New York Metropolis’s gradual transformation away from a vehicle-oriented metropolis will quickly get a visual and vital increase: the town plans to shut a lane on each the Brooklyn and Queensboro Bridges and reserve them for bicyclists.
The brand new biking plan for the 2 East River crossings — referred to as “Bridges for the Individuals” — was unveiled as a part of Mayor Invoice de Blasio’s closing State of the Metropolis speech on Thursday.
The bikes lanes are the newest victory for cyclists and transportation advocates who’ve more and more pushed Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat in his second time period, to chip away on the entrenched automobile tradition that has dominated the town’s greater than 6,000 miles of streets.
In the course of the mayor’s tenure, metropolis transportation officers have constructed greater than 120 miles of protected bike lanes as a part of the town’s efforts to create 1,375 miles of motorbike lanes, creating the most important city community within the nation.
They’ve additionally expanded the town’s common bike share program, Citi Bike, and are engaged on a $58.4 million bike security plan following a spike in biking fatalities on metropolis streets in 2019. The plan consists of putting in extra protected bike lanes and redesigning intersections to make turns safer for cyclists.
Biking in New York and in lots of cities internationally has soared through the pandemic as individuals have sought alternate options to public transit.
The spike has led transportation and road security advocates to strain the mayor to go additional at a time when the necessity for more room has helped spur the largest change within the streets in a long time. Town’s open streets program has change into one of the notable successes of the pandemic, turning as soon as car-clogged streets over for strolling, biking and out of doors eating.
Now, the town will lastly handle longstanding issues concerning the Brooklyn Bridge, which has lengthy been referred to as a very harmful route for cyclists, and the Queensboro Bridge.
Below the plan, the town will ban automobiles from the interior lane of the Manhattan-bound facet of the Brooklyn Bridge to construct a two-way bike lane. The prevailing promenade space on the middle of the bridge, which is elevated above the automobile lanes, shall be used solely by pedestrians. Cyclists will now not be capable of experience on the promenade, the place there may be presently a motorbike lane.
In asserting the plan, the de Blasio administration mentioned that it was time to carry each bridges “into the twenty first century and embrace the imaginative and prescient of a future with out automobiles with a radical new plan.”
The brand new bike lanes are the results of a long time of lobbying by cyclists and transportation advocates. “Changing automobile lanes into bike lanes on two of our most essential bridges is a big leap ahead for New York Metropolis,” mentioned Danny Harris, govt director of Transportation Alternate options, an advocacy group.
“We stay up for working with the de Blasio administration on this important new challenge and different efforts to enhance infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians on bridges and streets throughout the 5 boroughs,” Mr. Harris added.
However State Assemblyman David I. Weprin, a Democrat from Queens who’s working for metropolis comptroller, mentioned he was involved that taking a lane away from automobiles on the 2 bridges would solely make congestion worse as soon as the town recovered from the pandemic and extra individuals returned to work.
“There are nonetheless loads of individuals who drive into Manhattan in addition to small companies who depend on these bridges,” Mr. Weprin mentioned. “It definitely shall be a problem as soon as the town comes again.”
The plan for the brand new bike lanes comes amid a unprecedented surge in biking — the town had practically 1.6 million bike riders earlier than the pandemic, and biking has exploded with journeys on the metropolis’s 4 East River bridges into Manhattan leaping by 55 % in November in contrast with the identical month in 2019.
The annual speech by the mayor has usually change into a possibility to suggest daring concepts like a modern streetcar between Brooklyn and Queens, which Mr. de Blasio introduced in 2016 with nice fanfare however has not been constructed.
Metropolis officers mentioned they need to construct the two-way protected bike lane on the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883 and runs between Decrease Manhattan and Brooklyn, by the top of this 12 months.
The Queensboro Bridge, often known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, runs between Midtown Manhattan and Queens and opened in 1909.
The plan requires changing the northern outer roadway of the Queensboro Bridge right into a two-way bike lane. The southern outer roadway, which is presently utilized by Queens-bound automobiles, shall be reconfigured as a pedestrian walkway. Development ought to start this 12 months, however metropolis officers mentioned they didn’t know when it will be completed due to different development already going down on the bridge.
Biking has expanded considerably throughout the Queensboro Bridge specifically through the pandemic, resulting in extra conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians, who presently share a two-way lane on the northern outer roadway.
Metropolis Councilmen Ben Kallos and Jimmy Van Bramer, whose districts embrace both finish of the Queensboro Bridge, have fought for years for a separate bike lane. They’ve held a number of rallies and not too long ago marched throughout the bridge through the pandemic.
“This information couldn’t have come sooner as extra individuals depend on bikes through the pandemic,” Mr. Kallos mentioned. “The one shared lane on the Queensboro Bridge has gotten extra crowded and harmful.”