Monday, November 9, 2020

Reminders: CB3 to hear plan for protected bike lanes on Avenue C-East Houston Street

As noted last week, the DOT is proposing permanent protected bike lanes on Avenue C and East Houston Street to offset the closure of the East River Park greenway once construction starts in the spring. 

As Streetsblog first reported: "The lanes will run on Houston from Second Avenue to the waterfront and on Avenue C from Houston north to 20th Street, enabling cyclists traveling from below Houston on the existing bike lanes on Pike and Allen streets to connect with the bike network further north." 

So here's a reminder: CB3's Transportation, Public Safety, & Environment Committee will hear the proposal tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. The Zoom info is here.  

There are two other items on the agenda that might be of interest:
  • DOT Freight & Mobility Unit: Houston St. Cargo Bike Corral Proposal and delivery strategy updates
  • Open Restaurant street on Avenue B at 2nd Street: safety issues including emergency lane

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Open restaurants on 2 and B have been a nightmare, glad that's being heard.
Protecting bike Lane on Ave C, eh, I'd rather they not destroy the park.
It makes it really annoying for vehicles when they take up an entire ave. like that, doesn't work at all on grand in BK and on 12th there are always cars that have to pull in between, there's gotta be a better way.

Anonymous said...

All for it. The more bike lanes the better.

Anonymous said...

No thank you!

As a long time NYC cyclist, I’d much rather ride on a lightly traveled road like Ave. C than be boxed into an awful little gutter lane, dodging errant pedestrians, e-scooters, and wrong way riders. Segregated lanes make sense on multi-lane thoroughfares like Queens Blvd, but not in Manhattan where there are hundreds of pedestrians for every bicyclist, and turning vehicles to contend with every 250 feet.

I swear, the people who advocate for this crap can’t actually ride bikes here, or they’d know better...

Anonymous said...

So what is the plan for the choke point block between 2nd and 3rd? It's already a mess just for the car traffic. Any sort of protected bike lane would be at least one of the lanes. The only possible solution would be to eliminate choke sob parking on both sides of the street sob ... WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE PARKING ... or making it one way? That would be weird.

Anonymous said...

Yes for protecting my life on Ave C dangerous bike lanes, that I use 4 times a day. That is all that matters.

Choresh Wald said...

The bike lanes will be blocked all day unless DOT designates loading zones on every block for delivery, utility and for hire vehicles.
There is no reason to provide free car parking for private vehicles at the expense of curb access for delivery trucks who serve hundreds of people at a time. C town supermarket also needs a loading zone so that the trucks will stop to double park while waiting to offload the goods.

Anonymous said...

@Choresh... I don't know you but the reason that people are allowed to park on the side of the road is because garages are scarce and prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, many whom live here or come in and out and help our local economy. Cars don't live on their own, there are people who use them for many things. I am an AVID cyclist but I. know there is a huge difference between what one does with a vehicle vs. a bike. I don't need a car personally but know many who do for many practical reasons.

I also agree with above commenter - a bike lane like that makes no sense on a street like Ave C and will just cause more annoying problems. Personally I hope they leave the road open, and people can ride as they see fit.

MTAtoxic said...

Why aren't Aves A, C, C and D one way avenues? They are so small, it makes no sense to have them be 2 way. 1st and 2nd Avenues are 1 way. This would free up a lot of space on A,B,C and D.

Choresh Wald said...

1st Avenue needs to go back to being a two way street:it will be transformed overnight to a neighborhood street instead of a speedway for people driving through.

Anonymous said...

The thing I don’t like about when they make bike lanes like that is people and trucks have nowhere to pull over even just to drop off someone or unload or whatever so it’s annoying

Jill W said...

@9:33 regarding vehicle parking, it's a waste of space when so many hours of the day the vehicle sits unused. Services like Zip Car (but ideally better versions) should take up the need for occasional car use.

Anonymous said...

Community Board #3, where good ideas go to die.

Choresh Wald said...

@anon 8:04 That's what loading zones are for

Anonymous said...

@choresh if you're in a loading zone you literally can't leave your car or the car you're using. So much for arriving at a destination.