Full UWS Board Endorses Central Park West Protected Bike Lane

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The Upper West Side's full Community Board 7 voted in favor of asking the city Department of Transportation to design a proposal for a protected bike lane on Central Park West.

With a vote of 37 community board members in favor and just three opposed, the resolution passed easily during Tuesday night's community board meeting. The proposal was previously unanimously approved by the board's transportation committee and has been endorsed by local elected officials.

"For literally years I and [transportation committee co-chair] Andrew Albert have asked DOT why they just cant switch the northbound parking lane on Central Park West and the bike lane so it would be much safer — and we really haven't gotten any satisfactory answer," transportation committee co-chair Howard Yaruss said Tuesday night.

The community board is re-visiting the creation of a protected bike lane on Central Park West following City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal call for a two-way protected lane following the August death of Australian tourist Madison Jane Lyden. Rosenthal called the death a "a profound tragedy, even more so because it was preventable," in a statement released the week after the collision.

Lyden was hit by private carting truck as she biked along Central Park West with a friend, police said. She was riding inside the bike lane near West 67th Street and was forced to swerve into a vehicle lane when a livery cab pulled into the bike lane, police said. When Lyden swerved, she was struck by a truck that was traveling north on Central Park West, police said.

The truck driver, 44-year-old Felipe Chairez, was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, police said. Captain Timothy J. Malin of the NYPD's 20th Precinct said in September that cab driver Jose Peralta — who was parked in the bike lane before Lyden's death, forcing her to swerve into the road — will not face criminal charges for his role in the deadly collision.

Yaruss told other community board members that the city Department of Transportation is expected to present its ideas for a protected bike lane on Central Park West sometime early next year, possibly in January. The transportation committee co-chair said that he isn't sure what the proposal will look like, as Central Park West will be one of the few two-way major avenues with a protected bike lane.

Since 2012, 113 cyclists have been injured while riding along the avenue, according to a presentation shown during September's transportation committee meeting.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images