Long-Awaited 6th Avenue Bike Lane Opens In Midtown

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Transit advocates rejoiced on Wednesday as the city ceremonially opened a long-awaited bike lane along Sixth Avenue in Midtown.

The protected lane stretches from 59th Street at the southern end of Central Park down to West 35th Street, running along the west side of the avenue. Officials including Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg held a ribbon-cutting Wednesday morning at the corner of Sixth and 55th Street.

The opening is a victory for bike advocates, as well as Midtown City Councilmember Keith Powers, who said the normally-busy throughfare was unsafe for cyclists, and called on the city in January to extend Sixth Avenue's protected lanes all the way to Central Park, past their existing terminus at 33rd Street.

It also carries a bit of sweet irony: in 1980, under Mayor Ed Koch, the city installed its first-ever protected bike lane along the same stretch of Sixth Avenue, but Koch ordered the lanes to be bulldozed within months despite protests from cyclists, saying they had not been used enough.

Demand for the lane is high, according to the Department of Transportation, with Sixth Avenue seeing a 161 percent increase in cycling between 2008 and 2019. One lane of traffic was removed to make room for the bike lane, and new painted pedestrian islands and other safety improvements were also added, DOT said.

"Whether it’s the Empire State Building, Bryant Park, or Rockefeller Center, Sixth Avenue is a central crossroads of New York City," Powers said in a statement Wednesday. "For years, this stretch of Manhattan has been unprotected and unsafe for cyclists. Today that changes. I’m glad to have joined my constituents pushing for a safe and protected Sixth Avenue."

Advocates in January said the lack of protected lanes on Sixth Avenue was "embarrassing," noting that the avenue was especially unsafe for cyclists past Herald Square, where the lanes became unprotected. At 42nd Street, the bike infrastructure ended completely.

#Biketober History: In 1980, Mayor Ed Koch installed the City’s first on-street protected lane on 6th Ave from Greenwich Village to Central Park. After community opposition, the Koch Administration ripped out the lane five months later in November, 1980. https://t.co/Jf2jSqwUIc pic.twitter.com/wwHMGJTtFq
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) October 14, 2020

Commercial cyclists like delivery workers and bike messengers were left especially at risk by the lack of protected lanes, which were typically clogged with vehicle traffic in pre-pandemic times, the advocates noted.

Also on Wednesday, officials announced the completion of uptown protected bike lanes on Central Park West, part of an effort to expand the city's network of lanes amid a spike in bike use during the pandemic.

Brendan Krisel contributed to this report.

Previous coverage from Patch:

• Midtown Bike Lane Coming Soon To 6th Avenue, DOT Says
• Midtown Bike Lanes Included In City's Next Open Streets Expansion
• Bike Advocates Demand More Sixth Avenue Protected Lanes