Eyes on the Street: The Unsafe Manhattan End Of The Queensboro Bridge
Hey DOT, you missed a spot.
A key bike access point to and from the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge is still a free-for-all, following a much-overdue safety redesign that improved conditions for cyclists and pedestrians on the rest of the bridge.
Cyclists and walkers formerly had to share a single car-width lane on the north side of the bridge until the DOT gave pedestrians their own space on the south side in May 2025. Despite the improvement, the bike lane entrance and exit on E. 60th Street between First and Second avenues still needs some work, or, as one Redditor called it, “an accident waiting to happen.”
Streetsblog visited the location last week for a classic “Eyes on the Street”:
Last exit to Manhattan
First, the basics: Cyclists coming down the bridge path from Queens have two options in Manhattan: E. 60th Street to First Avenue, or E. 60th Street to Second Avenue. Only the former route has a bike lane to or from the bridge path.
No matter which path cyclists take, they arrive at the hairpin turn/chokepoint/crosswalk/car exit ramp on E. 60th Street (pictured above) where Queens-bound cyclists from Second Avenue, Queens-bound cyclists from First Avenue, Manhattan-bound cyclists from Queens heading towards First Avenue and Manhattan-bound cyclists from Queens heading towards Second Avenue all converge.
In short, it’s a four-way clusterfuck.
And let’s not forget about pedestrians: People walking on the south side of E. 60th Street have to cross the bike lane in the middle of all of it.
“I just feel like this is not normal and not safe,” said Stephen Cheng, who was exiting the bridge from Queens on an electric bike.
Why is it designed this way?
This bike lane entrance and exit maintains the flow of cars exiting the bridge onto E. 60th Street between First and Second avenues. Closing that ramp to drivers would merely mean they would have to stay on the bridge and exit at Second Avenue or use a different ramp to get to E. 62nd Street. (Many drivers are using this ramp already because it puts them outside of the congestion pricing zone.)
OK, let’s get some actual eyes on this thing:
Small outlet
Cyclists exiting the bridge face a tight gap between the fence and the guardrail — a bottleneck for cyclists wanting to head westbound on E. 60th Street or wanting to enter the bridge from E. 60th Street. When the light for drivers exiting the bridge turns red, the waiting two-wheeled commuters all try to rush through on the “Walk” signal.
The crowd of cyclists waiting to cross begins to encroach on the ramp when it’s busier, and it takes a while for them to filter out. Without much room for them to spread out, all the people create a collision hazard because cyclists coming down from the bridge often come down fast.
Tight corner
Coming downhill from the bridge makes it easy for cyclists to gain speed as they approach the tight corner. When Streetsblog visited, many cyclists coming down from the bridge veered into the oncoming traffic lane.
At one point during Streetsblog’s trip to the exit, two delivery drivers on e-bikes came to a screeching halt after the biker coming from Manhattan dipped into the left lane. Both men were unharmed, but the collection of skid marks on the ramp show it’s not the first time it’s happened.
Crosswalk
It is safer for pedestrians to walk on the north side of E. 60th Street despite the sidewalk on the south side. If pedestrians want to take the south sidewalk, they are encouraged to use the crosswalk in the middle of the bike lane. The cyclists coming off the bridge have limited view of this crosswalk, so it’s hard for bike riders to see foot traffic.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” said Jackson Kaye, who was entering the bridge’s bike lane on a Citi Bike from Second Avenue. “I have definitely seen pedestrians just standing there or trying to cross, while the most aggressive asshole biker is zooming by.”
Pedestrians heading west have to wait at the access point’s opening alongside cyclists.
Signage
There is proper signage directing pedestrians away from the two-way bike path. And the sign even tells them where to find the walking path on the bridge’s south outer roadway. But getting there can be a dangerous endeavor (and may prove to be the subject of my next Eyes on the Street, but that’s up to the boss).
If a pedestrian attempting to walk the bike path across the bridge makes it through the cars and cyclists, a sign prompts them to take the pedestrian path at E. 59th Street instead. To get there, they can either continue on E. 60th Street and go under the bridge, or they can walk west, go through the crosswalk, walk along a narrow sidewalk by the bridge, turn left onto Second Avenue, walk south on pedestrian islands while dodging cars, before turning left on E. 59th Street to get to the pedestrian path.
Another sign reads, “NO MOPEDS,” but it was ignored by many users of the devices, which are illegal in city bike lanes.
The Department of Transportation has posted no plan to alter the design of the exit intersection. The agency declined to comment.
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