Alan Gerson

Rally for Houston Street Buffered Bike Lanes

If you've seen those eerie white "ghost bikes" on Houston Street, you may know that three cyclists have been killed on "the Boulevard of Death" during the past two years: Derek Lake, Brandie Bailey and Andrew Morgan. In the wake of this loss of life, members of Community Board 2's Traffic & Transportation Committee are holding a rally on Wednesday to ask the DOT to install buffered bike lanes as part of the street's reconstruction, which is taking space away from pedestrian islands to create left-turn bays for cars.

By Aaron Donovan

4:05 PM EDT on August 25, 2006

If you’ve seen those eerie white “ghost bikes” on Houston Street, you may know that three cyclists have been killed on “the Boulevard of Death” during the past two years: Derek Lake, Brandie Bailey and Andrew Morgan. In the wake of this loss of life, members of Community Board 2’s Traffic & Transportation Committee are holding a rally on Wednesday to ask the DOT to install buffered bike lanes as part of the street’s reconstruction, which is taking space away from pedestrian islands to create left-turn bays for cars.

The rally is being organized by Ian Dutton, an airline pilot from SoHo who said he is jealous of the great urban transportation systems he sees all the time in cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Dutton said he feels that New York City would benefit from increased cycling safety, even though he does not own a bike (yet, but does own a car).

Streetsblog is told that three elected officials have said they will rally for the bike lane:

We also hear that three elected officials have said they support the idea of a bike lane and will send staff members to the rally:

The CB2 group that is sponsoring the rally has set up a website, bikehoustonst.net, which is announcing the following details for the rally:

Date: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006
Time: 4 p.m.
Location: South side of Houston Street between Greene and Mercer Streets

[UPDATE Sunday, 8/27/06 11:53 a.m.:] Courtesy of Ian Dutton: Add State Senator Martin Connor to the list of elected officials who will attend the rally.

Aaron Donovan

Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.

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