New Pilot Gives Cyclists Head Starts At Traffic Lights Around NYC

FORT GREENE, NY — Cyclists can now get a head start on cars at red-lights around the city under a new pilot program the city launched on Atlantic Avenue Tuesday.

The pilot would let cyclists use leading pedestrian interval signals (LPIs) at 50 intersections in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens to give them advanced time to cross before drivers as a way to reduce crashes, the Department of Transportation said.

"As a city, it is our duty to ensure we are doing our best to ensure the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists," Councilman Carlos Menchaca, who pushed for the pilot, said in a statement.

"This pilot program is a good step in the right direction and a long overdue victory for advocates and community residents from my district who worked tirelessly to ensure this initiative came to life."

The city will add temporary signs to the intersections, the first at Atlantic Avenue and Smith Street, allowing cyclists to use the LPIs under the pilot that runs until October.

Aside from Atlantic Avenue, the pilot will also be installed at several intersections along Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn, Second Avenue and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan and 34th Avenue and Roosevelt Avenue in Queens, the DOT said.

The signals give pedestrians a seven to 11-second head start to cross the street before cars and the city first began rolling them out to some intersections in 1976, the New York Times reported.

The DOT started an expanded push to add them to more signals in 2014 and installed a record 832 of them at intersections last year, the city said. There are currently 2,547 LPIs around the city.

A 2016 study found that intersections with LPIs had a 56 percent decrease bicycle crashed and pedestrian injuries and deaths, according to the DOT. Another DOT study found that 65 percent of cyclist deaths and 89 percent of cyclists killed or seriously hurt in crashes with cars happened at intersections.

"We responded to this data as well as to requests from the cycling community and the council member who had asked that we expand the road users who can legally use so-called pedestrian head-start," Sean Quinn, senior director of the DOT's bicycle and pedestrian programs, said in a statement.

"We will be watching the results closely, measuring the various impacts of the pilot to determine next steps at the end of the study period."

Image: Department of Transportation/Twitter