Bicycling

Eyes on the Street: NYPD Cedes 29th Street Protected Bike Lane to Illegally Parked Drivers

It took two deaths to get DOT to install protected bike lanes on 26th and 29th streets in Midtown. Now that the lanes are in, what will it take for NYPD and DOT to keep them clear?

By Brad Aaron

2:49 PM EDT on August 8, 2018

Eyes on the Street: NYPD Cedes 29th Street Protected Bike Lane to Illegally Parked Drivers

It took two deaths to get DOT to install protected bike lanes on 26th and 29th streets in Midtown. Now that the lanes are in, what will it take for NYPD and DOT to keep them clear?

A tipster sent the above photo of 29th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues, where drivers are parking in the curbside bike lane and adjacent buffer, forcing people on bikes to jostle with motor vehicle traffic.

While the 29th Street bike lane east of Seventh Avenue appears to be working out well, crews still haven’t gotten around to painting it green. This segment is “blocked every day like this,” according to our tipster.

This is the situation the new street design was intended to fix. NYPD should be doing its part to keep drivers out, but being NYPD, cops are making things worse:

The 29th Street bike lane is great until the NYPD decides it is its parking lot and everyone else follows suit. #bikeNYC pic.twitter.com/6Xbl38mU8d
— crazy, sexy, cool (@CatlinMichael) July 31, 2018

It shouldn’t take this long to make a new bike lane usable. Here we are halfway through summer and 29th Street is still a work in progress.

Brad Aaron

Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.