Report: Mayor unleashes the 'Green Wave Bicycle Plan' to address increase in cycling fatalities, make streets safer

To address the rising death toll of cyclists on city streets this year (17 so far vs. 10 all of last year), Mayor de Blasio yesterday released details on a five-year, $58.4 million plan that aims to combine design, enforcement, legislation, policy and education to make the city safer for all street users.

Here's Gothamist with the key details:

Dubbed the "Green Wave Bicycle Plan," the 24-page blueprint calls for the addition of 30 miles of new protected bike lanes each year, up from the current rate of about 20. The Department of Transportation will also begin implementing traffic calming treatments at 50 of the city's most dangerous intersections, while the NYPD's three-week campaign targeting dangerous drivers will be extended indefinitely.

Vision Zero never started with the idea that we'd save only a few lives — it's about saving EVERY life. And a citywide network of protected bike lanes will bring us closer to that goal. pic.twitter.com/UtLuYE99RK

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) July 25, 2019

The plan includes expanded NYPD enforcement:

• Under the plan, the NYPD will ramp up enforcement at the 100 most crash-prone intersections and target enforcement on highest risk activities: speeding, failing to yield, blocking bike lanes, oversized trucks/trucks off route.
• Maintain continuous citywide implementation of “Operation Bicycle Safe Passage” initiative – extending elevated enforcement of blocked bike lanes and hazardous driving violations. Since implementation of Operation Bicycle Safe Passage, NYPD has doubled enforcement of cars parked in bicycle lanes and issued more than 8,600 summons in the first three weeks of July.
• Specialized units and precincts will increase enforcement against oversized and off-route trucks.
• The NYPD also announced that supervisors would respond to collision sites to determine if the right-of-way laws should be applied — and that it would also discontinue its practice of ticketing cyclists at the site of fatal cyclist crashes.
• NYPD supports new and emerging technology for automated enforcement.

The plan doesn't mention if they'll be an educational component to curb the NYPD's tradition of blaming the victim for his or her own death on the streets, as we saw in the case of Kelly Hurley on First Avenue at Ninth Street in 2017. A detective came to the conclusion that she didn't stop in time and "slipped" under a truck — a truck failing to yield and making an illegal left turn across four lanes of traffic.

You can find plenty more reaction and analysis of "Green Wave" over at Streetsblog — here and here, for starters.

Report: East Village cyclist killed in early-morning hit-and-run near Times Square

A 72-year-old East Village resident was killed early this morning while he was riding his bike near Times Square.

The Post identified the victim:

Chaim Joseph, 72, of the East Village was hit by a private oil truck shortly before 6 a.m. while he was riding in the bike lane near the intersection of Eighth Avenue and West 45th Street in Midtown.

The motorist then drove off, cops said.

Joseph was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center, but he could not be saved.

Per Streetsblog:

The afternoon, an NYPD spokeswoman said that the “driver and the vehicle have been identified.” She declined to give further details. No one has been arrested as of 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

This is horrific, and this can’t keep happening. We have SO MUCH MORE work to do to protect cyclists and pedestrians in our city. My heart breaks for this man and his loved ones. What a senseless loss. https://t.co/xvwHXiwux2

— NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson (@NYCSpeakerCoJo) February 4, 2019

It's fall, and the bicycles are starting to fall from the trees in Tompkins Square Park

Photo today by Derek Berg...

Watch a bike theft in progress on 3rd Street

An EVG reader shared this surveillance video from early Saturday morning... showing a man (with a lookout) cut through two locks with a portable angle grinder and leave with a bike on Third Street between Avenue A and Avenue B... (the bike owner filed a police report and shared the footage, minus the musical accompaniment ...)

[Updated] NYPD offers explanation into Kelly Hurley's death: 'she slipped'

In an interview with Christopher Robbins at The Village Voice yesterday, an NYPD detective provided some updates on Kelly Hurley, the 31-year-old Lower East Side resident who died from her injuries following a collision with a box truck on First Avenue at Ninth Street on April 5.

Among the revelations:

• The NYPD to date has issued a single summons to the driver — for not having a crossover mirror.

• The spokesperson, Detective Ahmed Nasser, said that the truck "made a left turn from the rightmost lane" onto East Ninth Street.

• The detective said that Hurley "slipped off her bike" at the intersection and was struck by the truck.

Robbins asked Nasser if the truck driver, who remained at the scene of the collision, "should have been making sure that he wasn’t turning into a cyclist or a pedestrian in the intersection."

Nasser's response:

“Well, I suppose you can say one or the other, but it seems like he probably didn’t see her, and she was going up north, he was making a left, he’s actually already into the intersection, he was already making the turn. She probably didn’t stop in time, and she slipped and fell under. . . . He’s already in, she tried to stop, she came off the bike, she slipped under the truck."

Streetsblog yesterday said that this was another case of the NYPD blaming the victim.

Hurley is gone. She can’t recount her version of what happened on the morning of April 5, so we’re left with what the police tell us. And as is often the case when a motorist kills a pedestrian or cyclist, the NYPD account is a bizarre mess that exonerates the driver.

Detective Ahmed Nasser told the Voice that the motorist was turning left from the right-most lane, which, if true, is a moving violation. Turning motorists are also required to yield to cyclists at the intersection where Hurley was fatally injured, but Nasser offered up a series of conjectures to reach an exculpatory conclusion.

In an interview with DNAinfo, Nasser confirmed that the truck driver had come to a complete stop on First Avenue before making the abrupt left turn onto Ninth Street across four lanes of traffic.

He also said that the investigation is ongoing "and the truck driver may still be arrested."

Cycling and pedestrian advocates have spoken out against this intersection design. The crash happened in one of the so-called "mixing zones" where drivers are allowed to make careful left turns from First Avenue as cyclists are going straight through intersections with the green light.




[Photo from last Thursday]

Updated 10 p.m.

Patch attended tonight's Community Council Meeting at the 9th Precinct, where Lt. Brian Reynolds, commanding officer of the NYPD's collision investigation squad, addressed the collision.

"My own opinion is, I'm going to be recommending the driver be held accountable. I can't explain to you exactly what it's going to be right now, but after what I've seen, he's going to be held accountable, at least on my end, from my office."

And...

Reynolds declined to specify what exact recommendations he would make to the Manhattan district attorney's office, and did not confirm that the driver would necessarily be charged. Any criminal charges filed will ultimately be determined by prosecutors.

Attention business owners with bicycle deliveries

City Council member Rosie Mendez is sponsoring this workshop Tuesday afternoon at Cooper Union for business owners relying on bike deliveries.

The commercial bike law was approved in October 2012 (and went into effect in April 2013) after complaints about bikers speeding and weaving down sidewalks and my hallway.

Per the law: Commercial bicyclists are now required to carry an identification card and wear helmets and reflective upper body clothing with the business' name and cyclist's ID number on the back.

Post discovers that cyclists often run the light at 1st Avenue and St. Mark's Place

From the Post today:

For New York cyclists, red lights means go almost 80 percent of the time — despite an NYPD crackdown and the recent deaths of two pedestrians hit by bikes, The Post has found.

From 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, reporters at three busy intersections observed 1,006 cyclists encounter a red signal — often with pedestrians in the crosswalks — and a staggering 796 of them passed through before it turned green.

As your can see from the graphic, First Avenue and St. Mark's Place was one of the intersections where a Post reporter hung out for 8 hours watching.

Noted

Spotted on East Houston near the Bowery… in case you are in the market for a bike tire…

Survey finds that NYC cyclists are becoming better at abiding by the rules of the road

[Random bike photo by Derek Berg]

NYC cyclists are becoming more considerate and law-abiding, according to research conducted by Peter Tuckel and William Milczarski of Hunter College at the City University of New York.

The study, "Bike Lanes + Bike Share = Bike Safety," looked at the behavior of 4,316 bicyclists at 98 different locations in central and lower Manhattan. (The researchers also compared this survey to a similar one from 2009.)

The new survey results showed that 34 percent of riders were observed going through red lights without pausing or stopping, down about 10 percentage points from 2009. In addition, 4.2 percent of cyclists were seen by the research team riding against traffic … while 3.2 percent were riding against traffic in the bike lane. This combined total of 7.4 percent is down nearly 6 percentage points from 2009. The survey also found that more women are riding bikes than in 2009.

Other survey results include:

• Helmet use rose from 29.9 percent in 2009 to 49.8 percent in 2013.
• Citi Bike riders in general are more compliant with traffic laws and ride in bike lanes at a higher rate than other riders.

As for Citi Bike, the study concludes: "Predictions that the launch of the bike-share program would lead to a spike in the number of cycling-related injuries have not materialized. Citi Bike riders appear to be more cautious and even more compliant with traffic rules than other cyclists."

You can find the whole academic jargony survey below...

Cycling Study January 2014

Other media outlets covered this survey, including Atlantic Cities, Gothamist and Streetsblog.

Reader report: Is a bike-accessories thief on the loose?

A reader who lives in the vicinity of Second Avenue and East Third Street sends along the following:

Someone stole my bike lights. They came with an Allen wrench and took them.

I just wanted to let people know that a thief is on the loose in the East Village and to keep their bike accessories with them.

The reader said the theft occurred yesterday morning or early afternoon.

Reminders: Get your bike blessed tomorrow

Via the EV Grieve inbox... as mentioned last week

What: Saint Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery will be holding its 1st annual Blessing of the Bicycles. The event is ecumenical and welcoming to all cyclists of all persuasions wanting to take a moment to contemplate a safe cycling season and to get their bikes blessed.

When: Saturday April 20, 2 pm. In case of rain the Blessing will be moved to the same time on April 27.

Who: Open to all ages and cyclists of all skill level and experience.

Why: With expanded bike lanes and a new bike share program about to begin bicycle ridership is set to increase for 2013. New York City is a wonderful place to bicycle; cycling is good exercise and an alternative mood of green transportation. Saint Marks Church-in-the-Bowery is encouraging the community to consider cycling as part of their transportation and recreational options and offering a blessing to cyclists and their bicycles in contemplation of a safe and joyous bicycling season.

Bicycle booked on the Bowery

Well, it does look handcuffed to the MTA pole...

Photos by Bobby Williams.

Summer Fridays rehash: The Second Avenue bike lanes — What do we think so far?

Hey, we're digging into the EVG archives for these next few summer Fridays... We first posted this one on July 1, 2010...

------------

Well, the bike lanes have been up now for long enough on Second Avenue, complete with a line of parking that's meant to add protection to the cyclists ... for me to hear some grumbling... Not really any kind of cyclist vs. pedestrian thing... but more of a safety issue. Trucks and cabs abruptly pulling over into the bike lane... pedestrians standing or walking into the bike lane... oh surely there are other offenses... soon enough, the First Avenue lanes will be a go (not to mention the dedicated bus lanes for the M15 on First Avenue and Second Avenue)...


So what do you think so far?



The makeover includes a line of parking that's meant to add protection to the cyclists...




Previously on EV Grieve:
Green day: Second Avenue getting its bike lanes

Noted

The Post today cites Department of Transportation records that show there were 754 bike-car collisions in the five boroughs during the last three months of 2011.

Brooklyn had the most collisions of any borough with 285 crashes while Manhattan had 229. Per the paper: "The highest concentration of bike-car crashes in all of the city was on the Upper East Side, which had 26. The West Villlage had 21 crashes, and the East Village and Midtown East, each had 19."

[Updated] DOT installing CityRacks in front of MUD on East Ninth Street

EV Grieve reader MP sends along these photos from this morning... DOT workers are currently installing one of those sidewalk bicycle parking racks in front of MUD Coffee on East Ninth Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue...

MP mentions that this might be one of the first that the DOT has installed in the city... and that the MUD folks have been advocating for this...

Here's info about CityRacks via the DOT website:

CityRacks are free sidewalk bicycle parking racks, placed throughout New York City by DOT. They to encourage cycling for commuting, short trips and errands. CityRacks accommodate all types of bicycles and locks. CityRacks are not intended to be used for long-term parking.

Also, the rack will be attached on the street taking a parking space in front of the store. Perhaps a better placement for it given how busy MUD can get on a weekend...

Updated:
New photo via @bomarrblog ...

Present your vision about bicycling in the East Village

Downed tree takes bike along for the ride

Houston at Elizabeth via @DicksCottons

The abandoned bike as an urban garden (or vice versa)

The urban garden as an abandoned bike?

Anyway, we've always appreciated the abandoned bicycle as some kind of street art. (Oh, the one below... we're charging $50,000 for it!)

Last week, when there was sun, blue glass noted this installation/takeoever in progress on Second Avenue near 10th Street...

Or as Jeremiah put it yesterday: "The fate of bicycles in hot and jungly post-Apocalyptic New York."

City discovers bicycle graveyard on East First Street

Several readers have pointed out the pile of dead bikes on East First Street, along the construction-choked corridor between Avenue A and First Avenue ...

Now the city has posted these rather unintentionally funny signs on the bikes.

Wonder how city workers deduced that these are, in fact, abandoned? Anyway, if one of these bikes belongs to you... the city will remove it after today.

Also, does anyone know how all these bikes got here?

BFF Bikes

As part of the Bicycle Film Festival 2011 this weekend... the BFF Street Festival Today took to East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue earlier today ... where Bobby Williams paid a visit...