NYC Cyclists Condemn Intersection Design After Kelly Hurley's Death

EAST VILLAGE, NY — Transportation activists throughout New York City are calling on the city to upgrade "mixing zone" intersections to make them safer for cyclists like Kelly Hurley, who was fatally wounded in such an intersection last week.

The activist group Transportation Alternatives is faulting the design of mixing zones — areas of the road where a bike lane merges with a left-hand turn lane — for contributing to Hurley’s death. But the city’s transportation department denies the design of the intersection impacted the collision.

Hurley, 31, was biking north up 1st Avenue on the morning of April 5, just after 7 a.m. Authorities say that the driver of the box truck, who was also driving north down 1st Avenue, was turning left onto East 9th Street when he struck Hurley as she continued north through the mixing zone. Mixing zones are areas of the road where a bike lane merges with a left-hand turn lane. Drivers are permitted to make left turns at the intersection but cyclists are meant to have the right of way. Cycling activists say that the design of mixing zones, which depends on cautious drivers granting bikers the right of way, leaves cyclists at risk.

Hurley was pronounced dead on Wednesday, a week after the crash, authorities said.

Initial information indicates that the 59-year-old driver turned left from the far right lane, cutting across four lanes of traffic, when he hit Hurley, according authorities.

A cyclist enters the mixing zone at the intersection of 1st Avenue and E 9th Street.

The city's transportation department contests that the design of mixing zones contributed to the accident that killed Hurley.

"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 of Transportation spokesperson told Patch in a statement. "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."

Vision Zero, the city's initiative to reduce deaths and injuries on city streets, launched in 2014. Last year, there were 230 traffic fatalities, according to the city's data, down from 299 deaths in 2013, the year before the initiative started.

An NYPD spokesman confirmed to Patch on Friday that the driver is believed to have turned from the farthest lane to the right. The driver stayed at the scene after the accident, and no arrests have been made, police said Friday. The NYPD's investigation into the accident remains ongoing.

Caroline Samponaro, the deputy director of Transportation Alternatives, told Patch that regardless of what lane the driver turned from, mixing zones were a design flaw that made streets unsafe. Samponaro reiterated her organization's call for "clear unambiguous right-of-way signal phasing for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists alike."

"Mixing zones only work when motorists yield," the transportation nonprofit said in a statement after Hurley's death. "Time and again, New York City motorists have proven incapable of exercising basic care, with deadly results."

The group is calling for the city to install additional crosswalk and "split-phase" signals, to make it clearer who has the right of way. These signals would help eliminate conflict between pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. According to the nonprofit, careless or lawless actions by drivers contributed to at least 13 of the 18 cycling fatalities in NYC last year. Transportation Alternatives also contests that the city's Right of Way law alone is not enough to prevent motorists from injuring pedestrians and bicyclists who have the right of way.

A Vision Zero report from last year concluded that left turns contribute to more than twice as many pedestrian and cyclist fatalities as right turns.

Reed Rubey, a local cyclist and an activist with Transportation Alternatives, said he was moved to act after hearing about the East Village collision. Rubey told Patch he had been concerned about mixing zones for a while, and decided to address his local community board's transportation committee about possible solutions to make streets safer.

"Ms. Hurley's death really underscored the risk," he said. "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."

Rubey said he presented some ideas on how to make a mixing zone in his district, like the ones located along Columbus and Amsterdam avenues, to Community Board 7's transportation committee.The committee unanimously passed a resolution calling on the transportation department to study these intersections; the resolution will go before the full community board in May. Rubey, who said he often commutes from his Upper West Side home to his lower Manhattan office via bike, said he's constantly worried about his safety in mixing zones.

"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."

Hurley, a manager at the indoor cycling company SoulCycle, was an avid cyclist. The Lower East Side resident also worked with a nonprofit that promotes healthy body image among girls and women. A profile for Hurley on the nonprofit's page identifies her as the organization's vice president. "In her free time, she enjoys riding her bike around the streets of NYC," her profile reads.

On Thursday afternoon, colleagues of Hurley's from SoulCycle placed flowers on a pole at the intersection where she was fatally injured.

Lead image via Facebook; secondary images via Ciara McCarthy/Patch.