After Unanimous CB 3 Vote, Chrystie Street Protected Lane Scheduled for Fall

DOT’s rendering of the two-way protected bike lane slated for Chrystie Street in the fall.
This two-way protected bike lane is coming to Chrystie Street in the fall. Rendering: NYC DOT

DOT’s plan for a two-way protected bike lane on Chrystie Street [PDF] got a unanimous vote of support from Manhattan Community Board 3 last night. The project is scheduled for implementation in the fall.

The project will place a two-way bike lane protected by parked cars and concrete barriers on the east side of Chrystie from Canal Street to Houston Street, improving connections between the Manhattan Bridge and protected lanes on First and Second avenues. It promises to be a major upgrade over Chrystie Street’s painted lanes, which are frequently blocked by cars, trucks, and buses. Last year, 16 cyclists and 14 pedestrians were injured on Chrystie Street.

The redesign concept was originally presented at the beginning of 2015 by Transportation Alternatives volunteer Dave “Paco” Abraham. It attracted support from CB 3 and almost every elected official who represents the area.

In addition to the Chrystie Street redesign, DOT plans to install a protected bike lane on Jay Street on the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge in the fall.

Image: DOT
A typical section in the Chrystie Street redesign. Image: DOT
  • com63

    That’s great. Do we know the final treatment for the few blocks north of Houston? Hopefully the contraflow lane continues there.

  • BBnet3000

    How about Canal next to get to Allen/Pike? Lanesplitting while trying to judge how far cargo van doors swing out and getting around double parked cars is a break in the comfortable cycling network that is finally forming centered on the Manhattan Bridge and the East Side avenues.

  • ohnonononono

    Is a sidewalk being added to the east side of the street between Grand and Delancey? There is currently no sidewalk there, along with none on the west side of Forsyth on the other side of the park. Although you could argue that the “sidewalk” is the pedestrian path inside the park, there are fences and grade changes that prevent easy access at the intersections and lead to people walking in the existing bike lane. I’ve often thought this was a really poor design and just adding a sidewalk outside the park was the best way to reduce conflicts here.

  • J

    No, the contraflow ends at Houston.

  • BrandonWC

    Northbound lane stops at Houston, but south-bound lane will be protected from 2nd St to Houston where the gap currently is. See pg 17 of plan http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/chrystie-st-bike-lane-mar2016.pdf

  • J

    This project will do more for NYC cycling than perhaps anything else that’s been done to date. In one fell swoop the network of continuous protected lanes will nearly double via a fairly short segment.

  • BrandonWC

    Although I think the E Houston on-street lanes should be extended to Chrystie as construction wraps up.

  • Brian Howald

    Bummer. A protected contraflow lane to 2nd Street would eliminate a block biking in the left lane of Houston Street.

  • BBnet3000

    I’d probably still rather take Allen.

  • multimodal

    I think most people will continue to either go east to 1st or west on Rivington.

  • AnoNYC

    I wish they could just paint it in for the short term. How long could it possibly take to paint the street and move a couple Jersey barriers? Seems like a couple hours job if the city really wanted to get it done. Waiting until the end of summer minimum for projects announced now seems extreme.

  • Reader

    I believe there are some signal changes and other things that need to be addressed. Putting two-way bike traffic on one side of the street isn’t as easy as laying down some paint, I’m afraid.

  • J

    You can always cut east at Stanton, which has no traffic and some bike lanes, and connects directly to Allen/1st Ave. I’d classify that entire connection as low-stress.

  • Brian Howald

    Your point is well-taken; I’ve never thought to bike through the park. However, it’d be nice to avoid the mess that is 1st/Allen/Houston.

  • AnoNYC

    True. I would still take my chances at intersections though, wouldn’t anything new.

  • BrandonWC

    They need to move some of the concrete pedestrian islands (at Canal and Houston at least) before there is room to paint in the lanes.

  • Sabina

    I asked the DOT folks about this at one of the CB meetings (adding ped space on the east side of Chrystie where there aren’t sidewalks) but was told it wasn’t a problem because the peds could just go in the park.

  • BrandonWC

    1st/Allen/Houston should get a bit better by the end of the year. Yesterday, I emailed the DDC community liaison for the E Houston reconstruction project about whether the bike lanes on E Houston which currently end at Orchard St will be extended any farther west, and I got a response this morning:

    Yes probably some time later this year, at least to Chrystie St. and will go all the way to the Bowery right after that.

    Depending on how the 1st/Allen/Houston intersection is treated, this could be a big improvement.

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