The city’s Department of Transportation is proposing a two-way protected bike lane that runs the full length of 72nd Street in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably make me feel a lot safer, and I would have to dodge a lot less taxis and trucks parked on the right-hand lane, blocking the road,\u201d said Julian Kaiser.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The city’s Department of Transportation is proposing a two-way protected bike lane that runs the full length of 72nd Street in Manhattan
\n
The agency said the proposed 72nd Street protected bike lane would serve as a crosstown connection; linking Central Park to the Hudson River Greenway on the west side and Fifth Avenue to the East River Greenway on the east side, while also making the Central Park drives more easily accessible to cyclists
\n
It would also reduce the number of driving lanes along West 72nd Street from four to two, to the chagrin of drivers NY1 spoke to Wednesday<\/p>\n
The news is music to the ears of cyclists like Kaiser, who also works as a transportation planner and recently moved to New York City from Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Dog walker and cyclist Dennis Regan is also on board.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s great,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish there were more of them going up north and south as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DOT said the proposed 72nd Street protected bike lane would serve as a crosstown connection; linking Central Park to the Hudson River Greenway on the west side and Fifth Avenue to the East River Greenway on the east side, while also making the Central Park drives more easily accessible to cyclists.<\/p>\n
It would also reduce the number of driving lanes along West 72nd Street from four to two, to the chagrin of drivers NY1 spoke to Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBreaking up the street creates more congestion, and it creates more traffic to me,\u201d said driver Mariam Conteh.<\/p>\n
Some 72nd Street residents on the west side worry it would reduce accessibility for seniors and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that this takes into consideration what\u2019s going on with the residents,\u201d said Brett Levy.<\/p>\n
Judi Bosworth agrees with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have a senior or someone who\u2019s disabled, they have to go through two bike lanes,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have to be looking both ways for bikes that are now coming at pretty fast speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the DOT said bike lanes reduce risks for cyclists and increase street safety overall.<\/p>\n
In a statement, DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said, \u201cThis proposal reflects our commitment to safer streets and meets the growing demand for cycling, making it easier for New Yorkers of all ages and abilities to get across Manhattan safely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The DOT presented the redesign plan to Manhattan Community Board 7 on Tuesday evening. It plans to do the same for the east side of Central Park, between Fifth Avenue and York Avenue, to Community Board 8 this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city’s Department of Transportation is proposing a two-way protected bike lane that runs the full length of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2476,25,297,2025,75,9,24,11,10,12,26,27,296,200],"class_list":["post-198782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-traffic-and-transit","tag-community-news","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-nia-clark","tag-top-stories","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}