Fifth Avenue Bike Lane

New York City is working on redesign of Fifth Avenue, and I wrote to a few of my elected officials asking them to be sure to include a protected bike lane. Here's what I wrote...

------------------------------------------

I am writing about the proposal to redesign Fifth Avenue without providing a protected bike lane.

New York City’s streets are very dangerous for cyclists as a result of design and maintenance as well as driver behavior, as I have learned to my peril in nearly 30 years cycling in all five boroughs, though primarily in lower Manhattan, where I have had two serious cycling accidents. I should add that I have biked extensively in Europe and in Shanghai, China, where both road infrastructures and driver cultures support safer cycling: it can be done.

Three years ago, I was “doored” by a passenger while riding in an unprotected bike lane. The passenger opened the car door just as I was passing; I was hit and thrown into traffic, landing just in front of the bumper of a car but fortunately unhurt aside from bruises. Last winter, I rode over a seriously misaligned sewer hole cover while biking at night and crashed my bike, again in traffic; a pedestrian helped me out of the street and helped me avoid oncoming cars, but I injured my spine seriously enough to need surgery.

The more recent crash was a direct result of deferred road maintenance, an on-going problem in the city. Drivers of motor vehicles are less vulnerable to potholes and other road damage as cars and trucks have wider tires than bicycles.

Dooring incidents are effectively prevented by protected bike lanes like those on some of the Manhattan avenues, where the cycling surface is far enough from parked cars to avoid drivers opening doors without checking first and also protected from moving traffic by the line of parked cars — though not protected from turning vehicles, as demonstrated by the recent cyclist death on First Avenue. These lanes also need traffic signals that stop cars from turning while cyclists are allowed to proceed.

Some New York City streets have "sharrows” indicating that bike lanes are shared with vehicular traffic; others have narrow bike lanes between parked cars and moving vehicles. Both are extremely treacherous for cyclists. In “sharrow” streets, the cyclist is completely uprotected from vehicular traffic and vulnerable to being struck from behind. However, from a cyclists’ perspective, such streets seem safer than those with unprotected bike lanes, which are routinely blocked by cab drivers and delivery vehicles. Cyclists have to choose between riding consistently in traffic (which angers motor vehicle drivers) or swerving back and forth between the bike lane and the traffic lane, often every block. Cyclists are also forced to ride right next to parked cars where they are vulnerable to being struck by passengers opening doors without looking first. Unprotected bike lanes are structurally unsafe and should not be part of the city’s plan for street infrastructure.

Streets with protected bike lanes are not just good for cyclists. They improve pedestrian visibility and safety by providing a buffer between sidewalk and street and by decreasing vehicular traffic. New York city needs to design streets that accommodate all users to integrate walking, cycling and driving, rather than prioritizing vehicular traffic and trying to fit other street users around it. Although Europe's population is twice that of the United States, half as many cyclists are killed every year, and the rates of serious injury for pedestrians and cyclists alike are also significantly lower.

Building better bicycling infrastructure increases ridership, thus lowering stress on the city's overburdened mass transit system and hopelessly overcrowded streets. It reduces pollution and improves air quality and quality of life for everyone. It lessens our reliance on fossil fuels and can help to slow climate change. Biking is also good exercise — even with the risk of injury, cyclists are healthier than sedentary citizens.

I urge you to throw your support behind transit plans for New York City that will support all forms of non-vehicular transit and will benefit individuals as well as the environment.

Thank you for your consideration.