Protected Bike Lanes

As Marcia Kramer informed CBS2 viewers last night, construction has begun on the extension of the First and Second Avenue bike lanes from 34th Street to 57th Street. The section of First Avenue from 34th Street to 47th Street is the only part of this project where the bike lane will be physically protected from traffic. Above 47th it becomes a plain painted bike lane and then transitions into a shared lane from 49th Street to 57th Street. So far, the lane only consists of paint -- construction hasn't started on any pedestrian islands -- but some cyclists are already making use of the protected space.

Jim Walden and the bike lane opponents have failed in another effort to reshuffle the court's schedule to gain a legal advantage in their fight against the Prospect Park West lawsuit.

The city's Law Department has responded to the latest maneuver by Gibson Dunn attorney Jim Walden seeking to delay a decision on the Prospect Park West lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeking to eradicate the Prospect Park West bike lane may be shaky and borderline-frivolous, but Jim Walden, the lawyer representing the bike lane opponents, seems to have luck on his side this week. The source of his good fortune: A front page New York Times story on Bloomberg administration pilot programs. In a letter written the same day the story was published [PDF], Walden told Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Bert Bunyan that the piece illustrates "precisely the issue we raised during our June 22 conference with the Court."

Prospect Heights resident Steve O'Neill has been biking for most of the 15 years he's lived in New York City. Steve commutes daily to Columbus Circle, and last year he added a new leg to his trip. Every day he drops his son Beckett off at school in Park Slope, and the new Prospect Park West bike lane helps him do that safely.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Bert Bunyan rendered no decision today on the lawsuit filed by opponents of the Prospect Park West bike lane against the City of New York and Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Bunyan adjourned the case until July 20 after the plaintiffs asked for time to review documents they recently obtained via a freedom of information request from Council Member Brad Lander's office.

After years of delays, a citizen-generated plan for a separated bike path in Upper Manhattan will get an audience tonight.

It's been over three years since residents of Inwood first proposed a separated bike path for Dyckman/200th Street, one that would link Manhattan's east- and west-side Greenways and help foster a safer and more humane environment for neighborhood cyclists and pedestrians. So persistent are advocates of the project, known informally as the "Dyckman Greenway Connector," that they persuaded the notoriously auto-centric Community Board 12 to ask DOT for a feasibility study.