Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Bike Lanes

Residents Call for Better Crosstown Bike Routes on the Upper East Side

About 30 Upper East Side residents hit the streets last Saturday to evaluate potential routes for crosstown bike lanes in their neighborhood.

UES_Bikes
There's only one crosstown bike route on the Upper East Side. These volunteers want to change that. Photo: Tom DeVito/Transportation Alternatives

For the "street scan" organized by Transportation Alternatives and Bike New York, the volunteers split up evenly between people on foot and people on bikes. Both groups surveyed three possible east-west routes to document current conditions for biking.

Currently, the Upper East Side has only one crosstown bike route, painted lanes along E. 90th and E. 91st streets. "And that’s woefully insufficient," said Joe Enoch, a neighborhood resident who participated in the street scan. "We’re long overdue to get a second crosstown bike lane to keep pedestrians and bicyclists safe."

The three routes surveyed were E. 61st Street/E. 62nd Street, E. 67th Street/E. 68th Street, and E. 72nd Street, which is a two-way street.

All three routes have heavy motor vehicle traffic and potentially high demand for bike travel. E. 61st Street and E. 62nd Street, for instance, are local streets that connect to the Queensboro Bridge.

Since 2012, there have been 19 traffic fatalities and 2,129 injuries on the Upper East Side, according to city data compiled by Transportation Alternatives. Five of those deaths occurred on the streets leading to or from the bridge.

With Citi Bike expanding from 59th Street to 86th Street on the Upper East Side this year, and more growth planned for next year, the need for safer bike connections is growing more urgent. More people are biking on the neighborhood's streets, but there is scant infrastructure to protect them.

On Saturday, street scan participants flagged turning drivers failing to yield at intersections as a major problem on the east-west streets. Transportation Alternatives organizer Tom DeVito also noted that double-parked cars and the threat of dooring created poor conditions for cycling.

Transportation Alternatives and Bike New York are compiling the results of the street scan to send to local City Council members and DOT to get the city to move faster on installing bike lanes. TA plans to send the report to the city by the end of next month.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

More Tantrums: City Halts 34th Street Busway After Threat from Trump DOT

The feds threatened to cut city and state funding if New York doesn't halt all work on the 34th Street busway so the FHWA can review the project.

October 17, 2025

READY, AIM, ‘MISFIRE’: NYPD’s Bike Speed-Limit Effort Only Adds Confusion in Central Park

Two slowly ambling pedestrians were clocked at 19 miles per hour. So what's the point of this, exactly?

October 17, 2025

Friday Video: Drool Over This London School Street

That's cricket! Check out how London transformed a roadway around a big stadium into a play street.

October 17, 2025

Friday’s Headlines: Queen James Edition

State Attorney General Letitia James gave our national security desk reporters Dave Colon and David Meyer the ultimate hat tip. Plus other news.

October 17, 2025

Judge Orders Trump to Restore $34M in Security Funding to MTA

DHS overstepped its authority when it attempted to tie money from the Transit Security Grant Program to the Trump administration's efforts to deport immigrants, Judge Lewis Kaplan said.

October 16, 2025
See all posts