NYC plans 10 miles of hardened bike lanes, other safety improvements as bicycling fatalities rise

Ten miles of hardened bike lanes — separated from motor vehicles with barriers of concrete or other dense materials — are among a series of bicycle safety measures city officials plan to unveil on Monday.

The hardened lanes will include small portions of First and Second Aves. in Manhattan; a portion of Second Ave. and part of Borinquen Place in Brooklyn; some of Queens Blvd., Vernon Blvd. and Addabbo Bridge in Queens; a portion of Goethals Road North in Staten Island; and parts of Park Ave. and Southern Blvd. in the Bronx.

Additional protected bike lanes — which are typically separated from motor vehicle traffic with soft barriers or a line of parked cars — are also planned this year.

Those additional protected lanes will be installed along stretches of Third and Tenth Aves. in Manhattan; portions of Meeker, Cozine, Wortman and Louisiana Aves., part of McGuinness Blvd., all of Bedford Ave., and the streets surrounding the Navy Yard in Brooklyn; parts of Lafayette, Soundview and Rosedale Aves. and 179th St. in the Bronx; and portions of South Ave. and Trantor Place on Staten Island.

All of the projects are planned for 2023, except for two early-stage plans for protected lanes in Queens along Cypress Ave. and lanes in the Astoria Heights neighborhood west of LaGuardia Airport, a DOT spokesperson said.

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Some of the proposed lanes are still in the planning stages, and the total mileage of the planned lanes is yet to be determined, but the spokesperson said the agency planned to install more bike lanes this year than in any previous year.

“More safe cycling infrastructure means more cyclists on our streets,” DOT commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “As we’ve built more and more bike lanes, we’ve seen bicycle ridership reach historic levels.”

Bicycle use hit record levels in New York during 2022. Transportation Department data shows an average of more than 24,000 riders crossed the East River bridges each weekday in 2022 — up from 23,419 in 2021 and higher than any previous recorded year.

Ridership across the bridges has become something of a benchmark for the popularity of cycling in the city. A DOT spokesman said Monday that cycling data — typically released in the fall after the peak cycling season — will be made public by the agency as it’s collected.

But the new year has brought with it a grim milestone, with eleven cyclists killed this year on New York City streets. If the current trend continues, 2023 could be the deadliest year on record for city bicycle riders.

The agency also announced it would also be focusing on e-bike education in the coming months.

The DOT’s planned public awareness campaign aims to teach riders that e-bikes accelerate much more quickly, maintain higher speeds, and come to a stop less quickly than traditional bicycles.

Seven of those killed this year were riding e-bikes, and four of those died in crashes involving no other vehicles.

DOT has been criticized by some cycling advocates for falling behind its projected bike lane goals.

Advocacy group Transportation Alternatives said 26 miles of proposed bike lanes are currently under construction with 53 miles announced but not yet underway, according to a spokesperson.

In his 2021 mayoral campaign, then-candidate Eric Adams pledged to add 300 miles of bike lanes to the city by the end of his first term.

“For years, as Brooklyn borough president and now as mayor, I have advocated for more New Yorkers to use bikes and supported creating the infrastructure to make cycling safe,” Mayor Adams said in a statement attached to Monday’s DOT announcement.

“The continued rise in cycling is a sign of true progress for our city, but we must give new and experienced cyclists all of the tools they need to bike safely.”