After String Of Deaths, Chelsea Becomes Latest Foe Of 'Dangerous' Cycle Lane Mixing Zones

CHELSEA, NEW YORK – Following a streak of cyclist deaths, Chelsea’s community board is urging the city to make so-called “mixing zone” intersections safer for people riding bikes.

Mixing zones are places where vehicles turning merge with cyclists moving straight ahead. Motor vehicles are meant to yield to cyclists, but biking advocates have long called them dangerous.

The neighborhood's Community Board 4 joined a movement, led by Transportation Alternatives, to improve safety on Wednesday night, according to StreetsBlog.

Transportation Alternatives volunteer Reed Rubey previously told Patch, “"On almost every other block [with a bike lane], there's a mixing zone. If every other block there's an opportunity for a car to slam into you from the side, that's really dangerous."

CB 4 is following in the footsteps ofCB 3 on the East Village, CB 5 in Midtown and CB 7 on the Upper West Side, which have all expressed concern about the mixing zone.

Opposition grew after East Village cyclist Kelly Hurley was killed in April. Hurley, 31, was biking on First Avenue when a truck turning left onto Ninth Street slammed into her in a mixing zone, authorities said. They added that the driver of the truck had cut across four lanes of traffic to make the turn.

Last month,two cyclists were killed in Chelsea and, in July another died in a crash with a car in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy/Patch.