Bike Lanes

Since 2009, the Department of Transportation has been engaged in a major study of Jackson Heights' streets and sidewalks. At the request of community groups and with federal funding from Rep. Joe Crowley, DOT has been developing a plan to make the neighborhood safer, less congested, and more transit-accessible. After two years of research and community engagement, DOT will be presenting its first recommendations next Saturday, February 12.

City Council Minority Leader James Oddo has a surprising message for Streetsblog and its commenters: "Thank you."

Cross-posted from Brooklyn Spoke

You know something's amiss when you hear Republicans calling for more red tape and government bureaucracy, as Staten Island Council Members James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio did earlier this week with their call to require environmental review for all new bike lanes. But let's indulge Oddo and Ignizio and take their proposal seriously for a moment. Does it have any merit?

Mayoral pronouncements on bike policy are rather rare, so this Bloomberg quote buried at the end of a Daily News story on women's public safety seemed worth pulling. The News reports that the mayor and Queens DOT Commissioner Maura McCarthy got a frosty reception out in the Rockaways when they mentioned plans for new bike lanes:

The weather's given New York City a lot of opportunities to experiment with new responses to snow in the wake of the post-Christmas blizzard.

The definitive account of yesterday's Transportation Committee hearing on NYC bike policy has got to be the stream of tweets from BicyclesOnly, which are still pretty close to the top of his feed if you want to take a look. He reported that former deputy mayor and PPW bike lane opponent Norman Steisel was the first to give testimony, permitted to jump the queue and exceed the two-minute time limit by at least five minutes.

The line to testify at today's Transportation Committee hearing on New York City bike policy was snaking outside into the biting cold well before the 10:00 a.m. start time. More than 70 people signed up to speak, filling up two hearing rooms at 250 Broadway.

DOT's planned safety improvements for the intersection of St. Nicholas and Amsterdam Avenues are currently being installed, as shown in pictures snapped by Streetsblog reader BicyclesOnly. Major features include shorter crosswalks, additional pedestrian space, and Upper Manhattan's first segment of physically-protected bike lane.