Bike Lanes

On Wednesday, DOT outlined a proposal for new Class II bike lanes in Chelsea between Eighth and Ninth Avenues and the Hudson River Greenway. While safe streets advocates welcomed the news, there is concern that their planned location, on W. 29th and W. 30th Streets, may not be ideal for unprotected lanes.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan has ruled in favor of the city in the Prospect Park West bike lane case, dismissing the plaintiffs' lawsuit on the grounds that they did not file before the statute of limitations had run out. We will have more for you tomorrow, Streetsblog readers. If you care to peruse Judge Bunyan's decision tonight, here it is [PDF]:

Earlier today I participated in a live chat debate on the topic of bike lanes, hosted and moderated by Celeste Katz. The chief sparring partner for supporters of bike lanes was Alex Nazaryan, who sits on the paper's editorial board and joined a group of cyclists for an uneventful ride across the Manhattan Bridge the previous morning.

Today at noon I'll be venturing over to the Daily News' Daily Politics blog to participate in a live chat about bike lanes. The debate, which the Daily News has assigned the unfortunate title "Bike Lanes: Good or Evil," was prompted by the paper's editorials on cyclists using the wrong side of the Manhattan Bridge during the current construction detour. The series seems to have wrapped up today by observing that the vast majority of cyclists obey the construction detour rules, without actually admitting that this has been the case all along.

A new NY1/Marist poll adds to the public opinion research showing a substantial majority of New Yorkers favor bike lanes. The survey found that 66 percent of adult New Yorkers support bike lanes, a somewhat higher level of support than the 59 percent recorded in a recent Quinnipiac poll. So NYC bike lanes are not only more popular than God, they are almost as popular as Andrew Cuomo.

From the Irish Independent:

New York City's bike lanes are now officially more popular than God. So here's a helpful tip to ambitious New York City politicians: it might just be time to get on board with bike lanes.

The gender gap in American cycling is a thorny and persistent issue, and New York City performs relatively poorly on the measure. The percentage of female bike commuters has wavered between 20 and 25 percent of the total over the last two decades, but with a marked rise in the most recent years.

Details are emerging about the plan to create shared bike/pedestrian paths cutting east-west across Central Park. The first two paths are likely to officially open on a trial basis in September, cutting across the park at roughly 102nd Street and 96th Street, said Central Park Conservancy community relations manager Caroline Greenleaf at a Community Board 7 meeting last night.