Bike Lanes

Manhattan's newest pair of crosstown bike lanes, on 29th and 30th Streets, are set to be striped after strong votes of support from two Midtown community boards. The lanes already exist west of Eighth Avenue, where they were painted in the wake of the death of cyclist Marilyn Dershowitz. With the support of local residents, the lanes will now extend east to First Avenue.

A plan to transfer one lane of 72nd Street from motor vehicles to bicycles in Central Park earned a thumbs up from three committees of Manhattan Community Board 8 last night, a strong show of approval from a board with a mixed record on bike infrastructure. The total vote was 13-1, with one abstention, according to transportation committee co-chair A. Scott Falk.

Is the NBBL era finally behind us? First, Senator Chuck Schumer himself was spotted riding in the Prospect Park West bike lane. Now, the Department of Transportation is reviving a plan, shelved at the height of the NBBL-aided media circus about cycling, to build a two-way bike lane on Plaza Street.

We've been featuring this item from Streetsblog Flickr pool contributor ddartley on the sidebar for a few days, and it's time for a promotion. On the First Avenue bike lane by 25th Street, construction has temporarily wiped out the parking-protected bike lane, and in its place is a highly-functional buffered bike lane. Bike traffic keeps on flowing.

This is the third in a series of reports about sustainable transportation policies in Mexico City. Last week, Streetsblog participated in a tour of the city led by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Previous installments covered pedestrian improvements and the city's new bus rapid transit system.

This summer, cyclists will have a second path to safely cross Central Park.

Staten Island's North Shore is one of the city's great sites of opportunity. The neighborhoods along the Kill Van Kull are twice as dense as the rest of Staten Island, but lack any transit option beyond the bus. There are historic town centers at St. George and Port Richmond, but car-centric planning deadens street life. The waterfront, much of which still hosts a vibrant maritime industry, is only accessible to the public at three locations in six miles.

The Manhattan Bridge bicycle path will return to its usual place on the north side of the bridge on March 5, according to a Department of Transportation spokesperson.

A Brooklyn bike lane scuttled during last winter's anti-bike frenzy is back on the agenda thanks to some intrepid citizen activism. More than 1,400 people have signed a petition to paint a bike lane on Lafayette Avenue, reports the New York Times' The Local blog, and the local community board will be revisiting the issue this coming Tuesday.