Protected Bike Lanes

East Harlem's Community Board 11 last night approved, again, plans to build protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuge islands on First and Second Avenues. The vote comes after a lengthy public debate in which the community fought for the lanes and the board approved them, only to take back its support after local businesses protested.

After a long and circuitous path, the fate of protected bike lanes on East Harlem's First and Second Avenues may be decided in a community board vote Tuesday night.

Looks like protected bike infrastructure is growing on Chuck Schumer. High-powered backchannel NIMBY assault notwithstanding, New York's senior senator apparently does enjoy riding the bike lane in his front yard, as you can see in this Sunday morning photo courtesy of fellow PPW resident Paul Steely White.

Protected bike lanes once again won big support in East Harlem. After Community Board 11 first endorsed protected lanes for First Avenue and Second Avenue by a vote of 47-3, then rescinded that support in the face of business opposition, the board's transportation committee has put the complete street redesign back on the path to construction with a 7-0 vote of support, with one abstention.

Tomorrow night, protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges for First and Second Avenue bike lanes are again on the agenda of East Harlem's Community Board 11.

Like a reanimated corpse, the PPW bike lane lawsuit is stumbling on a little while longer, as NBBL appeals Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan's dismissal of the case. The surreal part of the spectacle this time around is that bike lane opponents are basically repeating what they said last year, even though their own correspondence has since revealed that they knew claims in the lawsuit had no merit. Who needs merit when you just want to wage a political attack against DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan?

Six cities will adopt innovate street designs for safer cycling over the next two years as part of a new program from Bikes Belong.

Hilda Cohen, Ali Loxton and 1,600 petition-signers are asking for a painted bike lane and a road diet on Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue: They're hoping to calm traffic and improve the area's bike network by turning one traffic lane into a bike lane, and they helped persuade Brooklyn Community Board 2 to ask NYC DOT to revisit the idea.

At a long and at points contentious public hearing last night, a clear majority of speakers came out in support of protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues in East Harlem. In addition to local residents, the public health community came out in force to demolish the opposition's claim that installing bike lanes could worsen the neighborhood's asthma rates.