“I used to only ride my bike on the bike path that runs along the FDR, which limited where I would be willing to go on my bike” said Julie Neusner, a self-described casual biker. “But with the bike lanes on First and Second Avenues I now ride instead of taking the train a lot more.”
Neusner is referring to the new type of bike lanes that the city has installed on sections of a few Manhattan avenues. In 2010 the Department of Transportation started building bike lanes with a new design that would separate bikers from car traffic with a “floating” lane of parked cars.
One of the most common bike lanes found in Manhattan
“After I got used to riding in those lanes I was more confident, and now I’m even willing to ride in unprotected lanes” added Neusner.
The new design places the bike lane right next to the sidewalk so that a row of parked cars keeps moving traffic away from cyclists. Many riders like this system because of how much safer they feel since their interaction with drivers is greatly reduced. However, not all bikers are in favor of the new design; many feel that they increase the chance of accidents with pedestrians, and limit cyclist’s ability to avoid obstacles.
While the first bike lane in America was built in 1894 along Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, there were very few lanes for cyclists built in the following century. That changed in 1997 when The Department of City Planning and the DOT created The New York City Bicycle Master Plan, which outlined a network of dedicated bike lanes in an effort to increase bicycle riding in the five boroughs.
Some of the lanes created by this plan had a “buffer zone” to distance riders from traffic, however, because it was only painted on, cars could still freely pull into the bike lanes. The Bicycle Master Plan was a ten-year project but its success in encouraging people to bike has led to more bikers and a continued interest in improvements to keep them safe.
View The Bike Lanes of NYC in a larger map
Between 2006 and 2011 New York City has added or improved 289.2 miles of bike lanes around the city according to the DOT. While the new design is only on First and Second Avenues between Houston Street and 34th Street, Eighth Avenue from its beginning on Hudson Street to 34th Street and Ninth Avenue from 30th Street to 16th Street right now, there are plans to extend them further north.
It is common for cyclists to encounter people parked in the bike lane and bikers traveling the wrong way in them.
Not all bikers like this plan. “They took away my favorite bike lane and replaced it with one I refuse to ride in” said Eric Gill of the Second Avenue bike lane. “If I use it, I am forced to ride slower than I usually would.” Before the installation of the new design, the Second Avenue bike lane ran alongside traffic with the painted buffer zone separating the two types of traffic.
The problem that many of the city’s more experienced cyclists see with these lanes is that while cars have the potential to do more damage, pedestrians are less predictable. “When you’re riding a bike, you’re quick to realize how little attention New Yorkers actually pay to where they are going,” Gill pointed out.
“I’m way more scared of people walking than people driving,” said Matthew Avedon, another city cyclist. “When people are driving it’s illegal for them to use their phone, and they’re at least supposed to use turn signals. When they’re walking all bets are off, they go where they please.”
Avedon has a point because even on the DOT’s website, one of the arguments in favor of the new bike lane design claims that it decreases the distance people must travel to cross the street. The way they came to this conclusion is that the old measurement went from one sidewalk to the other, while the new one goes from the island at the end of the row of floating parked cars to the sidewalk across the street. This measurement doesn’t count the bike lane, which seems to imply that cars are the only traffic that pedestrians need to watch out for.
The problem of people stepping in front of bikers is compounded by the fact the lane is bordered by the curb on one side and parked cars on the other. “When riding around the city, you always pay attention to your escape routes. That is, if a car makes a sudden turn or something unexpected happens you think of ways you can avoid it. When you’re blocked on both sides like you are in these lanes, you have nowhere to go if you’re suddenly blocked” Gill said.
It is not only bikers who have problems with the new lanes. Jeremy Golombeck who works at the Urban Outfitters on Second Avenue doesn’t like that delivery trucks must now park further from the curb and carry packages across the bike lane saying: “when we get big shipments, any farther away the truck has to park makes it tougher.”
Andrew Healy, the manager of NYC Velo, a bike shop on Second Avenue is in favor of the lane that passes a few steps from the shops front door. “It allows people who may be nervous about biking in the city to feel much safer since they know they will be separated from traffic” he said, adding “of course, I’m going to support anything that gets people out riding bikes more from both a cyclist and a business standpoint.”