October 29, 2019

Why 250 Miles of Bike Lanes Are Being Built

By Corey Kilgannon

It's Tuesday. Election Day is a week away. Did you know New York City is voting on a totally new way to decide elections?

Weather: Cloudy with a chance of light rain and a high in the low 60s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Friday (All Saints Day).

Shravya Kag for The New York Times

New York was never exactly laid out as bike-friendly city.

"Our streets have been really poorly planned in a piecemeal fashion," Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, told my colleague Emma G. Fitzsimmons.

New York has long been a car-dominated metropolis where riding a bicycle has been a harrowing experience. But the city is vowing to change that with a bill spearheaded by Mr. Johnson that would create 250 miles of protected bike lanes.

[After a spike in deaths, New York will get more protected bike lanes.]

Mayor de Blasio and the City Council have agreed to the legislation, expected to be passed tomorrow.

The lanes would be created in the next several years, along with other bike-friendly upgrades, Ms. Fitzsimmons reported.

With an estimated $1.7 billion investment over 10 years, the legislation would also prioritize pedestrians and bus service over cars.

Pushing for bike safety

A spike in deaths this year — 25 cyclists killed by cars on city streets, the highest toll in two decades and 15 more than last year — has led to criticism that the city is failing to protect bike riders.

Mr. de Blasio has made street safety one of his signature initiatives, including his Vision Zero plan to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024.

But after a spate of cyclist deaths over the summer, he announced a "green wave" plan to clamp down on reckless drivers and other safety threats to cyclists.

Cycling advocates have criticized the mayor for not pushing harder to continue earlier progress in creating bike lanes, begun in earnest under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

They have called on the city to create a citywide interconnected network, a process that would require the replacement of many traffic lanes and parking spaces with bike lanes — a contentious stance in parts of the city that rely heavily on cars.

Changing traffic flow

In 2021, New York will become the first big city in the country to adopt congestion pricing, requiring drivers to pay a toll to enter parts of Manhattan. Bike advocates hope the resulting decrease in traffic will allow the city to convert lanes for bus, bike and pedestrian use.

The city has already taken bold steps to begin progressive reconfigurations, such as closing 14th Street to most traffic to prioritize buses. The change infuriated many drivers, who complained that cars would be pushed to smaller nearby streets. The city is also retiming traffic lights to give priority to cyclists instead of motorists.

Breaking 'car culture'

The bike lanes are a crucial part of Mr. Johnson's so-called Streets Master Plan bill to help "break the car culture" and would usher in the kinds of changes that cities like London and Paris have made to fight traffic congestion.

New York now has about 1,260 miles of bike lanes, including parkland byways. But only 126 miles of on-street lanes are protected, with a physical barrier separating cyclists from motor vehicles.

This year, the City Council began holding hearings questioning de Blasio administration officials about bike safety and calling for more lanes.

City transportation officials initially raised concerns about their ability to accelerate bike lane creation. But they are now agreeing to increase resources to make it happen. On Mr. Johnson's end, he has agreed to delay parts of his plan to give those officials more time.

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Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today's puzzle.

What we're reading

A tugboat, part of the effort to clean up the polluted Gowanus Canal, sank. [Curbed NY]

Seven years after Hurricane Sandy, most homes in flood-prone coastal areas lack flood insurance. [The City]

Citing deaths and noise, local members of Congress moved to ban helicopters over New York City. [WABC-TV]

Coming up today

Learn about artificial intelligence, human perception and the future of design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in Manhattan. 6:30 p.m. [$15]

Listen to a discussion about mural-making by activist artists at the Brooklyn Historical Society. 6:30 p.m. [$10]

Join Andrea Long Chu, the author of "Females," for a conversation on gender and art at Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. 7 p.m. [Free]

— Melissa Guerrero

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times's culture pages.

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