Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Parents, students ride together in bid for 2-way protected bike lane on Avenue B


[Photo via @pekochel]

Members of the East Village biking community along with street safety advocates came together yesterday morning to make their case for a protected two-way bike lane on Avenue B.


As the #BikeAveB petition notes:

Despite being a narrow avenue, Avenue B allows two-way travel for cars, but has no dedicated lanes for anybody who wants to ride a bicycle. Yet parents and neighbors alike are already choosing to ride down this unsafe corridor.

To make the problem worse, trucks and commercial vehicles have no curbside loading zones. Every day we see them double-parking in order to make deliveries to the dozens of small businesses along Avenue B.

We need a safe, two-way protected bike lane on Avenue B, complete with pedestrian safety improvements!


[Photo from yesterday]

On June 19, East Village parent Choresh Wald, who helped launch the initiative, will make the case for the bike lanes before Community Board 3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee. The meeting starts at 6:30 at the University Settlement, Houston Street Center, 273 Bowery.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Making the case for 2-way bike lanes on Avenue B

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pedestrian Safety should be first!

Anonymous said...

There'll have to be better north-south accommodation for bikes if the East River Park is closed for 3.5+ years.

noble neolani said...

Ave B is smaller than the average street, it has parking on both sides in most areas and 2 way traffic, how on earth would a double bike lane fit here? I'm all for bike lanes but it won't work on B unless traffic is restricted one direction only.

Anonymous said...

B would have to be made one-way, otherwise there's no room.

Anonymous said...

Remove one side of the streets parking and then you will have a bike lane. Sad you'll loose precious parking?
Its nonsense to have a car in this city. We should institute congestion pricing similar to London, Singapore and Stockholm. But I digress.

Anonymous said...

The MTA has just announced new bus service cuts - critical transportation that many depend upon.

But somehow, there should be expanded resources for bicycling infrastructure? Bicycling which chiefly benefits the affluent who are able to live close to work school etc.
There is a reason that ads for luxury apartments reference bicycles - not MTA buses....

Anonymous said...

Protected bike infrastructure = pedestrian safety -- calms motor traffic and discourages shitty bike behavior by making the rules suit all road users. When my kid was smaller and he was in school on 12th Street, I'd bike him up B for a stretch every day and it was terrifying -- drivers speeding up and down, dodging wildly around parked cars and double-parked delivery trucks.

So pull out a lane of parking, put in a double bike lane (built and separated, not just painted lanes) and convert the other parking lane to a mix of metered parking and delivery spots. Or make it one-way, with a double-wide bike lane (the single lanes on 2nd Avenue and Avenue A are dangerously congested at rush hours).

Anonymous said...

I've seen plenty of luxury apartment ads that mention all modes of nearby public transportation, such as The Niko and EVE.

The slowdown in bus service isn't happening in this neighborhood. And there's no reason Avenue B can't be made safer for its residents who ride bikes regardless of income level.

Anonymous said...

Oh god, the whole "Biking is only for the rich yuppies" argument is so totally ass-backwards. A Citibike membership is genuinely affordable -- far more than the MTA -- and discounted for SNAP users, NYCHA residents, etc. There's an entire sector of low-income workers in the city who bike food around for rich (-er) people, not to mention bike messengers, and they use that infrastructure too. There's people like me whose tentative claim to middle-classdom and ability to live in/near the core depends on not having to pay a ton in MTA swipes and Ubers or maintain a car and insurance, etc.

There are a substantial number of public sector workers -- cops, firemen, teachers, etc. -- who drive in to the city from the far reaches of the outer boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey. We should figure out better mass transit options for them. But we can't let that hold up building a sane and functioning system of transportation in downtown Manhattan, FFS.

Anonymous said...

I whole-heartedly support bike lanes - and have been cycling in the city since before they existed here - but instead of another on Avenue B would rather see resources/advocacy go to maintaining and improving existing bike lanes, including the adjacent ones on A and C.

Anonymous said...

@anon 1:22:

Av A and C have buses running on them. Can't have a protected bike lane where you have bus stops (unless you do a floating station like on 20th St - a capital project the city almost never commits to). That's why the protected bike lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues are on the left side - not to mix with the bus stops on the right side. Also: Av B is much narrower then Av A and C: narrow streets discourage drivers to speed and thus create a safer place for people to ride their bicycles on.

Anonymous said...

One reason putting bike lanes on Avenue B is a necessity is the number of schools on it (I count at least 6, might be more). Lots of elementary school parents will bike their kids to school, then continue on to work. Moreover, there's just a lot of kids and families walking around there in the morning and afternoon. So the status quo, where you have cars speeding up and down and cars and trucks double parked, is extremely dangerous for the children.

cmarrtyy said...

B is way too narrow for a double bike lane. Also I don't believe there's that much bike traffic to justify it.

Anonymous said...

Its too narrow for a bike lane and removing 14 blocks of parking is too disruptive. Bike up and down A and C and cut across to B. I bike and drive and am fine with certain streets having bike lanes but not every street should have them

Anonymous said...

Get rid of all the parking on Ave B and there will be plenty of space. Tired of all these noisy, polluting, living -rooms- on- wheels gobbling our public spaces.