A worker removes road markings at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and Franklin Street in preparation for the shift of the current bike lane on the east side of Sixth to what will be a protected lane on the west side of the street. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
The city’s ambitious push to get cyclists safely out of the path of traffic has come to Tribeca.
Last week, Department of Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman stood on Barnett Newman Triangle, near the intersection of Franklin, Church and 6th Avenue, where workers were preparing the pavement for a shift in the bike lane to the west side of Sixth Avenue, where bike riders will be buffered by a “floating” parking lane.
Officials had chosen the site as a symbol of the city-wide effort to add miles of protected bike routes around the city.
“What we are witnessing here today is the process of putting in a new, safer bike lane,” Gutman told reporters, speaking over the roar of traffic. “We’ve got aggressive goals and a tight timetable for getting it done,” he added, “and we’re determined to do it.”
The local projects also include Church Street and what is now a partially completed protected bike lane on West Broadway that begins on Varick Street at Beach. In addition, pedestrian islands will be added to shorten crossing distances.
Where outdoor seating structures occupy a bike lane, there will be temporary diversions around them, similar to construction sites, said Sean Quinn, who heads the Department of Transportation's Street Improvement Program. As for errant drivers who block the new lanes, the city will focus on education rather than ticketing, Quinn said. “We’ll go out with paper flyers that show the bike lane and parking. We put them on poles and on the cars.”
There are now 133 miles of protected bike lanes around the city, with more than 30 miles expected to be added this year. “We want to keep it rolling,” Mayor de Blasio announced last week. “We want to keep it growing,”
