Eyes on the Street: It’s Not Easy, Being the Right Shade of Green

By Stephen Miller
Sep 5, 2014

Does something seem… off? It’s not just you: This is not the standard color DOT uses for bike lanes. Photo: Julia Day

With construction on the massive Third Water Tunnel shifting east along Grand Street, the section of the street through Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown is getting repaved for the first time in years. Along with the new surface comes restoration of Grand Street’s protected bike lane — this time with a twist: Unlike other NYC bike lanes, this lane is being repainted in a bright, Kermit the Frog shade of green.

DOT, which lays down a more bluish-green color on its bike lanes, directed questions about the hue to the Department of Design and Construction, which is in charge of the Grand Street reconstruction. (DDC hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment.) While this color scheme may be closer to the green on display in some other cities, it appears to be the DDC’s shade, not the new standard in bike lane tinting here in New York.

I am green. And it’ll do fine. It’s beautiful! And I think it’s what I want to be. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

A painted bike lanes on the Grand Concourse. Sanchez would like the lanes to be protected. Photo: Erwin Figueroa

Eyes on the Street: The Grand Concourse Bike Lanes Get an Upgrade

By David Meyer | Aug 29, 2017

DOT has realigned the bike lanes on a section of the Grand Concourse and painted them green. It's not as good as the physical protection local advocates are after -- the city plans to redesign the Concourse with protected bike lanes later -- but it's an upgrade on one of the Bronx's major north-south routes.

Somewhere under all that snow and ice is a bike lane.

Behold the Worst-Plowed Bike Lane in New York

By David Meyer | Mar 17, 2017

It's been three days since Stella dropped its wintry precipitation on the city, but the protected bike lane on Grand Street in Manhattan remains unusable beneath three-foot mounds of snow.

Eyes on the Street: The Case of the Missing Bike Lanes

By Stephen Miller | Jun 10, 2015

The streets have been repaved. Lane striping, crosswalks, and stop bars have been added back. But there’s something missing from two streets in DOT’s bike network: bike lanes. In Williamsburg, Driggs Avenue has been repaved — but you would never know it’s a key bike connection from the Williamsburg Bridge. The street has all its stripes back except […]

Fresh green paint at 45th Street. Photo: David Meyer

Eyes on the Street: The Shrinking Second Avenue Bike Lane Gap

By David Meyer | Jun 7, 2017

From 59th Street to 43rd Street there's now a green curbside bike lane on Second Avenue (tuff curbs to come). The remaining gaps in the bike lane are near the Queensboro Bridge and Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

Eyes on the Street: New Bike Lanes Around Union Square

By David Meyer | Sep 28, 2016

DOT began installing new bike lanes leading to and around Union Square this week. The project — which will eventually include a two-way protected lane around the park’s eastern and northern edges — is not nearly complete, but fresh paint along Fourth Avenue between 12th and 15th heralds bigger changes on the way. In addition […]

Eyes on the Street: An Early Look at the Lafayette Protected Bike Lane

By Ben Fried | Apr 18, 2014

Crews have been making good progress on the Lafayette Street redesign [PDF], the first protected bike lane project installed by the de Blasio administration. As of yesterday, the striping work had progressed from Spring Street up past 4th Street, where Philip Winn of Project for Public Spaces snapped these photos. The Lafayette Street project will […]