Extend Village's Sixth Avenue Bike Lane Now Not Later, Board Says

GREENWICH VILLAGE, MANHATTAN — The coronavirus crisis is making calls for the Sixth Avenue bike lane to extend downtown more urgent.

Community Board 2's Traffic and Transportation Committee passed a resolution Thursday asking that the city put a temporary bike lane on Sixth Avenue between West 8th Street and Canal Street so that it can be used during the coronavirus pandemic, which has more New Yorkers biking to get around during the shelter-in-place order.

Board members have been requesting the extension of the Sixth Avenue bike lane — which currently extends from West 8th Street to West 36th Street — for several years, but said the coronavirus pandemic makes it all the more urgent.

Their resolution asks that the Department of Transportation use cones to put in a temporary lane immediately until a full protected lane can be installed.

"Effectively we would have a continuous link from Canal Street to 59th, which would get someone all the way to 110th," committee member Janet Liff said.

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Members passed the resolution unanimously after agreeing that the lane should be added to the east side of Sixth Avenue in the downtown stretch. The west side is often used by buses who turn on Watts Street to get to the Holland Tunnel, members contended.

The Community Board 2 committee's resolution is the latest in calls for more bike lanes during the coronavirus crisis.

It also adds to a push for extensions to the Sixth Avenue bike lane that began long before the pandemic. Earlier this year advocates took to the streets to urge transportation officials to speed up extending the lane to Central Park.

The transportation committee meeting also focused on a bike lane stretch on West Houston Street. Members passed a resolution asking for protective barriers on the path between Washington and West streets, where they say it becomes particularly precarious.

The barriers would make it easier for cyclists, who said they often walk during that portion, to get to the Hudson River Waterfront Greenway.

Both resolutions will face the full board for approval later this month.

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