In a June 4 statement, the DOT announced that..:
The new design, expected to be completed later this year, will bring a wider bike lane, an enhanced bus lane, and additional pedestrian space for 59 blocks of Second Avenue, stretching 2.9 miles, from East 59 Street to Houston Street, improving commutes for 57,000 daily bus riders and 6,000 daily cyclists. The redesign is one of dozens of projects highlighted in the city's Connecting to the Core action plan to complement the launch of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's forthcoming congestion pricing program.
On June 5, Gov. Hochul announced the pause on congestion pricing.
However, as we understand it, these commuting improvements are still moving forward on Second Avenue. A DOT rep said the markings would arrive a few weeks after the repaving.
The new-look Second Avenue will include shifting the curbside bus lane to an offset bus lane to help speed up travel times.
As Streetsblog reported in June, bus speeds in lower Manhattan "have cratered to under 7 miles per hour on 81 percent of buses that run during the afternoon rush."
In other roadway news, the city milled Houston from the Bowery to Broadway this past Thursday... and, amazingly, did not decide to do this during the Feast of San Gennaro.
No date yet for repaving Third Avenue between 12th Street and Fourth Street.
P.S.
As several readers have noted, this is why there's a lag time between milling and paving... to give crews time to do any underground repairs... yesterday, workers were digging up where the roadway had been sinking between Sixth Street and Seventh Street...
25 comments:
How does an "offset" bus lane help anything? Do we bus passengers now have to dodge bike riders as we get on/off the bus? How do disabled people have full access to the buses? This needs more detail.
Last thing we need is wider bike lanes to navigate across as pedestrians with racing bikes going through red lights. It's really a dangerous situation in the East Village where I live. Now it will get even worse.
Bus lane is on the opposite side of Second Avenue from the bike lane.
I live facing 2nd Ave. The traffic pre bike and bus lanes was intolerable. It became worse when the 2 lanes were added. Traffic slowed to a crawl. I had to close my windows. The taste of exhaust was disgusting. I was forced to buy air purifiers. This is a sham. If the city stopped the cars/trucks from using the streets it works. But the traffic didn't go away and made the pollution worse with the idling and slow vehicle speed. With the new design with even less street I wonder how bad things will get. Yes, easy for bikers but rough on residents.
Even as an avid bicycle rider, I think that the waste of public resource by widening the dedicated bike lane is absurd. But sometimes the noisiest, most insistent people influence the decisionmakers: on that particular 2nd Ave. lane in our neighborhood more than anywhere else by far, I've biked at normal (not pokey) speeds but still very often gotten yelled at by typically affluent white-collar professionals who feel entitled to maintain the fastest speed they can -- probably commuting out of Manhattan to cross into hipster Brooklyn -- and they're furious about not having plenty room to pass a biker riding down the middle of a SINGLE lane. Our city is doing this for them. (I always snip back, telling them to pay up for the subway if they want nobody in their path.)
When will they realize this Robert Moses approach of trying to ease congestion only results in more congestion? That they are doing this work on a Friday night - one of the most congested times for traffic in NYC - is absurd.
I understand your point, yet we live on an island, and EVERYTHING that gets here comes in via truck or van or car. We are never going to get rid of vehicle traffic (which includes ambulances, police vehicles, FDNY equipment, construction deliveries, UPS/FedEx, Postal Service trucks, etc.). These are things that pertain to all of us, one way or another. But giving away half the width of the roadway to bike lane and bus lane makes everything so much worse.
I wish this city had a mayor who had a clue about this, and was willing to look at the WHOLE picture (including why B'way got chopped up for "tourist seating"). There is no coherent policy in place.
Yeah, those bikes sure are dangerous, gotta make sure we keep them off the road... https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2024/10/04/friday-video-car-drivers-are-the-cause-of-virtually-all-road-violence
Good on the DOT for not listening to the nutters who populate comments sections like this...
But why would you ride down the middle of the bike lane, if you were not going fast? I ride more slowly than I used to, because I am an old lady, but always stay to one side or the other of the bike lane. I actually more often ride toward the right side of the lane, rather than the left, because the doofuses who wander off the curb into the bike lane are a menace, but I always leave room for folks to pass me
It's the e-bike riders on the sidewalk on 2nd Ave riding full speed that have me worried.
Great example of the radical cycling activist cabal ignoring the point and maximizing their interests at all costs. To repeat: widening the bike lanes is for the pleasure and leisurely ability for cyclists to have luxurious room and to cycle as fast as they can, compared to the normal pace of traffic in a busy metropolitan area. Your comparison to roads hitting bicycles has NOTHING to do with this.
Look at Amsterdam. That beautiful city has more bikes on the streets and on the sidewalks as opposed to cars and buses, which is more sustainable for their roads and infrastructure. I was blown away during my last visit with how many use them ranging in age from 6 to 95. Their citizens are healthier and have better mortality rates than the US. If only we could take a page from their book and do something similar in NYC where pedestrians and cyclists have more space to roam without cars taking over.
Will this be as horrible and noisy as the milling was?
What time is this happening??
Not everyone riding a bike is a self indulgent pleasure seeker. I biked to work almost every day for forty years, and bike to my various classes that I teach now. I don't want "luxurious room" - I want sufficient room so I don't get stuck behind people going super slow ( because I am commuting, and need to get somewhere), and so faster bikers don't get stuck behind me. That makes passing safer.
Also, the stats about motor vehicles being by far the greatest danger are pertinent because as soon as any improvement for bike riders is mentioned, folks begin going on about how bikes are running people down all the time.
Amsterdam has beautiful low old buildings (not massive high rises) and a much smaller population. I am always baffled when people compare Amsterdam and NYC.
Further, Amsterdam is not great for pedestrians. Bicycles have the right of way. Pedestrians must always watch out. There are some places where it is difficult for pedestrians to cross as bicycles are whizzing by.
BTW cuts are being made to Amsterdam tram and bus. Not a good thing.
Wow.
As a bus (and subway) rider am continually speechless at how City DOT sabotages bus transit and hurts bus riders.
Incredibly, though the MTA is in such dire shape, DOT focuses on expanding and encouraging bicycling/Citibike.
A few things.
1. The MTA has been cutting bus service, bus routes, bus frequency and bus stops for years. The MTA's metric apparently is "on time" - rather than frequency and non-crowding which is actually what bus riders need. A bus ride that is 5 minutes faster is useless if you've been waiting 15 minutes in the cold and the bus is packed.
2. City DOT keeps insisting it wants to improve bus transit and insists bus lanes are the solution. Funny thing - City DOT does not actually care about bus transit as DOT has been happy to implement "open streets" on bus routes. If DOT did care, DOT would not have "open streets" on bus routes (like M7, M11) and force bus detours. And DOT would not have more "open streets" like Broadway that mean spillover traffic on avenues with buses.
DOT would not prioritize brunch and bicycles over essential bus mass transit.
(Not to mention that the City also keeps increasing street fairs, charity events, bike events etc that force bus detours)
Bus lanes are useless if there are no buses, if buses run at 15+ minute intervals, if you need to walk 6 blocks to find the "rerouted" bus etc.
So you’re saying that there is too much pollution and congestion. And you have diagnosed the problem as… too many busses and bicyclists? You do know how absurd that sounds right?
To Anonymous @8:45 - Regarding your comments about Amsterdam....
I am not clear - are you saying that public transit buses are a bad thing?
Wider bike lane good. Enhanced bus lane - not sure what that means. Additional pedestrian space excellent! Now let's get additional pedestrian space on the crosstown blocks as well. New York's a great walking town!
More bikes and wider bike lanes calm car traffic and result in net safety improvement for pedestrians, drivers and cyclists too. Facts.
The city simply cannot accommodate the current volume of cars. The best solution is multi-modal transportation. To do that we have to provide the infrastructure for safe and comfortable walking and biking.
You are right—NY has far greater population density than Amsterdam…which is why it makes even less sense to have cars dominate streets here than there!
I say bring back the Rickshaw's!
No need for fossil fuels and lithium batteries. AND, it offer's jobs to those who can't make it out of grade school with a diploma.
Yeah, that's the ticket!
While we're at it, all delivery trucks will have to stop at the bridge and tunnel entrances, thereby eliminating the need for traffic lights, traffic cops and everything else related to modern motorized traffic. You will have to go and pick up your packages in person; but hey, that leaves more room for restaurants and junk vendors to occupy the streets while also increasing space for people parked at tables in the middle of Broadway to mindlessly scroll through their social media accounts.
And did I mention that everyone will have to own some form of two wheeled transportation unless they want to hoof it around town because the subways and buses are too expensive, too dangerous and too noisy. Shut them down also.
Am I right? /s
That's BS. Until bicyclist obey traffic rules, widening, narrowing, diagonaling, upping, no-matter-what-ing, cyclist will still be a problem. They cross Houston at red lights. They pass in front of buses making left turns. They go counter to traffic to park their Citi bikes on 2nd St. Follow the damn rules! We want to be a sofisticated European city but we're nothing but chaos
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