As Citi Bike Expands, So Should NYC’s Protected Bike Lanes

When Citi Bike launched last year, ridership numbers quickly surpassed levels seen in other cities. New York's system had a number of advantages -- more stations, more bikes, more places to go, and more potential customers, for starters. But there's another reason so many people felt comfortable hopping on the blue bikes: For years before bike-share's launch, the city had been installing miles of protected bike lanes on several key north-south avenues in the Citi Bike service area.

As Citi Bike expands beyond the city's core, the protected bike lane network should grow along with it. The logic of the pairing is so clear to New Yorkers, noted former DOT policy director Jon Orcutt in a Streetsblog post this summer, that when the city sought to add protected lanes for Midtown avenues after bike-share was already in the works, the proposals "sailed through their respective community boards." Will the de Blasio administration also make the connection between bike-share and building out safe bicycling infrastructure?

At Tuesday's Citi Bike press conference, I asked Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg if DOT would grow the protected bike lane network as bike-share expands to more neighborhoods. "One of the big steps with Citi Bike in terms of safety and ease of use has been connecting wherever possible with protected bike lanes," she said. "As we site stations, that is going to be one of the criteria."

It wasn't exactly a commitment to expand the protected bike lane network in tandem with Citi Bike.

Earlier this week, Mayor de Blasio didn't bring up protected lanes when I asked what his administration is doing to improve bike safety in light of the fact that bicyclist deaths have doubled in 2014 compared to the same time last year. De Blasio cited enforcement against dangerous driving before adding that NYPD has issued more tickets to "bicyclists who have acted inappropriately" and that the city would employ "equal opportunity" enforcement against bike riders.

The administration has gone on the record saying the protected bike lane network will expand at about the same rate as it has since 2007. At a press conference celebrating New York's "best biking city" ranking last month, Trottenberg said DOT has committed to adding five miles of protected bike lanes every year.

So far, however, the de Blasio administration has yet to put its stamp on the bike network.

Protected bike lane extensions or upgrades on Kent Avenue, Lafayette Street, and Hudson Street were installed under de Blasio's watch, but those projects were initiated by the previous administration. So were protected bike lanes planned for Fort George Hill in Upper Manhattan, the Pulaski Bridge, and Paerdegat Avenue North in Canarsie, which have yet to be built.

DOT has also continued to install painted lanes and sharrows in neighborhoods including Crown Heights, East New York, Brownsville, and East Harlem. And it is studying complete street redesigns for Amsterdam Avenue, Fifth Avenue, and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan after requests from community boards, but has yet to come forward with proposals.

The city will have to advance proposals for new protected lanes soon in order to build the infrastructure in time for the first round of Citi Bike expansion, which is expected next year. If the city isn't ready, the second phase of bike-share might not be as successful as the first. After all, as Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White said after Tuesday's press conference: "Protected bike lanes are to bike-share what tracks are to trains."