Please, Sir: Midtown Residents Want More Car-Free Space On Park Ave. Than DOT Is Offering
It’s both, and.
Mayor Mamdani must go a step further with the city’s planned Park Avenue redesign and build a protected bike lane that doesn’t sacrifice pedestrian space, according to two Midtown community boards.
On June 11, Manhattan Community Board 5 voted — a lopsided 36-1 — to both support the Department of Transportation’s bike-lane-free version of its “put the park back in Park Avenue” redesign while also demanding that DOT repurpose a car lane in each direction for bike lanes in their traditional place against the curb — a resolution that, in effect, gives pedestrians full use of a widened median while also giving cyclists their own protected space.
That vote came one night after neighboring Manhattan Community Board 6 overwhelmingly supported asking DOT to add a bike lane in the roadbed to truly design Park Avenue for people, not cars. That resolution passed 28-6.
In short, both boards are calling on the DOT to remove another vehicle lane to create a separated bike lane — it could be against the curb or adjacent to the median — so that cyclists and pedestrians have their own space.
The votes came after DOT presented the two options it’s been showing around town since the end of April: Both options feature a widened center median with lots of space for strolling and hanging out. One of the options takes a bit of that expanded pedestrian space for a two-way bike lane. And both designs shocked many pedestrian and bike advocates because they retain six lanes of traffic on what the department was marketing as a park. Members of CB5 said they didn’t want cyclists and pedestrians competing for space.
“We were given two options and it was framed as a tradeoff,” said Samir Lavingia, the second vice chair of CB5, who spoke with Streetsblog in his personal capacity. “You could have pedestrian and green space, or you could have a bike lane. This resolution is meant to say we don’t accept those options, there are options to have it all. There is plenty of space available if we are able to look outside of the medians and look at the space cars are using as well.”
How we got here
DOT has been talking about redesigning Park Avenue between Grand Central Terminal and 57th Street since 2017, but the project disappeared from the department’s website in 2020 before a state-city plan called Making New York Work For Everyone put the project back on the map in 2022.
The current public engagement process was renewed under former Mayor Eric Adams in 2024. At that tine, cyclists were concerned that the administration would miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance to reimagine Park Ave as a people-centric street for all people, not just pedestrians. The DOT plan would expand the median between 46th and 57th streets by as much as 20 feet once the MTA is done with its work replacing the structure that holds up the roadbed.
The section of Park Avenue could be a key link in a robust bike network for Manhattan’s east side. Currently there are no protected bike lanes west of Second Avenue and east of Sixth Avenue between 26th and 58th streets. And Park Avenue is the only Midtown avenue without a bus route, making it easier for DOT to make revolutionary changes.
Creating more space for people on Park Avenue is actually a throwback to the way it used to be before cars ruined everything. Before the roadway was widened 100 years ago to accommodate drivers, Park Avenue’s wide median drew pedestrians and promenaders from all over and was a prime New York attraction (photo right).
That’s what motivated street safety advocate Alex Duncan — known to the online world as the Reddit moderator Miser — to present his expanded version of Park Avenue to local community boards in the first place.
As Streetsblog reported last month, Duncan not only wants the “bike-lane version” of DOT’s plan, but also wants the median to widen by one car lane on each side for additional greenery and to cut some crosstown traffic.
Following up on Duncan’s proposal, CB5 wants the DOT to study turning Park Avenue into a seamless linear park by closing cross streets so pedestrians don’t have to dodge cars making turns.
Unlike CB6, which only comprises a short stretch of Park Avenue and nothing to the west of Madison Avenue, CB5 added to its resolution a call to action for nearby Fifth Avenue, where the DOT is planning a redesign in partnership with the Fifth Avenue Association, a business improvement district. So far, the wealthy BID has been against adding a bike lane, but the community board wants one so that cyclists can bike safely from Marcus Garvey Park to Washington Square Park.
“We think that there’s an opportunity to put a bike lane in Manhattan basically from as far north to as far south, giving bikes an opportunity to get up and downtown without having to turn or get on a diff street,” said Lavingia, who wrote an OpEd for Streetsblog about Fifth Avenue last year.
DOT told Streetsblog the department will “review the resolution.”
Read More:
Streetsblog has migrated to a new comment system. New commenters can register directly in the comments section of any article. Returning commenters: your previous comments and display name have been preserved, but you'll need to reclaim your account by clicking "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in form, entering your email, and following the verification link to set a new password — this is required because passwords could not be carried over during the migration. For questions, contact tips@streetsblog.org.
