Bike Lanes

The Open Planning Project's Lily Bernheimer snapped these shots of the Ninth Avenue separated bike path, now being extended from 23rd Street to 31st.

When the New York Post ran a story last week about the opposition of Williamsburg's Hasidic community to bike lanes that pass through their neighborhood, the main beef was supposedly about the "immodest" dress of female cyclists. But just like similar uproars in years past, the underlying objections may have less to do with bare shoulders than with the mere presence of bikes in the street.

Residents of the Lower East Side and Chinatown have been fighting for improvements to the Allen and Pike Street pedestrian malls for more than a decade. Now, with the city's Parks Department set to begin a $5.4 million renovation of the malls below East Broadway, their wait for meaningful action might be nearing an end.

This tipster photo was snapped last Tuesday, September 2, on Broadway south of 42 Street.

We've got some more community board action for you today. Brooklyn Community Board 1, which represents Williamsburg and Greenpoint, is set to hear proposals for new buffered bike lanes on Kent Avenue and for improving pedestrian safety at dangerous intersections in North Brooklyn.

After Summer Streets wrapped up last Saturday, I headed over to Times Square to check out the progress on DOT's "Broadway Boulevard" project. The new street geometry and surfacing are mostly in place, while plantings and furniture have yet to arrive. The bike lane was also fully functional, making this pedicab ride across 41st Street a lot more pleasant than it would have been a few months ago.

Last February, 22-year-old Asif Rahman was hit and killed by a truck while riding his bicycle on Queens Boulevard. Though the infamous "Boulevard of Death" is a lot safer than it used to be, it still produces far too many injuries and fatalities. Asif's family, Council member Jim Gennaro, and Transportation Alternatives held a press conference yesterday, covered by Streetfilms' Elizabeth Press, calling on New York City government to transform Queens Boulevard into a "complete street," with a physically-protected bike lane and safer pedestrian crossings. Queens Council Members John Liu and Eric Gioia also signed on to a letter urging Mayor Bloomberg to complete Queens Boulevard.