Even Below 34th Street, Gaps Appear in Plan for Protected Bike Lanes

New plans call for an un-protected curbside lane on nine blocks of Second Avenue. Image: NYCDOT

Yesterday brought another disappointing development in the city's plan to re-design First and Second Avenues. While upgraded bike routes are still guaranteed below 34th Street -- a far cry from what was presented to the public -- even that portion will not be a continuous protected route.

A new map of the project [PDF], which DOT presented at last night's Community Board 11 meeting, shows that between 14th and 23rd Streets, Second Avenue is only slated to receive a normal curbside lane. For nine blocks, cyclists will have to navigate a zone where a single illegally-parked car can thrust them into fast-moving traffic.

We have a request in with DOT and the mayor's office about why these blocks aren't getting a protected lane. 

Earlier this week, when we asked the press shops for DOT and the mayor's office about the overall scaling back of the East Side plans, we only received a response from DOT. A spokesperson said that the hold-up is caused by time constraints on construction work, and the need to accommodate construction of the Second Avenue subway.

Here's their full statement:

The omission of protected lanes along nine blocks of Second Avenue,
however, is a clear indication that other factors, like preserving space for rush-hour traffic, are at work. Sometime between DOT's
presentation to Community Board 6 on April 5, and the mayor's official
unveiling of the project on Monday, the Bloomberg administration's commitment to continuous
protected bike
routes for the East Side faltered.