Protected Bike Lane Comes To Seventh Avenue

CHELSEA, NY — The city is installing a long-awaited protected bike lane along Seventh Avenue, a safer option for cyclists who have called for more bike lanes in the wake of multiple cycling fatalities and injuries in the neighborhood.

The city's Department of Transportation is currently installing the bike lane, which will stretch from West 30th Street in Chelsea to Clarkson Street in Greenwich Village. The thoroughfare was designated as a "priority corridor" in the city's Vision Zero initiative, a project working to drastically reduce traffic injuries and fatalities in New York City.

Cycling advocates have long called for more protected bike lanes as the city's biking population continues to grow. Earlier this year, two cyclists were killed within days of each other in Chelsea traffic accidents, spurring additional calls for safer bike routes for cyclists. The Seventh Avenue bike lane, and another bike lane along Fifth Avenue, were both in the works before the recent fatalities. Cyclists say that adding lanes to these highly-trafficked avenues isn't enough, and that cross streets — like 26th Street, where 36-year-old Dan Hanegby was riding before he was killed in June — need protected lanes as well

Last month, the city said it was reviewing plans to add more crosstown bike lanes.

"We are actively developing a series of crosstown bike route proposals and will be coming to the community with more details in the near future," a transportation department spokesperson said in September. The department hasn't yet released additional details about the proposals.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch