Since 2014, City has built over 100 miles of protected bike lanes; in 2020, City will construct 10 new miles of protected bike lanes in Manhattan
Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner Polly Trottenberg released a progress report on the Green Wave, the City’s plan to make streets safer for cyclists. The City has built 104 miles of protected bike lanes (PBLs) since 2014, including 21.4 miles completed in 2019. The de Blasio Administration has built over 400 miles of bike lanes since 2014.
The City will also construct approximately 10 new miles of protected bike lanes in Manhattan in 2020, including completing the Central Park West northbound protected lane and bringing the 6th Avenue northbound lane through Midtown to Central Park. These new projects are part of the Green Wave commitment to build 30 PBL miles across the city this year.
“No loss of life on our streets is acceptable,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are deepening our efforts to protect cyclists and make our streets safer for all New Yorkers. We will not stop until we have finally reached Vision Zero.”
“While we have seen critical safety measures put into place since launching the Green Wave plan last summer, this year we are committing to an unprecedented amount of protected bike lanes throughout New York City – including around 10 miles in Manhattan,” said Deputy Mayor Laura Anglin. “This Administration remains laser-focused on ensuring our streets are safe and accessible for all New Yorkers.”
“We once again thank the Mayor for his leadership on the Green Wave, which has really forced DOT to up our game,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “Our progress report shows we have done a lot for cyclist safety since last summer, but we have a lot more planned – including all over Manhattan. Over the last several years, one of every five protected bike lane miles in America has been built within New York City, and this year, we will do even more.”
Green Wave Progress Report
Unveiled in July 2019, the Green Wave lays out an ambitious approach to address the rise in cycling fatalities, including by increasing the annual production of PBLs from 20 miles in 2019 to 30 miles each in 2020 and 2021. The report card released today announced that DOT completed 21.4 PBL miles last year and is on its way toward reaching its goal of 30 miles this year.
DOT has focused much of its work on 10 Brooklyn and Queens’s community boards that have high rates of cyclists killed or seriously injured and limited cycling infrastructure. The Administration targeted 75 miles of bike lanes in these Priority Districts by 2022 and today’s progress report notes 37.5 miles have been completed since 2017. Traffic-calming turn treatments will also be installed at the 50 most dangerous intersections for cyclists by the end of 2020 and DOT will increase protection on existing protected bike lanes.
As part of Green Wave, the Administration also announced progress in three additional areas of focus between DOT and NYPD, including the Truck Safety Task Force, the passage of the Leading Pedestrian Rule for cyclists and DOT’s continued public outreach efforts.
Manhattan Protected Bike Lanes
In 2020, Manhattan will see its largest ever single-year addition of protected bike lanes, approximately ten miles, to help fill out the borough’s already extensive network. The projects are as follows:
- 6th Avenue, Midtown: A protected lane along 6th Avenue will be added in Midtown, extending the existing uptown lane from Herald Square to Central Park.
- Central Park West, Upper West Side: The second phase of this uptown lane will be completed in 2020, extending to 110th Street.
- 5th Avenue, Harlem: A new two-way protected lane will be installed from 120th to 110th Streets connecting Central Park and Marcus Garvey Park.
- St Nicholas Avenue, Washington Heights: Protected lanes will be added in both directions between 165th and 170th Streets.
- Manhattan Waterfront Greenway connection, Lower East Side: A new protected route will be added in Alphabet City to accommodate greenway riders during East River Park construction.
- Lower Manhattan Network: DOT will fill in the protected-lane network on several critical corridors in Lower Manhattan including lower Broadway, Whitehall Street, West Broadway, Varick Street, Church Street and 6th Avenue.
- Queensboro Bridge Connectors, Midtown: PBLs will be added to several crosstown approaches to the bridge.
- Additional Crosstown Lanes, Midtown: DOT is finalizing the most feasible streets on which to add a new set of crosstown lanes to complement the crosstown lanes that have been added since 2018 on 26th/29th and 52nd/ 55th Streets.
After community outreach scheduled for this year and pending completion of water main work by the Department of Design and Construction, a southbound protected lane along 2nd Avenue in Midtown will be constructed between 42nd and 34th Streets, closing the last remaining gap in the 5-mile 2nd Avenue protected bike lane.
“To build a 21st century city where New Yorkers can get around efficiently, safely, and sustainably it is critical that we have a citywide network of interconnected protected bike lanes,” said Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “Far too many cyclists were lost to traffic violence last year and we must do more to protect people on two wheels. I look forward to continuing to work with DOT to ramp up protected bike lanes and safe streets infrastructure around the city in the years to come.”
