East Village Calls For End Of 'Mixing Zone' Bike Lanes After Cyclist's Death

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Controversial "mixing zone" bike lanes like the one where East Village cyclist Kelly Hurley was killed in April need to be re-designed, the city is being told.

The transportation committee of Community Board 3, which includes the East Village, passed a resolution Tuesday asking the city to review the lanes, which have motor vehicles turning left through bike lanes, DNAinfo first reported.

In April, as 31-year-old Hurley was biking north up First Avenue, a box truck turning left onto Ninth Street slammed into her in a mixing zone, police said at the time. The 59-year-old driver had cut across four lanes of traffic to make the turn, according to authorities. Hurley died from her injuries about a week after the crash.

Drivers are permitted to make left turns in mixing zones, but cyclists are meant to have the right of way. No one has been arrested in connection with Hurley's death.

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In the wake of Hurley's death, cycling activists across the city condemned the city's biking infrastructure, blaming the mixing zone for setting cyclists like Hurley up for unsafe situations. The city's transportation department has maintained that the design did not contribute to Hurley's death.

"Initial investigation of the crash reveals that the driver made a left turn from the right most lane, cutting across four lanes of traffic, before he hit Ms. Hurley. Therefore we believe the mixing zone design was not a factor in this crash," a department spokesperson told Patch in an email in April.

"Regardless, DOT has committed to investigating bicycle intersection upgrades and new intersection designs as part of [Vision Zero] Year 4. This process is under way and we look forward to discussing next steps for this study in the coming months."

Reed Rubey, an activist with Transportation Alternatives, spoke to the Community Board 3 committee about the dangers he faces as a cyclist in mixing zones during his daily bike commute from the Upper West Side to downtown Manhattan. Rubey previously gave a similar presentation to the transportation committee of Community Board 7, which covers his home on the Upper West Side. Rubey told Patch in April that he was moved to speak out after Hurley was killed.

"Ms. Hurley's death really underscored the risk," he told Patch at the time. "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."

On Tuesday night, Rubey presented some ideas on how to make mixing zones safer.

"You're going from a protected bike lane to a completely unprotected bike lane and introducing a car coming from the side," he said. "I feel like I'm being set up to fail."

Lead image via Ciara McCarthy / Patch.