Upper West Side

Buried in the pile of uninformed New York Post letters to the editor following Steve Cuozzo's unhinged rant about the Columbus Avenue bike lane, intrepid readers found a note from Council Member Gale Brewer. "Bike lanes in my district are highly popular and strongly supported by the wider community," she wrote. "Expanding these benefits is the right thing to do."

At least 150 people turned out to hear NYC DOT's proposal [PDF] to extend the bike lane to much of the rest of Columbus Avenue. More than two-thirds of the approximately 35 people who testified before the committee were strongly in favor of extending the lane north to 110th Street and south to where it could eventually link up with the Ninth Avenue bike lane.

In the wake of last week's setback for efforts to bring more bike racks to the Upper West Side, Manhattan Community Board 7's transportation committee will hold a key meeting tonight about an issue on which its chairs have failed to take action: protected bike lanes and complete streets.

Despite a positive vote in committee, earlier this week Community Board 7 on the Upper West Side sidelined a plan to bring more bike racks to the area, after some procedural maneuvering by transportation committee co-chair Dan Zweig stifled discussion. With a key presentation from DOT on extending the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane coming up next week, the episode is a reminder that just about any change to the street faces an uphill battle with Zweig and his fellow co-chair, Andrew Albert.

Last night, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 signed off on plans for more bike racks on the Upper West Side and the neighborhood’s first on-street bike corral. The two resolutions mustered more than enough support to overwhelm the objections of committee co-chair Dan Zweig, and both will advance to the full committee in December.

Last night, Manhattan Community Board 7's transportation committee debated the merits of bringing protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges to Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues between 59th and 110th Streets. This would be a big gain for the Upper West Side, which currently only has one mile of protected bike lane on Columbus Avenue. After years of debate and negotiation, residents are growing impatient with the committee's indecisiveness on street redesigns that make walking and biking safer.

Tomorrow night, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 will take public input on the possible expansion of protected bike lanes on the Upper West Side.

Reader Daniel Green sends in this picture of a Thursday afternoon crash at Broadway and W. 77th Street. According to FDNY, the crash occurred at approximately 1:21 p.m. One person was treated for injuries and released, while a second was hospitalized at St. Luke's-Roosevelt, a spokesperson said. FDNY did not know if bystanders were among the injured.

The Department of Transportation has completed a multi-year transportation study of the Upper West Side, and Wednesday night the agency walked local residents through the many proposed changes [PDF]. The suggestions for the area between 55th and 86th Streets, west of Central Park, include a number of valuable intersection-level improvements to pedestrian safety, but left some feeling that the recommendations don't go far enough.