Bicycle Safety

A reader reports of another NYPD cyclist crackdown, this time on the Lower East Side.

From Streetsblog San Francisco contributor Chris Carlsson: 

Compared to downtown Manhattan, the bike network in Harlem is on the patchy side, with only a few on-street lanes. Safer streets are on the way, however. Last week, DOT presented plans for a buffered bike path on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard to a neighborhood forum put on by Community Board 10. The new lane would run from 153rd Street to 118th Street, connecting to an existing route that feeds into Central Park.

This morning City Room wrote up a study published in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention that examines the factors behind cyclist fatalities in New York City. Nearly all the data derives from a groundbreaking 2006 report on bike injuries and deaths [PDF], the joint effort of several city agencies that preceded a major expansion of New York's bike network.

The reconstruction of East Houston Street will include wider medians, bigger sidewalks, fewer traffic lanes, and a new bike lane. But instead of installing a physically protected path for cyclists, the city plans to paint a buffered, Class 2 lane. The project, which received funds freed up by stimulus spending, will go out to bid this summer.

How fast do cars travel on Prospect Park West? Criminally fast. All the time. Members of Park Slope Neighbors clocked cars routinely exceeding the 30 mph speed limit -- including one sociopath racing at 65 mph -- during a ten-minute stretch earlier this month. Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue form a one-way pair funneling drivers to and from the free East River bridges and the Prospect Expressway, a configuration that makes for hazardous conditions. Last summer a school bus driver struck and killed cyclist Jonathan Millstein on Eighth Avenue. A few weeks ago a 57-year-old pedestrian was nearly killed a couple of blocks away from the Millstein incident. Parents are afraid to walk with their children across the corridor's dysfunctional intersections. NYPD enforcement is sorely lacking.

About 40 Brooklynites turned out last night for a CB7-sponsored meeting to discuss the future of Park Circle, the asphalt expanse where Prospect Park meets traffic headed to and from the Prospect Expressway, Ocean Parkway, and the Fort Hamilton Parkway. There are two projects in the works here: the Department of City Planning is studying how to improve bicycle connections between the Ocean Parkway Greenway and Prospect Park [PDF], and DOT is looking to make some quick, low-cost safety improvements to Park Circle that can be implemented this year [PDF].

DOT's pedestrian projects group will present tonight at a public workshop about Park Circle, the roundabout at the southern tip of Prospect Park. Sponsored by Community Boards 7, 12, and 14, this is a preliminary meeting to define problems and collect ideas before improvements are designed. Given the vortex of auto traffic swirling so close to the park and the Parade Grounds, the emphasis is on safety. The proximity of the Kensington Stables also makes for an unusual modal angle: In addition to walking and biking, horse circulation will factor into the discussion.