Push To Bring Protected Bike Lanes To East Village Gains Steam

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The Department of Transportation is studying the feasibility of protected bike lanes on avenues A, B, C and D, the department confirmed.

It comes as a push for a two-way protected bike lane along Avenue B gains some steam.

This week, Community Board 3 passed a resolution urging the city to study safety issues and improve bike infrastructure on Avenue B.

"Vehicles regularly double park to load and unload goods and passengers and such double parking impedes traffic flow, creates safety hazards and blocks traffic moving lanes," CB 3 wrote in Tuesday's resolution. "The current moving lane for motor vehicles and bicycles on Avenue B does not adequately protect the safety of cyclists and discourages cyclists as an alternative mode of transportation."

CB 3 requested DOT conduct a safety and feasibility analysis on adding protected bike lanes to Avenue B, the resolution says. The DOT told Patch the department is actively studying feasibility of such bike lanes on all the Alphabet City avenues.

Neighbors and advocates with transportation group Transportation Alternatives have been organizing since April for bike lanes on Avenue B in particular — gaining support from nearly 500 people and 29 Avenue B businesses, advocates say.

East Villager and CUNY graduate student, Sophie Maerowitz, recalled when her boyfriend was doored while biking on Avenue B at Fourth Street. Last fall, he "flew over his handlebars, and broke a rib due to not having ample separation from motor vehicles," Maerowitz told board members.

"I want to see a two-way protected bike lane on Avenue B," said Wendy Brawer, who lives on Rivington Street and bikes in East River Park. "I want to see all the stored private property be removed from the street and that all 13 blocks become a slow street." She noted that if the East River Park closes for a city resiliency project, a bikeway alternative will be all the more important.

Currently, avenues A and C have white-painted bike lanes with no separation barriers. There are protected bike lanes on First and Second avenues.

Though bike lanes can be controversial in neighborhoods where free street parking is common — like on 12th and 13th streets — just one board member voted against CB 3's resolution.

Local politicians have been receptive to studying the matter.

Councilmember Carlina Rivera said at CB 3's Tuesday meeting she is working with DOT on "possible proposals on how we can look at putting bike lanes in, taking care of parking needs, and also looking at one-way directions." Rivera's rep said she's requested studies on avenues A, B, C, and D — which the DOT confirmed are in progress.

Assemblymember Harvey Epstein's office is drafting a letter to DOT and is working with neighbors on the efforts, a rep for Epstein said.

The parent-led movement was inspired by experiences from local parents who bike their kids to myriad schools along the corridor.

"As long as it is not a hurricane, I ride through all weather," Cresta Kruger, who rides with her 6-year-old up Avenue B to the East Village Community School on East 12th Street, previously told Patch. But, "Avenue B is pretty treacherous."