Eyes on the Street: Bike Lane Stripes on Tremont Avenue

By David Meyer
May 4, 2016

This one-block stretch of bike lane between Park Avenue West and Park Avenue East in the Bronx is part of a four-mile route DOT is striping on Tremont Avenue. Photo: Jonathan Rabinowitz

DOT has striped the first pieces of the Bronx’s newest bike route on Tremont Avenue.

The city is putting down bike lanes and sharrows on the 4.1-mile stretch of Tremont Avenue between Cedar Avenue and Boston Road, following a 2014 request from Council Member Ritchie Torres for a cross-town route on Tremont.

A rendering of the bike facilities at Tremont and Park pictured above. Image: DOT — DOT’s design for the block in the top photo.

Reader Jonathan Rabinowitz snapped the photo above of freshly-painted lanes looking west at Park Avenue. Bike lanes have yet to be installed west of Webster Avenue, where the road awaits milling and repaving, he said.

While the new markings aren’t all-ages bike infrastructure, they make a noticeable difference, said Rabinowitz, who bikes on Tremont most mornings.

There’s a pressing safety need for better bike infrastructure here. In September 2015, DOT counted 235 weekday cyclists on Tremont Avenue where it crosses Third Avenue. Tremont is also a DOT-designated Vision Zero priority corridor: From 2010 to 2014, 10 cyclists and 33 pedestrians were killed or severely injured in the project area.

Torres had hoped for protected bike lanes on the route, telling Streetsblog in February that he views this project as a stepping stone to more ambitious efforts. “I see [this project] as a down payment, as laying the foundation for an eventual bike network that spans all of Tremont Avenue,” Torres said.