Bike Lanes

Two months after the MTA and NYCDOT first presented East Side Select Bus Service to Manhattan Community Board 6, officials were back with a modified plan last night, hoping to get a vote from the transportation committee. After a combative couple of hours, they didn't get one. The committee chose to put off a vote until its next meeting rather than come to a decision. The big news to emerge was the announcement of a specific launch date for the first phase of Select Bus Service on the corridor.

Sorry for the late notice folks, but there's one more public meeting on this week's busy schedule with big implications for street safety, and it's happening tonight. The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 is expected to draft and vote on a resolution regarding plans for Select Bus Service and protected bike lanes on the East Side. If you want to help support for safer biking and walking, you'll want to turn out for this one.

Reader Liam Quigley of Cyclosity fame sends this shot of the Grand Street bike lane on Saturday evening. He tells us the production company crew unloading this box truck between Bowery and Elizabeth stayed long enough to force at least five cyclists to ride up on the sidewalk and three others to ride into car traffic. That wasn't enough to merit a ticket from the officers sitting nearby:

"The Wiggle" is one of San Francisco's most beloved bike routes, guiding riders between two nasty hills. It even has its own Wikipedia entry.

Two weeks after NYCDOT revealed a package of pedestrian and cyclist improvements for the Lower East Side, the full membership of Community Board 3 voted overwhelmingly to approve the plans. 

We've got a few dispatches from last week's Manhattan Community Board 8 meeting on East Side bus and bike improvements, which we couldn't attend ourselves. First, Michael Auerbach, who's doing some fantastic livable streets advocacy at Upper Green Side, filed a report for Second Ave Sagas about how Select Bus Service will function alongside the subway construction zones on Second Avenue.

NYCDOT unveiled a slate of pedestrian and bicycle improvements to the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 3 last night. Presenters asked for votes on two street safety projects: the construction of a planted center median on the Bowery between Canal and Division streets, and the addition of new curbside bike routes to improve connections to the Williamsburg Bridge.

The transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2 voted unanimously Tuesday night to advance the idea of improving cycling connections between Fort Greene and surrounding neighborhoods. The proposal put forward by committee member Mike Epstein envisions safer bicycling across Flatbush Avenue and Atlantic Avenue, spanning intersections that are currently among the most dangerous in Brooklyn. A resolution asking DOT to study the plan's feasibility is now expected to come up before the full board at a meeting next month.

Marty Markowitz may have gummed up plans to make walking and biking in Park Slope safer and more convenient, but the Prospect Park West bike lane has a champion in the City Council. District 39 rep Brad Lander says he wants the project to move forward.