Tuesday, July 27, 2021

New bike lanes next for freshly paved Avenue C

The city repaved Avenue C from Houston to 18th Street in mid-July (maybe your car was towed during the milling/paving process?). 

All this was done ahead of improvements along the avenue for pedestrians and cyclists. 

DOT flyers are up now along Avenue C with details of the coming changes...
Improvements along C include: 

• Curbside bike lanes between Houston and Fourth Street 
• Parking-protected, bollard-protected and curbside bike lanes between Fourth Street and 18th Street 
• Updated parking regulations to provide truck loading zones 
• Neighborhood loading zones on select side streets 
• Painted pedestrian islands between 11th Street and 15th Street 
• New left-turn bays at 10th Street and 14th Street 

You can find many more details in the presentation that DOT officials made to CB3 back in April. (PDF here)

As reported last fall, the DOT is adding the protected north/south bike lanes on Avenue C and East Houston Street to help offset the closure of the East River Park greenway once construction starts someday.

21 comments:

Choresh Wald said...

The quality of the repaving is remarkably low. The paved street is uneven, wobbly . You can see the outlines of the future potholes forming already. Looking forward to the protected bike lane: it will be a huge thing for families going back to school in September

Anonymous said...

Had no idea a bike lane was in the works for C. Isn't it a pretty narrow avenue? As is, it already seems to struggle to support two-way traffic, I'm curious to see how that will go with a bike lane and shifted parking (assuming they are keeping parking on both sides).

Anonymous said...

@Anon. 9:10 - You are thinking of Avenue B. Avenue C is a speedway in comparison.

Anonymous said...

Gonna be a lot less parking.

m2ndSt said...

I agree with @9:10 it's really narrow. I'm curious to see how this works out but they must be getting rid of parking spots on one side of the ave.

Anonymous said...

Boo hoo to sad parking freeloaders. They definitely lose out here. But the bike lanes simply benefit a greater number of people. That's how public policy is supposed to work isn't it? It's kind of like majority rule. It can't please everyone all the time. Anddespite what mommy's been telling you your whole life, sometimes you just have to take a loss and move on. That said, let the whining begin.

Anonymous said...

@1139am, now THATS some anonymous trolling right there!

Anonymous said...

Locals and supply trucks will park on bike lanes, if it won't be physically separated, like on 12th st, which became a joke of a bike lane.

Anonymous said...

DOT is going wild. DO they just want vehicles to be double parked everywhere? There is no municipal parking in the neighborhood. There is already a bike lane two avenues over. I bike almost everyday but it's a completely different reason than using a car.

Anonymous said...

What is problem? Be thankful it is not dirt road. Complain complain complain, yet you do nothing and want more. Children

mraza said...

@1:49 PM.

Nailed it.

Anonymous said...

Be thankful not dirt road?! I don't want to get in a whole discussion about taxation and public funding and infrastructure here, so instead I'll just say what an ignoramus comment. The money for roads comes from taxes. Where do taxes come from? You go look that one up.

m2ndSt said...

@1139 I wasn't boo hoo-ing, I was just agreeing that they will need to get rid of some parking to make this work. I'm all for prioritizing bike lanes.

Anonymous said...

Why should free car storage in public space for the relative few that own cars in the area be prioritized over actual needs for safe transportation? Ok, rhetorical question--answer: it shouldn't. The city must do more of this, our quality of life, and our lives, depend on it.

Seedyfilms said...

As if it wasn’t bad enough that people park in bike lanes all the time (including and especially cops), now the protected bikes lanes are essentially unnavigable because of outdoor dining. When the bike lane sits between a restaurant and it’s outdoor space, the entitled jerks are just further supported in their obliviousness to other people trying to get around. What a mess.

Anonymous said...

The people who complain about taxis and trucks stopping in bike lanes simply reflect the single-minded self importance of bikers. Where do you propose they stop? Would you prefer they jump the curb and stop on the sidewalk? Park in the middle the the street? Share the road was an important slogan until the bikers had to share the road.

And to those who claim that the dedication of bike lanes simply reflects the majority biker rule, please whip out the statistics that back that up. There are none.

Anonymous said...

@11:24AM, per 9:24AM, these are not just bike lanes, they're "protected" bike lakes, so show some respect, unlike the cops are who always obstructing them, which is probably in the very least an act of intimidation if not an outright threat. These lanes are for cyclists and cyclists alone -- it's called a BIKE lake for crying out loud! And frankly, pedestrians should take notice too and stop stepping into them whenever they feel like it. You can't hang around at the playground in the park unless you're accompanied by a child, so what makes you think you can transgress the protected bike lanes unless you're on two wheels? Derp.

Anonymous said...

"These lanes are for cyclists and cyclists alone -- it's called a BIKE lake for crying out loud! And frankly, pedestrians should take notice too and stop stepping into them whenever they feel like it." And if I had a dollar for every time I had to dodge some jag riding a bike on the sideWALK, I'd be very rich. That knife cuts both ways,@Anon. 3:57.

Scuba Diva said...

At 9:10 AM, Anonymous said:

Had no idea a bike lane was in the works for C. Isn't it a pretty narrow avenue?

It's wider than B, which is why the MTA put the M9 on Avenue C and cut the M21 down to a stub of its former self. I just wish the M9 bus—which formerly went to Union Square, but now goes up to the NYU dental center, was still on Avenue B.

masha. said...

They were supposed to consult the businesses about this but it all went on pretty much under the radar.
All businesses on east side of the street will suffer after already suffering lockdowns and covid safety measures as they WIDEN the car-path..
Please help by signing against this measure next weekend at Tompkins Square Park

ProudGentrifier79 said...

Cyclists ride on sidewalks...Pedestrians stumble into bike lines. Cars take up the road. Blah blah blah. I walk, cycle AND drive my car here. Everyone is annoying in their own special way!