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:

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.