Bike Lanes

Three years ago, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio cheered as Brooklyn Community Board 10 helped kill a bike lane proposal. Tonight, there's a very different story unfolding: Responding to CB 10's request for new bike routes, Mayor de Blasio's DOT has proposed a bike lane plan for the neighborhood.

Last night, Manhattan Community Board 6 threatened to stall bikeway improvements connecting the East River Greenway with Murray Hill, because a group of condo owners opposed one piece of it. But a last-minute compromise seems to have cleared the way for the project.

Last week, Manhattan Community Board 6's transportation committee voted in favor of a plan to make it safer to access the East River Greenway from bike lanes on First and Second Avenue. But implementation isn't guaranteed yet. Supporters of the plan will need to make their voices heard at CB 6's full board meeting tonight, where opposition is expected from residents of a condominium tower upset about a proposed two-way protected bike lane in front of their building.

The fledgling bike lane network in Brownsville and East New York will continue to grow. The second of three rounds of painted on-street bike lanes -- mapped out in a planning process initiated by neighborhood residents -- is set to be installed by the end of the year, pending the support of Community Boards 5 and 16 later this month.

From sudden collapses to botched repairs, the current condition of the East River Greenway is a far cry from the vision of a continuous path on Manhattan's eastern shore. While filling in the greenway's gaps could take at least a decade, there are some small, short-term gains on the table. On Monday, Community Board 6's transportation committee backed a slate of bike improvement that aim to make accessing the greenway from Murray Hill a little bit easier.

Michael Andersen blogs for The Green Lane Project, a PeopleForBikes program that helps U.S. cities build better bike lanes to create low-stress streets. Second in a series.

When New York City began to rapidly accelerate the expansion of its bike network in 2007 -- adding 366 miles of bike lanes over seven years -- the pent-up demand for cycling became strikingly clear.

Well, that didn't take long.