Cyclists Create Guerrilla Bike Lane Barriers With Toilet Plungers

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A group of cycling activists posted toilet plungers along a West Village avenue's bike lane to show the city's Department of Transportation how simple safety infrastructure can be, the group said.

The group, Transformation Dept., posted seven toilet plungers that cost $4.99 a pop along Fifth Avenue at Tenth Street Tuesday evening along a stretch of what's known as a "mixing zone," the group said by a direct message on Twitter.

The "mixing zone" is where cars turn left into a bike lane, mixing where cyclists are biking through an intersection. The shared area is where 31-year-old Kelly Hurley was killed by a box truck turning left in the East Village in 2017.

"Mixing zones in New York City, [where] cars and bicycles are expected to share space, are known to be dangerous," Transformation Dept. wrote on Twitter. "They force cyclists going straight into the same space as drivers making turns."

The toilet plungers pushed vehicles to move up in front of the crosswalk before turning left, rather than cutting over into where the left-turn lane merges with the bike lane.

Transformation Dept. documented the bathroom-to-streets infrastructure fix in several videos:

"This is how easy it is to protect cyclists and keep drivers from hitting them," the group wrote.

When asked for comment on the group's toilet takeover, DOT said the department is "updating intersection designs around the city."

For instance, along First and Second avenues, DOT upgraded intersections with designs earlier this year that would decrease mixing zones along the bike lanes where Hurley was killed. The department published a lengthy study on making intersections more cycling friendly last September on bike lane design changes.

In response to the plungers activists posted in Greenwich Village, DOT said objects with a color similar to the roadway cannot be installed in crosswalks since they obstruct pedestrians, especially those with disabilities, right-of-way. The department appeared to be referring to two plungers that were at the edge of the pedestrian crosswalk, taking up inches of space.