City Proposes Expansions To Upper East Side Bike Lane Network

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Representatives from the city Department of Transportation proposed two expansions to the Upper East Side's network of bike infrastructure in front of the local community board Monday night.

The DOT pitched a plan to fill in a gap of the Second Avenue protected bike lane from East 68th Street to East 59th Street — complete with a reconfiguration of the approach to the Queensboro Bridge — and revisited the possibility of constructing more crosstown bike lanes on East 65th, 66th, 84th and 85th streets.

Community Board 8's transportation committee did not take action on either proposal, but promised to revisit the plans in September.

The DOT first presented its plan to extend the Second Avenue protected bike lane from East 68th Street to East 59th Street, which would fill in one of two remaining gaps on the avenue. The stretch of road is particularly perilous due to the approach to the Queensboro Bridge were Second Avenue meets East 60th Street.

Between 2012 and 2016 there have been 363 injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists and motor vehicle occupants on the stretch of Second Avenue, 26 of which are considered serious injuries, according to a DOT presentation.

The DOT's plan for this stretch of Second Avenue is similar to the one currently in place between East 59th and 43rd streets. The department proposes creating a partially-protected bike lane that would not be protected during peak traffic hours. The way this works is that the lane closest to the bike lane would accommodate traffic between peak hours in the morning and afternoon and would be a parking lane at all other times. Bicyclists will only be physically separated from a lane of traffic during off-peak hours.

DOT officials said Monday that the similar configuration between East 59th and 43rd streets has resulted in the bike lane being blocked just 3 percent of the time.

The DOT also unveiled a sweeping change to the approach to the Queensboro Bridge as part of the bike lane extension. The new design proposes allowing pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the bridge approach on the eastern side of Second Avenue by using a three-phase crossing system. The first phase involves cyclists and pedestrians crossing East 60th Street to an island in the middle of the approach, the second phase involves crossing to yet another island — called "the pork chop" by DOT presenters — and the third phase involves crossing from the second island to East 59th Street.

The second bike network proposal presented by the DOT Monday drew increased scrutiny from community members in attendance and members of community board's transportation committee, likely because it opened up old wounds from a community board debate from 2016.

DOT officials again proposed installing unprotected, painted bike lanes on addition crosstown streets on the Upper East Side. Officials said that Monday night's presentation for bike lanes on East 65th, 66th, 84th and 85th streets was intended solely to start a conversation about more crosstown lanes in the neighborhood, not a plan currently being considered for implementation.

Officials insisted that the painted-on bike lanes don't actually change the streetscape, but instead make streets safer for all users by giving cars, bikes and pedestrians their own spaces.

The city previously installed crosstown bike lanes in the neighborhood on East 70th, 71st, 77th and 78th streets in 2016 after facing backlash from residents on streets where lanes were initially proposed.

This article will be updated with more details after Monday night's meeting.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images