New Bus Lanes And Bike Lanes For The East Side?

The city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled plans for an expansive overhaul of First and Second avenues intended to make commuting by bus and bicycle faster and safer. The proposed redesign stretches from Houston Street to 125th Street, and it calls for so-called select protected bike lanes, pedestrian refuges, and the implementation of so-called select bus service and other bus improvements planned to reduce travel times by 20 to 25 percent.

For the most part, the preliminary plan — which is outlined on StreetsBlog — would put buses on the right side of First and Second avenues in dedicated lanes, either along the curb or next to a lane of parking. Cars would use the middle three lanes and bikes would have their own paths along the left curb, protected from traffic by a parking lane (like the bike lanes on Grand Street and Ninth Avenue). The current plan doesn't call for protected bike lanes on the 10 blocks of First Avenue south of the Queensboro Bridge and 30 blocks of Second Avenue in Midtown where "the traffic levels are the most intense in the entire city" and "[e]very inch of that space is at a premium." There, bikes will ride in a shared lane with traffic marked with chevron symbols.

StreetsBlog points out that physically separated bus lanes — "viewed by many transportation planners as the most effective method to improve travel times on highly trafficked streets" — are not included in the plan. "Ideally, the plans would have included some sort of physical separation to protect the bus lane from vehicles that may enter or stop in the lanes, severely compromising the effectiveness of [select bus service] improvements," notes the blog Upper Green Side, which also has a detailed piece on the proposal. Though the bus lanes won't be physically separated, the NYPD will soon begin "on the spot" ticketing for motorists who enter the bus-only routes, according to the Post.

Construction on the first phase of the project could begin in October, but much of the work on Second Avenue won't begin until construction for the Second Avenue subway is completed, the blogs note.