Bike Lane, Pedestrian Fixes Coming To 2 Midtown Avenues

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city this month unveiled a suite of improvements for walkers and cyclists along two of Midtown's busiest thoroughfares: an extended bike lane on Seventh Avenue, and pedestrian fixes on Eighth Avenue.

The bike lane will run along Seventh between Central Park South and 46th Street in Times Square, building off the existing lane between 46th and 42nd Streets that was installed in 2016, the Department of Transportation told Community Board 5 on Monday.

Eagerly awaited by bike advocates, the lane brings the city closer to a continuous lane along the entire length of the avenue. Once the new section is completed, the biggest gap will span between 42nd and 31st streets; the section below 31st runs down to Varick Street in Lower Manhattan.

One lane of vehicle traffic will be removed between 47th and 58th streets, plus two lanes between 58th and 59th streets, to make way for the new bike lane, the DOT said. The bike lane will be accompanied by sidewalk extensions and pedestrian islands that will cut pedestrian crossings by as much as 50 percent at some corners.

The changes will help improve safety along what has been a dangerous corridor: since 2014, 226 people have been injured in crashes on Seventh Avenue between 46th Street and Central Park South, including one pedestrian death, the DOT said.

Meanwhile, the pedestrian improvements along Eight Avenue will span between 31st and 38th streets — a corridor that passes by Penn Station and the new Moynihan Train Hall.

This project is an extension of a 2019 effort that widened sidewalks from 38th to 43rd streets, the DOT told Community Board 4 last week.

This stretch of Eighth Avenue has likewise been dangerous: 148 people have been injured on that stretch since 2014, including a woman who was fatally struck by an SUV at 38th Street in 2016.

Citing a traffic study that found the 15-foot-wide sidewalks packed with pedestrians, DOT plans to add 10-to-20-foot sidewalk extensions along most of the seven-block segment, the city says.

In front of Moynihan Train Hall at West 33rd Street, an 11-foot painted sidewalk extension will be installed, plus a revised intersection separating cars from pedestrians and cyclists at the intersection.

Board members reacted warmly to the Eighth Avenue improvements. The Seventh Avenue bike lane got a more mixed reception, as CB5 members expressed disappointment that some segments would not be protected, and urged DOT to move more quickly in closing the rest of the thoroughfare's gaps.

In response, Nick Carey, a bike engineer for DOT, said filling in the rest of Seventh Avenue's bike lane gaps was "definitely on our radar."

"I would say that we’ll be back in the next few years, for sure," he said.

Correction: an earlier version of this story misstated sidewalk widths in inches, rather than feet.