City’s new, five-year transportation plan looks to bike lanes in wake of L train shutdown
The city’s newly released, five-year transportation plan is all about the bikes. As part of his larger Vision Zero initiative, the Mayor announced yesterday that he’ll roll out 75 miles of new bike lanes by the end of this year, which includes 18 miles of protected lanes, reports Gothamist. They’ll be dispersed throughout the five boroughs, but centered in areas where the highest number of cyclist and pedestrian fatalities occur.
And today, when the full plan is released, he’ll turn to bike lanes as a solution for the looming L train shutdown, set to begin in 2019 and take the line out of service for 18 months. According to the Wall Street Journal, the proposal calls for two-way protected bike lanes along Delancey Street on the Lower East Side that can connect to those on the Williamsburg Bridge. Additionally, it advocates for a new, city-owned, 24-hour, indoor parking site on the Manhattan side of the Bridge so commuters can connect to the F, J, M, and Z train lines.
The parking site will be located in the Essex Municipal Parking Garage. The city hopes it will serve as a prototype for a bike-storage system at transportation hubs across the city, including large-scale facilities at Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal, both of which are being redeveloped.
Overall, as the Journal explains, the plan “focuses on promoting walking, biking and mass transit, especially in less affluent neighborhoods far from subway stops, while cutting car travel and congestion caused by trucking.” The city will soon release a new smartphone app to pay variable parking fees.
You can view all the protected bike lanes here.
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