Bicycling

Eyes on the Street: Lafayette Street Gets Its Bike Lane Back

One of New York City's most faded bike lanes has gotten its shine back. There's a fresh coat of thermoplast on the Lafayette Street bike lane between Spring Street and Canal Street, which for a while had almost completely disappeared.

By David Meyer

4:42 PM EDT on April 21, 2016

Not quite Kermit, but the Lafayette Street bike lane is looking quite fresh. Photo: David Meyer — The Lafayette Street bike lane is looking quite fresh. Photo: David Meyer

One of New York City’s most faded bike lanes has gotten its shine back. There’s a fresh coat of thermoplast on the Lafayette Street bike lane between Spring Street and Canal Street, which for a while had almost completely disappeared.

The erosion of bike markings and the long lag times between resurfacing streets and restriping bike lanes became such a noticeable problem that it spawned the #PaintMyBikeLane hashtag last year.

At a City Council hearing in March, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said the city is aiming to do better, with $10 million in the 2017 budget set aside for DOT’s restriping program.

Of course, the Lafayette Street bike lane could use an upgrade too. Above Spring Street, the northbound Lafayette Street bike lane was converted to a parking-protected lane in 2014, but the southbound segment remains unprotected and is frequently blocked by double-parked cars. Refreshing the paint will make a difference, but swapping the parking lane and the bike lane would be the best move to keep cars out of this important southbound connection to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Until this week, the Lafayette Street bike lane was starting to look a lot like sharrows. Image: Google Maps

David Meyer

David was Streetsblog's do-it-all New York City beat reporter from 2015 to 2019. He returned as an editor in 2023 after a three-year stint at the New York Post and is now Managing Editor.