Bike Lanes

City Council member Alan Gerson didn't have much new to say at his sidewalk protest of the Grand Street bike lane. But a handful of reporters and a few cyclists pressed him to defend the idea that projects designed to improve street safety should be subject to greater City Council review.

Reader Ian Dutton sends this dispatch from last night's candidate debate for the District 1 City Council seat representing Lower Manhattan, organized by the Downtown Express and the Villager. If you're a District 1 resident who values safer streets and a well-funded transit system, tough luck.

At a recent campaign stop in Greenwich Village, city comptroller and mayoral candidate William Thompson got an earful from local merchants about the hardships of running a small business. While Tea & Sympathy owner Sean Kavanagh-Dowsett calling Chris Quinn "a whore," and Thompson's reaction, made headlines citywide, The Villager's account of the forum contained this interesting nugget:

Via Gizmodo: A laser device that allows cyclists to project their own bike lanes has gone from cool idea to prototype. Positive reponse to the concept from Alex Tee and Evan Gant of Altitude Inc. was significant enough to put LightLane into production. See the beta version in action above. Thoughts?

These days, it's not often that we get to report about New York City community boards pushing DOT for more progressive street designs. So sit back and enjoy this post. If you read Streetsblog regularly, it'll blow your mind.

DOT contractors are putting down new bike lane markings on Park Slope's Fifth Avenue this afternoon. In addition to refurbishing the original bike lane laid down in 2004 and the sharrows installed in 2006, the crews are adding reinforcements, like the chevron markings through the intersections pictured below.

Last week's collision between a pedicab and a yellow taxi in Brooklyn was followed by a renewed, or at least better publicized, interest from Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council in enforcing long-awaited pedicab industry standards.

Not that it didn't deserve the attention, but last month's car-free Times Square debut overshadowed other major Broadway safety improvements like these to the north -- including pedestrian islands and separated bike lanes -- which are now well on their way to being implemented. These pics were taken last weekend just south of Columbus Circle between 57th and 55th Streets.

Tuesday's post about the Fifth Avenue bike lane in Park Slope gave me the chance to talk to several retail merchants about how they receive their deliveries, and whether the Class 2 bike lane is causing them any trouble. According to Fifth Avenue BID director Irene LoRe, the bike lane makes it tougher for delivery drivers to do their job and adds to the cost of doing business. But based on my conversations with other restaurant owners and retailers, there is little support for this view among merchants on the strip.