Bicycles may be mostly peaceful instruments, but talking about bicycles is a full-contact sport on the Upper West Side.
On Tuesday night, the DOT presented stats for the Columbus Avenue protected bike lanes from 77th to 96th Street, claiming that since the lanes were installed the avenue has had 34% fewer vehicle crashes and 28% fewer crashes with injuries. The city also says that the number of bike riders on the street has increased from 597 from 383.
But Community Board members noted that the survey didn’t specify whether the riders were riding in the bike lanes or somewhere else on the street. And Transportation Committee chairman Andrew Albert said that pedestrians now have to be more careful when they cross the street because bikes whiz by in both directions. Some critics are also still miffed about how the DOT changed the number of parking spaces they removed after presenting the plan to the Community Board (you can count me among those who think accurate public disclosure and attentiveness to local businesses are important). For more on Tuesday’s meeting, check out the Columbia Spectator and DNAinfo.
City Councilwoman Gale Brewer also released the results of an online survey she sent out last month. Brewer, who has been supportive of the lanes, touted the fact that more than 70% of the 908 people surveyed (804 of whom said they were from the Upper West Side) either said the lanes worked for all road users, or said that the design is a good start but needs some changes to make it work better. But some of the survey results painted a somewhat muddled picture. For instance, when asked whether they feel safer walking on Columbus Avenue since the lanes were installed last year, about half of survey respondents said they either felt no change or felt like the street was more dangerous. Bikers, however, clearly feel safer.
Brewer recommended that the city install new signs near the lanes to alert bicyclists that they should only be biking South and pedestrians about where to wait for the light, among other improvements.
Check out some of the slides from Brewer’s report that we’ve posted below, and let us know your thoughts in the comments:
