Manhattan Community Board Backs Mamdani’s W. 72nd Street Bike Lane
Manhattan Community Board 7 on Tuesday backed Mayor Mamdani’s plan to put a two-way protected bike lane on W. 72nd Street and provide the Upper West Side with its first safe crosstown cycling connection between Central Park and the Hudson River.
The board voted 26-17 in favor of the redesign — which will also add metered parking, loading zones and bus boarding island — after an hours-long, standing-room-only meeting where around 140 people signed up to speak either in favor or against the project.
“I live on W. 72nd and bike regularly,” said Laura Sachs, one of 80 people who signed up to speak in support of the redesign. “I’m not a delivery person, I’m not a tour group, I’m not in spandex. I use it to get around the city as the most efficient way. I am afraid to bike home on my own street, the double parking is difficult to navigate. I support this fully because it improves safety for all users.”
Community board votes do not have any legal impact on whether the city advances a project. Mayors in the past have deferred to board votes on safety redesigns of streets, but Mayor Mamdani has vowed to back the proposals put out by his DOT.
CB7’s transportation committee endorsed the redesign back in April. The board first requested a crosstown protected bike lane on W. 72nd Street back in 2020.
The line for Tuesday’s full board vote snaked around the block at Broadway and W. 95th Street. Opponents of the project came super-charged, repeatedly shouting and delaying the board’s belabored effort to facilitate public testimony from all sides of the issue.
DOT’s redesign will convert W. 72nd Street from four lanes of moving car traffic to two, repurposing the two lanes for turning bays and a two-way protected bike lane. DOT plans to add a two-way protected bike connect on Riverside Boulevard between W. 68th Street and W. 72nd Street to directly connect cyclists to the greenway and Riverside Park.
The plan has something in it for everyone: Bus riders will get eight-foot-wide raised boarding islands as well as crosswalks and signs alerting cyclists to their presence.
Protected bike lanes have shown to reduce deaths and serious injuries across the city — including for seniors, DOT officials noted, amid concerns from the neighborhood’s older redesigns. Such bike lanes have seen a 39 percent drop in seniors killed or severely injured in traffic crashes, and a 22 percent drop in seniors injured in traffic crashes, DOT said.
Tuesday’s meeting filled up around 15 minutes before it even started, leaving some would-be attendees stuck outside.
As is typical in some Manhattan precincts, e-bikes often dominated the conversation. Supporters of the project spoke about wanting a safe place for their children to bike, while calling on the board and city to address the proliferation of e-bikes and scooters.
“We can expect our DOT and our community board to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time,” said Austin Celestin, a new member of the board (and occasional Streetsblog contributor). “This plan is not a referendum against regulating e-bikes, those two can coexist.”
Momentum was not with project opponents, however, some of whom suggested no one would use the bike lane even as dozens of their neighbors spoke out in favor of its installation.
The W. 72nd Street Block Association, which had opposed the idea in April, actually provided a statement in favor of the project this time around.
“We support this investment in our community and ask that CB7 and DOT incorporate feedback from recent meetings and the upcoming walkthroughs into the final street design,” the group said in a statement that was read into the record during the meeting.
Manhattan CB7 has come a long way from the days when its obstinate leaders spent months and years delaying or slow-walking DOT safety projects.
One project, DOT’s protected bike lane redesign of Columbus Avenue, turns 15 this year after boosting both businesses and safety on the corridor.
Bike lane opponents’ concerns always turn out to be “unfounded,” said longtime CB7 member and current CB7 transportation co-chair Ken Coughlin.
“I’ve been through all the bike lane battles, every single one, and it’s always been like this,” he said on Tuesday. “People said businesses will suffer, safety will be compromised, especially for pedestrians, and there will be more congestion — and in every case, it’s proven to be unfounded.”
The city could install the redesign as early as this summer, according to DOT, which plans to put forward a similar redesign for E. 72nd Street on the Upper East Side.
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