Manhattan CB2 Weighs Protected Bike Path for Eighth Avenue

A typical street plan in DOT’s proposal for Eighth Avenue.

The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 will meet tonight to consider a proposal for a protected bike path on Eighth Avenue. If built, the cycle track would join the Ninth Avenue bike lane as the city’s primary on-grid Class I bicycle facilities.

It seems not everyone embraces the prospect of improving pedestrian and bike safety. In notifying the neighborhood about the meeting, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s office referred to the project as a “drastic design change.” The hyperbole obscures the fact that the number of travel lanes will not be affected, though it is true that cyclists would have a “drastically” safer route if, as proposed, the current buffered bike lane were swapped with the lane of parked cars.

You can tell CB2 you support a safer bike network at tonight’s meeting: 6:00 p.m. at the NYU Silver Building, 32 Waverly Place, Room 509.