BY JACKSON CHEN | Responding to calls from Upper East Siders for crosstown bike lanes, the Department of Transportation returned to Community Board 8 with a proposal for six painted bike lanes that don’t reduce parking or travel lanes.
According to the DOT’s proposal, there would be three pairs of crosstown bike lanes –– located at East 84th and East 85th Streets, East 77th and East 78th Streets, and East 67th and East 68th Streets –– stretching from Central Park to the East River Esplanade.
The department’s proposal came nearly three months after CB8 passed a resolution requesting the DOT formulate some options for crosstown bike lanes. According to the November 12 resolution, the board was looking for a short-term answer in the form of painted bike lanes.
“If you’re putting down paint, suddenly what you have is a 10-foot traffic lane,” said CB8 Transportation Committee co-chair Scott Falk of the bike lanes. “People drive more safely simply because there are stripes on the ground.”
The three proposed bike lanes would be similar to the existing painted bike lane pair at East 90th and East 91st Streets. Once implemented, the three new crosstown routes would also intersect the protected northbound bike lane on First Avenue and the soon-to-come protected southbound bike lane on Second Avenue.
According to DOT project manager Craig Baerwald, the three crosstown pairs were chosen because of their proximity to the community’s cultural institutions and stations on the Lexington Avenue subway lines.
Some residents, however, spoke out against the specific streets the DOT chose because they felt a bike lane would disrupt the nature of their blocks. With each of the blocks mentioned having either schools, firehouses, police stations, or the typical traffic congestion, residents felt the DOT should look at alternatives.
“There are other blocks in the Upper East Side that… frankly are safer and less congested than streets like 84th Street and 85th Street,” said Chris Evans, a resident and member of the 84th Street Citizens Alliance. “Each street has its own idiosyncratic set of issues and we have to take that into consideration.”
About a mile south, the East 67th and East 68 Street bike lanes also would put too much strain on the residential streets, according to residents who spoke out.
Max Herzog, an East 67th Street resident, said there is barely room to work with in the street’s current configuration. He explained that the M66 competes with the Police Department’s 19th Precinct, the Fire Department’s Engine 39 and Ladder 16 station house, and the double-parked vans of the Fox Television Studios for space on the street.
“The Upper East Side is unique because there are a few streets that are single [lanes] that have buses that are ten feet wide,” Herzog said. “There’s already not enough room on those streets for everything else, let alone bikes.”
Though the committee did not take a vote just yet, co-chair Falk emphasized the safety benefits of painted bike lanes, which he said would not affect auto travel or parking lanes.
“There’s no proposal here to take away traffic lanes,” he said. “What we have now are these completely disorganized streets that are 30 feet wide that have no lane markings.”
Other board members requested more transparency in how the DOT chose the six streets because of some hiccups in the East River Esplanade connections under the plan.
For cyclists using East 78th Street traveling eastbound, they would eventually hit a street direction change at York Avenue. The DOT would place shared lanes and signage on York Avenue for cyclists to navigate what becomes a figure eight traffic loop between York and East End Avenue for any rider doing a round trip on the parallel bike lanes on 78th and 77th Streets.
Similarly, cyclists leaving the East River Esplanade on Gracie Square would have to travel north on East End Avenue for a block using shared lanes before reaching the westbound East 85th Street painted bike lane.
Cyclists in favor of the DOT’s proposal, however, argued the new bike lanes would provide them with safe crosstown options.
Liam Jeffries, a weekly cyclist who lives on East 62nd Street, said he’s almost been hit several times by motorists exiting their parked cars. With no lane markings, Jeffries says some sort of organizational structure for the roadway is needed for cyclists.
“Cyclists don’t really want to cycle in the middle of the street competing with traffic because that would be dangerous and, at times, deadly,” said Jeffries.
CB8 members see the painted bike lanes as a short-term solution they hope might later lead to a plan for protected crosstown routes from the DOT.
In light of several criticisms offered about their proposal, DOT officials concluded their presentation by saying they would review the residential concerns and return to CB8 next month for further discussion of their plans.
