Bike Lanes

After a unanimous vote at its transportation committee earlier this month, Manhattan Community Board 2's full board last night unanimously passed a resolution supporting an upgrade of the buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a protected bike lane. The project [PDF] runs from Spring Street to 14th Street and will include a northbound protected bike lane from Prince Street to 12th Street, pedestrian islands, and narrower car lanes to slow drivers.

NYC DOT's proposal to upgrade the northbound buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a protected lane is up for a vote at Community Board 2 tonight, and while the plan sailed through the board's transportation committee earlier this month, a "Yes" vote is far from a sure thing. Redesign opponents who didn't show up at the committee meeting are expected to make an appearance at the full board vote, and that could jeopardize the project.

In a unanimous 9-0 vote last night, Manhattan Community Board 2's transportation committee endorsed a DOT plan to upgrade a buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a parking-protected lane, complete with new pedestrian islands, car lanes of an appropriate width for the city, and improved signal timing for pedestrians. The plan now moves to CB 2's full board meeting on March 20.

One of the first new street redesigns of the de Blasio administration calls for upgrading the northbound section of the Lafayette Street bike lane, between Spring and 14th Street, from a buffered lane to a protected lane. Manhattan Community Board 2 will consider the proposal tonight, and if you want a safer Lafayette Street it's important to turn out and tell CB 2 why this project matters.

Probably the dumbest part of a stupendously dumb Post story about double-parking tickets and the Columbus Avenue bike lane is this:

The story of the Bergen Street bike lane, and the 78th precinct, keeps getting better.

The Federal Highway Administration is seeking to impose a new layer of bureaucratic review on New York City bike projects, which could significantly delay the implementation of street redesigns that have proven to reduce traffic injuries and deaths.

By this time next year, people walking and biking across the Pulaski Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens won't have to share a single narrow path. With a new, two-way protected bike lane spanning the bridge, cyclists will have a safe route and pedestrians will have the existing 8.5-foot wide pathway exclusively for walking. No more fighting over scraps of street space.

Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 1's transportation committee unanimously recommended the board support a DOT project [PDF] to calm traffic on a deadly stretch of Kent Avenue between Clymer Street and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The project also upgrades a link in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to a two-way protected bike lane.