Chelsea Cyclists Demand Protected Bike Lanes After Deaths

CHELSEA, NY — Outraged and exasperated cyclists clamored for safer streets at a community meeting on Wednesday night, in the wake of two cyclists killed within days of each in collisions in the neighborhood.

Cycling advocates packed Wednesday night's meeting of the transportation committee for Community Board 4, which includes Chelsea. Last week, 36-year-old Dan Hanegby was killed as he biked east on 26th Street while commuting to work. Hanegby was struck and fatally injured by a charter bus that was also traveling eastbound on 26th Street, police said. Days later, 80-year-old Michael Mamoukakis was fatally injured when a charter bus struck him as it turned right onto 29th Street from Seventh Avenue, according to authorities. (Want more local news? Subscribe here for free breaking news alerts, features and neighborhood updates from Patch.)

Cyclists and committee members alike lambasted the police investigation into both deaths, criticizing the NYPD for implying that the cyclists were at fault in their public statements. Police continue to investigate both deaths, and no arrests have been made in either case.

Additional outrage was directed toward the charter bus operators, both of whom were traveling or preparing to travel on side streets that are not explicitly authorized for truck use, according to city restrictions.

The Department of Transportation's Colleen Chattergoon said that the agency's legal team was reviewing the rules regulating where buses can drive with the NYPD's legal team.

"A lot of these buses, they should follow the truck route, but some of the bus operators don't do so because they ... want to take the closest route to their destination," she explained.

Multiple committee members call for the bus drivers in both incidents to be penalized and prohibited from working in New York City.

"A bad operator needs to be penalized at the corporate level of not being allowed to operate in the city of New York if they are blatantly breaking the laws just for efficiency purposes of saving fuel and time," committee member Jeffrey LeFrancois said.

Cyclists also repeated their plea for more cross-town protected bike lanes. The city has steadily increased the number of designated bike lanes and protected bike lanes in the last several years as part of a number initiatives rolled out under Vision Zero, Mayor Bill de Blasio's push to drastically reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Last year, 18 cyclists were killed in traffic crashes New York City, according to Vision Zero data. As part of the initiative's infrastructure upgrades, major corridors like Fifth and Seventh avenues in Manhattan are getting protected bike lanes later this year. But cyclists say that adding lanes to these highly-trafficked avenues isn't enough, and that cross streets — like 26th Street, where Hanegby was riding before he was killed — need protected lanes as well.

Bill Amstutz, a local cyclist, said Wednesday's meeting was the first community meeting he'd ever gone to. Amstutz said he'd cycled down both streets where the last week's collisions happened and repeated the call installing protected cross-town lanes in Manhattan.

"These two deaths hit pretty close to home for me," he said." I echo the thoughts that we'd like to move quicker on this.

Chattergoon said the city's transportation was "looking at" requests for more cross-town bike lanes.

The committee passed resolutions to pen multiple letters to different city agencies, including one to NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill to request an in-person meeting to discuss enforcement and safety issues.

Read previous coverage of this issue from Patch:

• Chelsea Citi Bike Cyclist Killed In Ride Share's First Fatality
• Activists Call For Protected Bike Lanes After Cyclist's Death
• Second Cyclist In A Week Killed In Chelsea After Being Hit By Bus: NYPD
• Deaths Of Two Chelsea Cyclists Increase Demand For Safer Streets

Lead image via Kathleen Culliton / Patch.