Chelsea

DOT aims to install a protected bike lane on Seventh Avenue from 30th Street to Charlton Street by the end of the year. Agency staff presented a portion of the project at last night's Manhattan Community Board 4 transportation committee meeting.

The Sixth Avenue protected bike lane is just about finished between 8th Street and 33rd Street, except for the pedestrian islands. The redesign is still in that awkward transitional phase where people are figuring out how to use it, so today Streetsblog checked in with a few of the thousands of people who bike Sixth Avenue daily to see how the change is coming.

In 2019, the L train west of Williamsburg will be shut down so the MTA can repair Sandy-related damage to subway tunnels under the East River. Hundreds of thousands of people will have to find other ways to get around, and there's no conceivable way to do that without dedicating a lot of street space to buses, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer is calling on DOT to study making 14th Street a bus-only thoroughfare while L train service is disrupted during Sandy-related repairs.

In four separate crashes since Thursday, at least two people have been struck and killed while walking, and two others were critically injured.

DOT says it will begin planning and outreach later this year for a protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue between 14th and 33rd Streets in Manhattan.

For years, the City Planning Commission approved special permits that let developers in Hell's Kitchen and Chelsea get around limits on parking construction in the Manhattan core. Recently, the city implemented a new formula that reformers hoped would curtail these permits. But Community Board 4, Council Member Corey Johnson, and Borough President Gale Brewer say the city's math is flawed, resulting in too much new parking. They're asking the Department of City Planning to come up with a better measuring stick.

Manhattan community boards have already asked DOT to study protected bike lanes and pedestrian islands for Amsterdam, Fifth, and Sixth Avenues. Now a coalition of public school parents, teachers, and administrators is making headway in a campaign to redesign Seventh Avenue with a complete streets focus that protects pedestrians and cyclists.