northern end, the short block connecting to the Eighth Avenue bike lane would have no bike infrastructure, and two blocks of Horatio Street feeding into Greenwich would get sharrows.

With four feet in each direction for cycling, the bike lane would be on the narrow side, but there's a couple of feet of street width the DOT could shift over to the bike lane if it chooses.

DOT also presented a design with no physical protection that calls for a northbound curbside bike lane and a southbound painted lane next to a curbside parking lane on most of Greenwich. Motor vehicle traffic flow would not be affected.

The Greenwich Avenue project is related to another project that CB 2 approved earlier this month -- a painted bike lane on 8th Street between Sixth Avenue and Lafayette Street [PDF]. The Greenwich Avenue bike lane would essentially connect bike lanes on Eighth Street and Ninth Street to Eighth Avenue.

DOT is not moving decisively to implement the protected lane on Greenwich. Agency reps said their presentation was only to gauge interest in the project among board members, according to people who attended. The transportation committee did not make a recommendation on the project.