Second Avenue Needs Greater Bike Lane Protections, Advocates, Officials Say

NEW YORK CITY — The city Department of Transportation has worked to fill in gaps along a planned Second Avenue bike lane, however some of the most dangerous stretches of the avenue remain unprotected, biking advocates and elected officials told Patch.

Volunteers from advocacy group Transportation Alternatives formed a human chain to protect bicyclists on a busy stretch of Midtown Manhattan during Tuesday morning's commute to highlight the lack of protection afforded to cyclists on the street.

The DOT recently filled in an 18-block gap between East 59th and 43rd streets, but did not install "tuff curb" protection that it had initially proposed. The "tuff curb" — bumps with vertical barriers — would have protected the lane from vehicle intrusion during rush hour, according to the initial DOT presentation.

"Without that protection, people aren’t going to be using the bike lane," Transportation Alternatives Manhattan organizer Chelsea Yamada told Streetsblog. "We’ve got 20 to 25 folks here that are using themselves as a substitute for infrastructure. We can’t afford to do this every day, we can’t afford to do that, to put our bodies on the line, but that’s basically what we’re doing every day."

In addition to lacking proper protection for currently-installed bike lanes, the city has left gaps in the biking infrastructure on some of the most-dangerous stretches of Second Avenue, City Councilman Ben Kallos told Patch Wednesday.

No bike lanes have been installed on Second Avenue near the Queensboro Bridge (East 68th to 59th streets) or the Queens–Midtown Tunnel (East 42nd to 34th streets), Kallos told Patch. When Kallos was elected to the City Council in 2013 he conducted a study of the most dangerous intersections in his district and found that East 59th Street and Second Avenue — where cars get off the Queensboro Bridge — was one of the most dangerous.

Bike lane gaps created dangerous situations for everyone using the road, Kallos said.

"I am hoping and believe that DOT comes back to look at the gaps on Second Avenue and make sure that we have protected infrastructure for pedestrians, bikes and motorists."

Kallos added that he was "disappointed" the DOT dropped the plan to install the "tuff curb" between East 59th and 43rd streets.

"While I would prefer a much larger physical barrier at the very minimum it would have been nice to have that tuff curb there," Kallos told Patch.

Lead photo courtesy @macartney via Twitter