East Village Parents Push For Protected Bike Lane On Ave. B

EAST VILLAGE, NY — An East Village parent who bikes his kids to school has started a fledgling movement to push for a protected bike lane on Avenue B.

Choresh Wald, the parent of 8- and 6-year-old kids who go to East Village Community School, has launched a petition for a protected bike lane along Avenue B in collaboration with Transportation Alternatives, a transportation advocacy group.

Parents who take their kids to school by bike say a protected lane on Avenue B could make their commutes safer — especially as their kids age out of being legally allowed to bike on the sidewalk or able to ride as passengers on their parents’ bikes.

“Right now when you’re riding on Avenue B, safety is subject to the discretion of any driver — whether he’s driving safely or not,” Wald said.

The avenue, relatively narrow compared to others, currently has two lanes of moving traffic and parking. It runs along a corridor with Tompkins Square Park and several schools — including New Amsterdam School, Tompkins Square Middle School, The Earth School and East Village Community School.

There are painted bike lanes along avenues A and C, and a protected lane going north runs along First Avenue, but no bike infrastructure on Avenue B.

"You have to be really, really careful," said Cresta Kruger, who rides with her 6-year-old up Avenue B to the East Village Community School on East 12th Street. She said "it's like a video game" getting her kids to school by bike.

"As long as it is not a hurricane, I ride through all weather,” she said, but "Avenue B is pretty treacherous."

Some parents bike north along the greenway in the East River Park, but under the city’s current plan to protect the east side from storm surge and sea level rise, the park is expected to close for 3.5 years. The Department of Design and Construction has previously said it will likely reroute the greenway along protected lanes on First and Second avenues.

“If the park was closed and Avenue B had a bike lane, that’d be the route,” said EVCS parent Brad Worrell, who currently bikes with his 11- and 7-year-olds up the East River Park greenway.

For another EVCS parent, Tina Carr, a protected bike lane is critical for her to let her kids take to the streets when they age out of sidewalk cycling. Kids are allowed to bike on sidewalks when they're 12-years-old or younger.

"The Avenue B corridor is the obvious route that I take up to EVCS," said Carr, who bikes from Grand and Clinton streets north to EVCS. "We're still looking at years of needing to move, hopefully by bike, north from this location south of Grand to the East Village area, and there really isn't a way to do that without these sketchy [uptown] routes being a part of it.”

Protected bike lanes are often controversial in neighborhoods, including in the Village along the 12th and 13th streets bike lanes, which were added in preparation for the L train repairs. In the West Village, someone reportedly threw glass into the lanes. The de Blasio administration announced those lanes would be made permanent last week.

For Wald, the 12th Street bike lanes "changed our lives.”

“If we had one on Avenue B, that would be even nicer," he said.

Wald said he has collected some 250 signatures in less than three weeks. The petition will be delivered to Councilwoman Carlina Rivera and Community Board 3. CB 3 has previously supported bike lanes along Chrystie and Delancey streets.

Rivera's spokesman, Jeremy Unger, said the councilwoman has not met with Wald yet, but plans to meet and listen to parents and other community members on this proposal.

A Department of Transportation spokesperson said the department "looks forward to reviewing the petition," but did not answer whether the department had previously considered any avenues east of First Avenue for a protected bike lane.