Union Square

Blanc was hit Tuesday as he crossed Union Square East at 14th Street. In 2012, at the other end of the block, Harry Robinson killed Roxana Buta with a DOT truck.

Ever since DOT added a two-way protected bike lane around the northern and eastern edges of Union Square last year, the project has been marred by NYPD parking near the intersection with 15th Street. Plastic posts were supposed to keep cars out where police park, but it looks like DOT has jettisoned that idea and has no plans to revive it.

DOT began installing new bike lanes leading to and around Union Square this week.

The Manhattan bike network breaks down around Union Square, where southbound and northbound bike lanes currently dump riders into the chaotic confluence of 14th Street, Park Avenue, and Broadway. DOT presented a plan to fix some but not all of those gaps last night [PDF], garnering a unanimous vote in favor from Manhattan Community Board 5.

After a unanimous vote at its transportation committee earlier this month, Manhattan Community Board 2's full board last night unanimously passed a resolution supporting an upgrade of the buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a protected bike lane. The project [PDF] runs from Spring Street to 14th Street and will include a northbound protected bike lane from Prince Street to 12th Street, pedestrian islands, and narrower car lanes to slow drivers.

In a unanimous 9-0 vote last night, Manhattan Community Board 2's transportation committee endorsed a DOT plan to upgrade a buffered bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue to a parking-protected lane, complete with new pedestrian islands, car lanes of an appropriate width for the city, and improved signal timing for pedestrians. The plan now moves to CB 2's full board meeting on March 20.

The crash that killed a skateboarder near Union Square yesterday occurred on a block that DOT intended to use as a part-time pedestrian plaza until the agency capitulated to neighborhood NIMBYs.

The woman killed by a hit-and-run truck driver at Union Square last week has been identified as Roxana Sorina Buta.

A 21-year-old woman was killed by the driver of a dump truck in a hit-and-run crash at Union Square early today.