Back on Friday, DOT crews finally started painting the First Avenue bike lane — some six weeks after the city finished paving the roadway.
To date, though, the painting has only taken place on five blocks between Third Street and just shy of St. Mark's Place...
And no paint yet for Second Avenue...
Still to come (and as previously reported): the new offset crossings on select intersections on First Avenue and Second Avenue to make them safer for cyclists and pedestrians. The previous mixing zones forced cyclists and drivers to negotiate the same space at the same time, as Streetsblog noted.
And here's an example of offset crossing, as seen on Fourth Avenue and 13th Street...
Meanwhile, the bike lane is still MIA on the freshly paved 12th Street between First Avenue and Avenue B...
Previously on EV Grieve:
Resurfaced roadways on 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue to have offset crossings
14 comments:
It is sad and funny that the newly paved road was torn up near some construction sites like the one on 11th and 2nd ave.
Of course, people walking on the green lane, while someone on bike is pushed into the buffer zone. Of course.
Can't wait for its return to 12th Street.
Whomever thinks those offset buffer zones are safer has never been in a vehicle. It is like telling cars to make left turns from the right lane. The bike lane is not in any field of vision to the driver of the turning car.
I saw a car with the light cross into the pass when a speeding biker came out of nowhere and cut off the car. Then to top it off gave him the finger. All that computer generated traffic/life saving planning mean nothing if the bikers don't care. And you could add to that the bikers riding one-handed while checking their phones going the wrong way down 1st Ave... Really sad.
Without any bollards or curbs at these offset crossings, cars can and do still cut the corner, i.e. take the turn at fairly fast speed.
In the old mixing zone configuration, bikes had the freedom to merge behind a turning car. That option is completely gone now and it pisses me off. I'd rather go out of my way and ride up Lafayette now. The replacement of the mixing zones with these offset crossings was a knee jerk reaction IMO and not fact or statistics-motivated.
In general when there is a car trying to turn, and you are going straight on a bike, where would you rather be: in front of that car, or behind it? I would always rather be behind it!
Everyone on a bike or driving a car needs to look before turning. A car should not be going so fast that the driver does not take enough time to look into the bike lane for oncoming (traffic).
Bike riders pay attention to car traffic and car slowing to take a turn, even if you have the light and the right of way there is no certainty the driver will see you.
+1 to 11:40 AM; the left turn lanes allowed drivers to use their mirrors to actually see the bike lane for a whole avenue (and see cyclists riding in the wrong direction head-on, since of course, some can't be bothered to follow one way signs). Granted, I'm actually amazed when I see a truck or taxi even look at the bike lane, but these corny offset lanes (which will presumably get destroyed/rebuilt... every few years it seems?) make it more-or-less impossible to even try to pay attention to cyclists more than 1/2 a block away.
Good point. A delayed light, like the left turn currently at 1st ave and 14th st, is the safer/better option.
Also, can someone tell NYC DOT that they "forgot" putting in a section of the bike lane on 2nd ave between 6th + 7th streets.
@5:47 the delay light on the east side of 1st ave when going uptown or downtown is dangerous. I’ve seen so many people cross when they think they have the light when a car speeds across 1st ave to the east river. It is especially bad when people run for the bus or just get out of the L train. It is a dangerous corner, be careful there.
I'm sure those lines on the offset crossings will keep off duty firefighters and other aggressive drivers from trying to run over cyclists. Luckily the firefighter who did just that to a cyclist over at Chelsea Piers this week was just arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, but only because it was all caught on a video and shared in a post on twitter which then went viral.
Instead of painting all these lines, maybe they should just install webcams on every street that will automatically post every accident and confrontation with a motorist.
Correction: 2nd ave bet 7th st and st marks place.
I'm already noticing problems with the new turning configuration. Some turning drivers don't look and yield to bicyclists in rhe bike lane and many times will block/occupy the bike lane while waiting for pedestrians to clear the pedestrian crossing. It's harder to get around a vehicle already turned lengthwise. A bicyclist then has to turn into the traffic lane on the avenue (dangerous) or wait until the motor vehicle clears the bike lane.
The best solution is the delayed light at the left turn of 1st ave and 14th st. If that's too expensive to install, at the "smaller" odd numbered streets on 1st ave, going back to the previous configuration of mixing zones is preferred by me as a bicyclist. Also change the law to fine motorists, if they fail to yeild to both bicyclists and pedestrians and get caught blocking the bike lane. Enforcement is a preferred part of the equation as well.
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