City Proposes Protected Crosstown Midtown Bike Lanes After Deaths

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city Department of Transportation unveiled a plan to install Midtown Manhattan's first two protected bike lanes after a year that saw a rise in cyclist fatalities, city officials announced Wednesday.

The DOT proposed installing protected bike lanes — which feature a physical barrier between bike and car lanes — on 26th Street heading eastbound and 29th Street heading westbound. The two lanes would be complemented by two crosstown lanes in the 50s, but the streets have not been determined, city officials announced.

The decision to add crosstown protected bike lanes in Midtown was made due to a rise in Midtown bike usage and a rise in citywide cyclist fatalities, city officials said. Bike ridership in Manhatttan grew 98 percent between 2010 and 2015 and an "enormous growth" was reported in Midtown specifically, according to a city press release.

"We're thrilled to see the New York City Department of Transportation's plans to bring protected bike lanes to crosstown streets in Manhattan," Paul Steely White, executive director of the safe streets advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, said in a statement. "This decision shows that city leaders have been paying attention not just to the demands of everyday cyclists, but also to the data which show that protected bike lanes save lives."

Although city officials have hailed 2017 as New York's safest for traffic fatalities, the number of cyclists who died on city streets actually rose last year. Twenty-three cyclists were killed on city streets in 2017 compared to 18 in 2016. Of those 23 deaths, nine were reported in Manhattan and five of those occurred in Midtown Manhattan.

None of Manhattan's cycling fatalities occurred on roads with protected bike lanes, and the number of cyclist injuries on city streets with protected bike lanes went down 20 percent, city officials said.

"We were heartened by the progress we made with Vision Zero in New York City during 2017, the safest-ever year on our city’s streets. However, the increase in cyclist fatalities indicates just how much work we still have to do," DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement. "Too many of the cyclist tragedies happened along Midtown streets without protected lanes."

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