Council Members Surprised to Hear CBs Approved Bike Lanes

[There was] a pretty vigorous discussion of the overview process of bike lanes being put in. Many council members were proceeding under the assumption that bike lanes were being installed without community input. Rather pointedly, Commissioner Sadik-Khan explained that some of the more contested lanes that had been put in had all passed through the Community Board process with overwhelming approval.

I think it surprised these members to hear that these vocal voices among their constituents were in fact not the majority voices within their own communities. I think we'll probably be hearing more on that in the next year, as more lanes are put in and existing ones are digested.

I think it’s the first time the DOT's been able to come to City Hall and say, pointedly and honestly, that they have done extensive community outreach. I think, probably more than any other agency, and even within the DOT probably more than any other issue, they've done their homework with respect to the communities that they've installed bike lanes in. It was gratifying to see them able to defend the work they’ve done effectively.

The city's installed 150 miles of bike lanes in the last two years. Of those 150 miles, maybe two miles have been contentious. And even in those cases, they've been installed with community board approval.