Thanks for tracking these changes. It’s great seeing this stuff.

Question for anyone – has DOT explained how they expect to maintain these markings? Part of their effectiveness is because they represent a new traffic pattern, but I can’t help but think their vibrancy also helps with enforcement.

Does DOT have a plan for maintaining all these white lines and green strips? It’s very ambitious and I’m not knocking it, just curious…

I do like the effort, but paint ain’t going to cut it these days. I really wish sands street was done years ago,

Hey, let em try it out. They can’t build concrete medians overnight – they need to test out the new traffic patterns in stripes and see how they work. Glad to see a narrower treatment than 9th Avenue. This is much closer to the successful designs seen all over Copenhagen.

I’ve been biking along Grand the past few days, and I’ve yet to see anyone use the dedicated parking lane. Everyone pulls all the way to the curb, blocking the bike lane.

Here’s a photo just west of 6th Ave:
http://www.graffitibiz.com/grand.jpg

If the police can’t even get it right, I’ll be surprised if anyone else does. Hopefully things change once everyone gets used to the new set-up.

I was in Chinatown and SoHo this weekend. There were more cars unloading or idling than bikes using the Grand St. lane.

Actually, the pedestrians were utilizing it, like they use the Prince Street bike lane.

Not only is nobody using the parking spaces (I checked it out 3 or 4 times over the weekend), but they are using teh parking spaces as a second car lane. A disaster, they need to put in a curb, wide enough to ensure no dooring occurs, between the bike lane and the parking lane like every other place with this arrangement.

^ Sure the Grand Street bike lane will eventually work.

Just like the Prince Street bike lane works so well. Right!

^ writes: “That’s what I call a success. What about you, Johnny?”

Me? What do I call it?
A wise man said it best:
There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all.

Perhaps there is an odd time like 9:30 in the a.m. on a weekday when cyclists on their way to work outnumber cars. Perhaps. Perhaps that is your idea.
But for most of us NYErs, we perceive a different reality in Soho: cars overwhelm the bikes whenever Johnny walks on Prince.

When Johnny walks on Prince Street on the weekends and late afternoon/early evening, Johnny sees dozens of street vendors standing or sitting there obstructing the bike lane – as well as tourists strolling in it.
Not to mention the cars parked there while loading at Apple or other of the many stores, or hubby parked in the bike lane, idling the car while the wife shops. Or taxis discharging passengers.

This Saturday after a meal in Chinatown, Johnny saw a delivery guy pushing a grocery cart up the middle of the Prince Street bike lane, commandeering it.

Johnny saw the cyclists ride in the center of the Prince Street along with the cars, not in the bike lane.

Another wise man once sang:
Between the idea and the reality…falls the shadow.

Very true.

Doc,
Anyone who considers T.S. Elliot ‘folksy’ has forsaken credibility.

With guys like you, Luke 23:34 is more appropriate to reflect upon.

Fine.

Just be careful on Prince Street on your way to work tomorrow, little fella. Don’t get hurt.
I need you to toy with some other day.

I’m finding Prince Street to be a really nice crosstown bike route. I use it regularly and I see lots of other cyclists using it as well.

Still, I’d like to see Prince Street made into a mostly car-free corridor, particularly on weekends. There is very little reason to continue to allow private automobiles on that street.

I have two Prince Street complaints: that left from the Bowry can be rough, and the timing of the lights always makes me stop at Mercer or Greene. Otherwise, the only problems i’ve had have been the yellow cabs that make the sudden dash into the bike lane to discharge passengers. And that only happens in front of me once a week or so. I’ve had no issues with push-carts or pedestrians spilling off the sidewalk into the bike lane, not even when the iPhone 3G turned the Apple Store into a campground. But, like Messrs. Dutton and Barnett, i am not riding it during prime tourist hours.

I rode Grand on the way home last night. It was a mixed experience. On the one hand, the parking-as-bikeway-buffer seems to be working, east of 6th. On the other hand, the stripped buffer + green bike lane seems to be just wide enough for Lexus SUVs to drive on for unloading boxes. I suspect that’ll work itself out before long, though, as usage of the bikeway increases. Mr. Walker’s prediction of pedestrians on the green was also born out, though not in the masses seen on Broadway. And, unlike many points on my route, they actually stepped out of my way once they realized i was there. And, shoot, that’s all i really ask when i’m riding through town (i’m a little more demanding on places like the West Side Greenway, but then i am also more demanding when i’m a pedestrian and cars are driving on the sidewalk): just treat me with the same courtesy you expect.

Mr. Walker:

I think i’m pretty firmly in the amen pew: having ridden Prince pre-bike lane and post-bike lane, i feel that the bike lane does work well. Does it work perfectly? Certainly not. But, it works for me when i ride in the mornings, unlike 3rd (northbound), 4th, and 5th in Brooklyn, or the Bowery, and Rivington in Manhattan.

During tourist hours, the entire environment is significantly more crowded (funny how sidewalks designed for a population of 1 million get crowded when 7 million people are trying to use them), so i am far less concerned with Speed Cabby trying to hit 50 mph before 6th Ave. I am, consequently, less concerned with moving out of the bike lane to avoid “hazards.” Plus, a bright green bike lane allows me to indulge in righteous indignation during these times.