BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC | The city has announced its plan to install a protected bike lane and other measures from Clarkson St. to W. 30th St. along the east side of Seventh Ave. after the community and local politicians pushed for a safer corridor.
The bike lane will span the Community Boards 2 and 4 districts.
The city Department of Transportation plans to begin work on the section of the bike lane between Greenwich Ave. and W. 30th St. over the summer and finish it by the end of the year. Due to current utility work in the area, D.O.T. lans to begin construction on the section between Greenwich Ave. and Clarkson/Carmine Sts. next year, according to D.O.T.
Shirley Secunda, the chairperson of the C.B. 2 Traffic and Transportation Committee, said the board had asked for a “complete street” redesign of the avenue in 2014. A complete street, she said, includes a “whole slew of different improvements for both pedestrians and vehicles, as well as bicycles.”
Per a September 2014 C.B. 2 resolution, which the board approved unanimously, the redesign could include “pedestrian safety islands with landscaping, protected bicycle lanes, dedicated bus lanes and traffic lights with leading pedestrian intervals or split-phase timing.”
Local politicians sent letters to D.O.T. the next year and in 2016.
“This was a campaign in action for a long time,” Secunda noted.
D.O.T. presented its plan to the C.B. 2 Traffic and Transportation Committee on Thurs., May 4, which was attended by about 50 people.
“I think that, for the most part, it was very happily welcomed,” she said.
Secunda said that Seventh Ave. below 14th St. — most of which is actually known as Seventh Ave. South, which starts below Greenwich Ave. — has complicated intersections and, “as a result, every intersection is kind of a nightmare.”
The Village board — like C.B. 4 to the north — is an advocate for split-phase signals, and there has “always been a problem with left turns,” Secunda said. Generally speaking, traffic signals at intersections allow vehicles to turn left at the same time as pedestrians are walking in the parallel crosswalk and cyclists are riding straight ahead in bike lanes, Secunda explained. When there is a split-phase signal, vehicles are stopped by a red light, protecting pedestrians in the crosswalk, while cyclists can keep going through the intersection on a green, she said.
D.O.T.’s plan is to install split-phase signals at some intersections, including Greenwich Ave. and W. 11th St. and W. Fourth St. and Christopher St., according to the agency’s presentation and Secunda.
“That’s a real improvement,” Secunda said of the safer signals. “That’s very welcome.”
It’s fairly common for D.O.T. to install split-phase signals at major intersections where there are bike lanes. So, not surprisingly, one will be put in at W. 14th St., and an existing split-phase signal will be maintained at W. 23rd St., according to a C.B. 4 letter to D.O.T. The agency made a presentation to C.B. 4’s Transportation Planning Committee in April and the protected bike lane was discussed at C.B. 4’s full board meeting on May 3.
It’s “a standard bike lane,” Christine Berthet, co-chairperson of the C.B. 4 Transportation Committee, said. Berthet also helped found Clinton Hell’s Kitchen Coalition for Pedestrian Safety a.k.a. CHEKPEDS.
“We’d like for them to do more pedestrian protection and safety items,” she said. The committee’s letter to D.O.T. asked “that signals be adjusted to reduce the speed limit, so that it does not exceed 25 m.p.h., 24 hours a day” and for split-phase signals at all intersections.
Many intersections have what is known as a “mixing zone,” which Berthet called “dangerous.” In a mixing zone, pedestrians, cars and cyclists all have a green light, and, as mentioned above, vehicles are turning left as pedestrians are crossing.
“It’s proven to be a tremendously vulnerable spot for crashes,” Secunda of C.B. 2 noted. She said she has been in contact with Berthet for years and that on mixing zones, they are on the same page.
From 2011 to 2015, there were nine cyclists, 10 motor-vehicle occupants and 19 pedestrians seriously injured and one pedestrian fatality between Clarkson and W. 30th Sts. on Seventh Ave., according to D.O.T. As part of the plan, one lane of traffic will be removed, as well as about 50 parking spaces.
D.O.T. declined to answers questions about the project’s cost, when work was expected to begin and when the bike lane was expected to be completed.
C.B. 2 also had some tweaks for the agency’s plan. They, too, would like more split-phase signals, as well as more curb extensions, Secunda said. The committee also asked for a crosswalk to be installed across Seventh Ave. South at Leroy St., she said.
“It’s really needed there,” she said. “It’s a dangerous spot.”
In addition, C.B. 2 would like the bike lane extended along Varick St. from Clarkson/Carmine Sts. to Canal St.
The committee recommended approval, and the resolution was approved at C.B 2’s full board meeting on May 18. C.B. 4 approved a draft letter that said it was “pleased” with the agency’s plan but that also included the board’s “serious concerns about speed, intersection treatments and pedestrian safety.”
The only No vote was by C.B. 4 Chairperson Delores Rubin, who stressed her vote was “a personal position,” not a board position.
“The main reason is a good number of cyclists do not follow traffic laws, which means we have a potential conflict with pedestrians and cyclists,” she explained. “The bike lanes tend to give the impression there is a separate set of rules for cyclists than other vehicles.”
