Robust safety plan includes accelerated build-out of a citywide network of protected bike lanes, NYPD enforcement of crash-prone intersections, legislation & other innovations
Mayor Bill de Blasio released “Green Wave: A Plan for Cycling in New York City” to confront the rise in cycling fatalities in 2019. As cycling continues to grow dramatically, the $58.4 million plan combines design, enforcement, legislation, policy and education to make the City’s streets safer for cyclists -- and all street users. With fatalities heavily concentrated this year in Brooklyn, the Mayor unveiled the plan in Bay Ridge, a neighborhood that this year will receive its first on-street protected lanes along 7th Avenue. The Mayor separately announced that as part of the accelerated expansion of the protected bike lane network, DOT would this year install a two-way protected bicycle lane along Dyckman Street in Washington Heights.
“When we came into office we promised New Yorkers we’d do everything we could to end traffic fatalities,” said Mayor de Blasio. “No loss of life on our streets is acceptable. With a dangerous surge in cyclist fatalities, we have to keep pushing the envelope and increasing our efforts. That’s what this plan is about. It’s a continuation of our promise. This time, specifically to bikers. We are here to protect you and we take that job seriously. We will not stop until we have finally reached Vision Zero.”
“Thanks to the Mayor’s leadership and the effective work of so many in the advocacy community, we are proud to present the “Green Wave” plan today,” said DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “We have assembled a long and aggressive to-do list that we think that can change this year’s tragic increase in cyclist fatalities – and encourage even more New Yorkers to get on bicycles.”
“The Green Wave plan is a critical step forward in addressing the tragic surge in bicyclist fatalities,” said NYPD Transportation Chief Thomas Chan. “We are ramping up enforcement at crash-prone intersections, and targeting enforcement on high risk activities such as speeding, failing to yield and blocking bike lanes which directly affects bicyclist safety.”
The seventeen bicyclist fatalities so far this year represent the highest number through July of any year since the launch of Vision Zero in 2014, after a record-low 10 fatalities in all of 2018. This year, 12 (or 71%) of this year’s cyclist fatalities have been in Brooklyn, and eight fatalities involved cyclist interactions with trucks.
The Green Wave Plan is a multi-prong, multi-agency approach to curtail bike injuries and fatalities at a time when cycling popularity is on the rise, the City continues to expand its bike network and Citi Bike is expanding into new neighborhoods and boroughs. According to DOT’sCycling in the City report 24% of adult New Yorkers ride a bike, with a half-million cycling trips made on a typical day. Citi Bike, the nation’s largest bike share system continues to grow and recently announced plans to double its footprint and triple its fleet by 2023. In the past three years the City has added an average of 62 bike lane miles per year, including over 20 protected bike lane miles.
The new plan includes the following major elements:
Create Citywide Protected Bike Lane Vision
· To implement the Green Wave plan, the City has committed $58.4 million in new funding over the next five years, with 80 additional new staff.
· Build 30 miles of protected bicycle lane annually, guided by a PBL vision document. By the end of 2021, DOT will install over 80 miles of protected lanes. These projects are currently in various stages of planning and design.
· DOT has identified 10 Brooklyn and Queens community boards as Bike Priority Districts, which together represent 16% of community boards and 14% of the bike lane network – yet have 23% percent of all NYC’s bicycle fatalities. DOT has committed to build 75 miles of bicycle infrastructure in these districts by 2022.
· Spur increase in cycling mode share for safety and emissions reduction, furthering OneNYC 2050 goal that 1 out of every 10 trips in NYC be taken by bicycle.
Improve and Update Design
· DOT will build upon innovative intersection designs with a focus on areas where the majority of fatalities occur.
· Fifty (50) intersections will receive turn calming treatments in 2019 and where possible, protected intersection designs will be added for new projects after streets are resurfaced or reconstructed.
· Among innovations, DOT will in 2019 pilot so-called “Green Wave,” progressive signal-timing that discourages speeding and encourages steady cycling speeds -- and it will identify other corridors for implementation in 2020.
· Install Green Skip Bars at key intersections to increase cyclist visibility.
Expand NYPD Enforcement
· Under the plan, the NYPD will ramp up enforcement at the 100 most crash-prone intersections and target enforcement on highest risk activities: speeding, failing to yield, blocking bike lanes, oversized trucks/trucks off route.
· Maintain continuous citywide implementation of “Operation Bicycle Safe Passage” initiative – extending elevated enforcement of blocked bike lanes and hazardous driving violations. Since implementation of Operation Bicycle Safe Passage, NYPD has doubled enforcement of cars parked in bicycle lanes and issued more than 8,600 summons in the first three weeks of July.
· Specialized units and precincts will increase enforcement against oversized and off-route trucks.
· The NYPD also announced that supervisors would respond to collision sites to determine if the right-of-way laws should be applied -- and that it would also discontinue its practice of ticketing cyclists at the site of fatal cyclist crashes.
· NYPD supports new and emerging technology for automated enforcement.
Promote Legislation and Implement Policy
· DOT will both make new rules and work with the City Council and State Legislature in support of legislation increasing safety for cyclists and all road users. The agency will partner with various local and state agencies to advance cyclist safety.
· Among the specifics, DOT will implement local legislation that passed the Council this week that allows cyclists to proceed on the pedestrians signal and will work with the Speaker and Council Members to pass additional legislation requiring a three-foot passing distance between car and cyclist and enhanced requirements for trucks sideguards.
· DOT will also explore and evaluate the capabilities of existing and emerging technology for automated enforcement technologies to keep bike lanes clear, as well as enforce overweight truck restrictions, and determine the feasibility of obtaining State legislative approval for use of these technologies.
· DOT will institute new requirements to protect cyclists around work zones, under legislation recently passed by the Council, and increase maintenance and markings inspection capacity.
· DOT will install 2,000 bike parking spaces annually through bike corrals and issue an RFEI to evaluate the possibility of a new high-capacity bicycle parking system.
Target Trucks in Major Safety Initiative
· DOT will work with its partners in the trucking industry to address fatalities involving trucks, which have constituted over 50% of recent cyclist fatalities.
· DOT will convene a Vision Zero Truck Safety Task Force.
· DOT will develop instructional videos and materials for large fleets, private sanitation companies and freight industry partners. DOT will also expand the “Trucks Eye View” educational program.
· DOT will implement loading zones in residential areas and evaluate curb management in commercial areas, with the expansion of the Off-Hour Deliveries program.
· DOT will also pursue an expedited timeline for installation of side guards for all Business Integrity Commission-licensed and registered private garbage-collection vehicles.
Continued Expansion of Outreach/Helmet Safety
· DOT will continue its use of successful media campaign to promote safety, including a focus on the “Get There” bike encouragement and safety campaign messaging through weekly events and education programming.
· DOT will expand a companion education portion to the defensive driving and training programs at local driving schools as well as expand the citywide 7th Grade Bike Safety Program in collaboration with DOE and Bike New York.
· DOT will also work with Citi Bike to provide free helmets to NYCHA residents who become Citi Bike members.
Record 2019 Protected Bike Lane Production, including along 7th Avenue in Bay Ridge and along Dyckman Street in Washington Heights: The Mayor also announced that after an average of over 20 protected bike lane miles per year for the last three years, a record amount of protected bike lanes – over 25 lane miles -- would be completed in 2019, with a commitment to even more protected lane miles in 2021 and 2022. Among this year’s projects, the Mayor today watched crews preparing new 2 miles of new bike lanes in Bay Ridge along 7th Avenue, the first-ever protected lanes in this neighborhood.
Also among those projects will be over one-half mile of protected bike lanes along Dyckman Street in Washington Heights. After several years of community consultation and the construction of two one-way lanes, the street will be redesigned this summer with a two-way lane on the north side of Dyckman Street, a critical connector that will help complete the Manhattan Greenway.
“The need for our licensees to share the road safely with bicyclists has never been more urgent,” said Acting TLC Commissioner Bill Heinzen. “The Taxi & Limousine Commission is updating training, outreach, and enforcement on bicycle safety to over 200,000 drivers, as well as working with our business licensees and advocates to push the safety message. It’s critical that all for-hire drivers and passengers remember to turn and look before they open their car doors, and keep the city’s bike lanes clear for their fellow New Yorkers.”
“Bicycling is a healthy and environmentally-friendly way to get around the city and the Administration’s efforts to make the streets safer for cyclists is critical to the wellbeing of every resident,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. “Safer streets means healthier New Yorkers.”
