By Gus Saltonstall
After more than two hours of raucous debate within a packed Symphony Space auditorium on Tuesday night, the Upper West Side’s Community Board 7 passed a resolution in support of the New York City Department of Transportation’s plan to construct a two-way, protected bike lane along West 72nd Street.
The board voted 26 to 19 in favor of the redesign, with one abstention. The vote is advisory and will be sent to the city, whose officials will make a final decision.
“Change is really difficult. And it brings out the fear mechanism,” CB7 member Ken Coughlin, who supported the bike lane redesign, said directly before the vote took place. “I’ve been on this board for 17 years, and I’ve been through all of the bike lane battles, every single one, and it was just like this. People said businesses will suffer. Safety would be compromised, especially for pedestrians, and there would be more congestion. And, in every case, it proved to be unfounded. And, within two months, nobody could remember what the street looked like, and they loved the way it was.”
Board members were far from unanimous in their decision on the proposal, though.
“What I saw tonight is far more people that were here with reservations, not about bike lanes, but on this particular plan,” said CB7 member Elizabeth Caputo. After listening to Tuesday night’s discussion, Caputo said she was changing her vote to “no” on the bike lane proposal. Those who came to the board meeting to speak in opposition “were people who were Upper West Side residents, rather than people that were here from the larger city,” Caputo said.
The opposing sides faced off with one another during the meeting in a literal sense, as CB7 leadership asked speakers to line up on different sides of the room based on whether they supported or opposed the new bike lane.
Opposers on the left. Supporters on the right.
The meeting was not without its outbursts, as the first person to testify from the opposition side ended his remarks by repeatedly yelling “f*** you” at the other side of the room, which was met by scattered applause.
Later in the night, a different speaker was making his way back to his seat after giving testimony against the new bike lane, when a supporter of the redesign engaged him on the topic. The back and forth quickly led to one of the two men asking, “You want to take this outside?” which was immediately met by a “Let’s go.”
The two men briskly walked out of the auditorium and proceeded to yell at each other in the hallway in a loud enough fashion for the back of the room to hear.
A security guard went to check on the situation. One man returned; the other did not.
West 72nd Street currently has four lanes of vehicle traffic, two in each direction, and two lanes of parking. The DOT plan would reallocate the roadway’s 60 feet, giving approximately nine feet to a two-way bike lane on the north side of the road. If implemented, the 72nd Street corridor would then have two parking lanes, two traffic lanes (one in each direction), and the new bike lanes.
“I shop with my bike. This plan is great. Far safer than I’m used to, and I need a new pair of shoes,” Ira Gershenhorn, a 38-year resident of the Upper West Side, said during his testimony. His comment about the shoes was in reference to remarks made earlier in the meeting against the bike lane plan by Lester Wasserman, the owner of Tip Top Shoes at 155 West 72nd Street.
“This bike lane will shut me down, not inconvenience me, but it will shut me down,” Wasserman said during his testimony. Ownership from Acker Wines at 160 West 72nd Street also spoke against the redesign.
Much of the testimony against the bike lane proposal included worries that it would take away pedestrian access to street curbs, especially for senior citizens, and make it more challenging for businesses along the corridor to unload packages.
“I’m very much in favor of having the redesign to help pedestrians, especially seniors,” Upper West Sider Maggie Bradley said in support of the redesign. Multiple speakers who gave testimony supporting the bike lane held up photos of loved ones who had been killed in traffic accidents, and implored that bike lanes would help prevent fatal incidents from happening.
The group who testified against the bike lane also included people injured by electric bikes, including a woman who was paralyzed and another woman who had suffered a concussion in May after being hit along West 72nd Street.
“I’m here against my doctor’s orders. I live and work on West 72nd Street. I have a concussion just from two-and-a-half weeks ago, after a cyclist ran a stop sign and crashed into me on West 72nd Street. I thought I was dead,” Julie Harvey said in her remarks against the bike lane. “All cyclists run that stop sign, nobody obeys the law. Cyclists don’t stop for people in the crosswalk. They yell at people to get out of the way. People need to run for their lives now.”
Following the hour and a half of public testimony, the Community Board 7 members began their discussion.
The board members who spoke on the subject were relatively split on whether or not they would support the 72nd Street bike lane, but the vote to support ended up passing by seven votes.
You can watch the full discussion for yourself — HERE.
Read More:
- DOT Proposes Major Redesign of 72nd Street, Including New Two-Way Bike Lane
- Opposition Group Schedules UWS Rally Against New 72nd Street Bike Lane Proposal
- Proposal for New 72nd Street Bike Lane Sparks Protest and Some Support During UWS Rally
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Excellent!
If you care about safety then we should listen to the experts who say this plan will improve safety. No offense to the shoe and wine store owners, but they aren’t traffic safety engineers.
What have you done to ascertain that “the experts” are, in fact, experts and that they don’t have conflicts of interest in this case?
But they keep using “evidence” that is about bike lanes on one way roads so bike lane on ine side, bus stop of the other. Even when there are bi-directionsl bike lanes there are none, to my knowledge, that require people — seniors and those with mobility issues — to cross the bidirectional bike lane to get on or off a bus. Was an example of this presented last night?
Me too. Very concerned about safely crossing the street with the 2-way bike lane.
Why not require a cop or two to monitor there? Catch the perpetrators, keep all vulnerable people safe
Every time I cross a bike lane, I think about all the nonsensical Rag comments about how hard and dangerous it is to cross a street. I look left, look right, and cross. It’s not that difficult unless you’re a kvetch about everything.
There is no norms with bikes!
Same!
Didn’t your mom teach you to look both ways before crossing the street? Same premise.
So you think we all need to accept that bikes won’t stop at red lights it is up to the pedestrian to wait for a break and then cross. What if this pedestrian uses a walker or a wheelchair and can’t scurry fast enough?
The bike lanes on Amsterdam and Columbus are not easy to cross as the delivery guys ignore the rules, speed at high rates and often go through the red lights. Is this going to be more of the same?
Yes and worse because e bikes should not be in bike lanes or on the sidewalk for that matter. We do not need more laws just enforce what laws we have. Vision Zero taught us nothing. It is like Lord of the Flies out there.
Not just delivery guys. Tourists, banker bros and (recently) a mom with a kid in a toddler seat while talking on the phone via earbuds. All at speed without stopping at a light.
Yes but now the disabled will have to cross to get to the bus stop whereas on Amsterdam and Columbus thr bus stops are on the opposite side of the street as the bike lane
I don’t remember seeing the photo with the bus stop sign in the middle of the street before. So this means that everyone, including seniors, those with mobility issues, and adults with groups of kids and strollers will have to stand on the island between the bike lane and bus lane to wait for the bus? How is that safe?
Is the city going to plow snow into the bike lane every winter, or is it truly protected, and they’ll just pile up the snow on the island? Where does this leave the 72nd St. dining sheds? I didn’t know about this meeting until I read this article, but now I have so many questions.
I do feel for the business owners after they’ve had to deal with so many issues already. I’d like to know how the owner of the stationary store and the other little shops feel about this.
Edit: would the WSR consider interviewing the other shop owners?
Yay bikes! Yay data over dogma! Yay facts over feelings! Yay change!
I was not able to attend. Was there any discussion of the block between West End and Riverside and the many double and triple parked cars?
Yes, this came up a few times. The CB7 chair said that the city had promised to improve enforcement there… but others also noted that such promises had been made before. We shall see….
At the curve by the WSH on ramp there is no car parking to remove. There is a turn lane and a strait lane in each direction. Will this go down to one lane (combine turning and straight) in each direction to accomodate the bike land amd the concrete barrier?
Will the bikes stop so that cars can enter the highway?
This is not about safety. If it was the people proposing this redesign would have supported Helmet laws and licensing for ebikes and would have objected to 80,000 Uber and Lyfts being put on our streets.
The fact is that there has never been a problem on the UWS and the data proves it.:
2013: 366 Crashes 2 Deaths 2025: 359 Crashes 4 dead
So in over a decade despite all of the changes, bike lanes and redesigns there has been zero change in the numbers. Look them up yourself on Crashmapper. The only thing that has hapopened is that DOT and Trans Alt has made lives more difficult for UWSers.
Most disturbing, the boundary between grassroots advocacy and backroom political brokerage has completely dissolved. The Millions of dollars injected into localized advocacy by deep-pocketed tech elites have allowed Transportation Alternatives to buy its way into the cockpit of city government.
This financial dominance means the city’s infrastructure priorities are dictated not by community consensus, but by donors. Rather than functioning as an independent public servant the DOT leadership operates like an enforcement arm for Mark Gorton.
When the New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner is openly rubbing elbows at Transportation Alternatives’ exclusive, high-ticket fundraising galas it’s more than a problem.
It is time to stop all this nonsense.
You said it all!So right!
I was nearly killed by an e-bike and no one cares about pedestrians. Or Safety. It’s all TA!
Best comment please send to NYTimes in an op ed as well as Brad Hoylman, responsible for chosing 4 of the newly appointed TA cb7 board members who were there to pad the vote in favor. Complete corruption.
Brilliant comment Bill!
I wish I could upvote this more than once!
As the other Josh said, post-pandemic, the number of traffic fatalities around the country have skyrocketed. Looking at two years that have similar numbers and saying this is proof that nothing has changed is disingenuous and misleading use of statistics. These days, on both sides of the aisle, Americans have moved away from forming opinions based on actual evidence and instead now look for evidence to back up our preconceived opinions. It’s called Confirmation Bias.
The issue isn’t about traffic fatalities around the country. It’s whether West 72nd Street should have a bike lane.
Pedestrian deaths nationwide increased significantly over that time because of the increase in the number of SUVs with more mass, worse visibility, and longer stopping distances. So keeping traffic incidents flat in the face of more dangerous vehicles is a win (although of course we can and should do even better!)
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184034017/us-pedestrian-deaths-high-traffic-car
Vision zero except when it fits an anti-car, agenda? Ok got it.
The idea that pro-bike lane advocates aren’t from here and are paid by Big Tech and anti-bike lane advocates are the true silent majority just gets repeated without any thought or evidence.
Anti-bike lane advocacy is not some grass roots project that only UWSers support – it’s the front page position of the New York Post, it’s the loud position of conservative lawmakers like Vickie Paladino, and there are angry, organized opponents operating city wide. It reminds me of Palin’s “Real Americans” quip that just writes off opponents as not real. City wide elections and community board meetings repeatedly support more bike lanes but the people opposed to them continue to think they are the majority despite all evidence.
The opposition to bike advocates isn’t even nearly as effectively organized as the pro bike advocates are. They don’t have Mark Gorton and other’s millions.
Bill, you are inaccurately representing safety data. In 2013, there were a total of ~12k bike commuters in Manhattan. In 2023, there were 22k, and I expect this number has grown since.
Clearly, this shows increased safety.
Clearly it does not. The crash data that Bill Williams used is about all crashes at all times from all vehicles on the Upper West Side.
https://tinyurl.com/UWSCrashData
Your borough-wide change in bike commuters is not relevant to that data, and the number of Manhattan bikers is dwarfed by the 160,000 pedestrian commuters.
On top of that, NYPD stopped taking reports of car crashes that don’t result in serious injuries in 2020. So the apparent stagnation in accidents is at least partially a reflection of a change in reporting standards.
Mr. Coughlan is wrong. The callousness with which bikers defy traffic rules has caused accidents and hurt pedestrians.
Yes, I am one of them. I was walking on the sidewalk and was hit from behind by a delivery e-bike who was absolutely zooming and who was using the motor to accelerate his speed. I smashed to the sidewalk and my injuries have left a large, permanent scar on my body. The rider didn’t even stop to see if I was dead. Ben Furnas told me, “Well, the fact that the bicyclist was on the sidewalk means that we need more bike lanes. ” ???? The militant pro-bike people have no compassion for those of us who have been injured by these out of control bicyclists. They will stop at nothing for their agenda. The Board just went ahead and did what it was “persuaded” to do, and what they were going to do from the very beginning.
It’s the car and truck drivers killing people, including bicyclists. And most of the time the drivers have broken traffic laws (failing to give way, running lights, speeding, DUI. Ams most of the time the drivers fave non consequences, even when they kill people. Look up the _weekly_ fatalities cars and trucks. Look up the deaths from bikes. It’s an orders of magnitude difference.
stupid comparison – it’s a hell of a lot harder to be killed by a bike. also, bikes are slower than motor vehicles, so pedestrians can often proactively avoid incidents.
Plenty of people are getting injured by bikes. and that includes pedaled bike riders like me who get clipped by ebikers rushing to make deliveries.
It’s well established that the data undercounts bike caused injuries.
But in all events? The fact that cars are more dangerous doesn’t mean safety around bikes can be ignored, that’s like saying ignore people who assault you with a box cutter because guns are worse.
And yeah, tell us all to just dodge the bikes.
That’s going to make the general public so much more willing to accept it.
/s
Yes isn’t that exactly the point….? Bikes are less deadly!
The question isn’t whether cars and trucks kill people. The question is whether 72nd Street needs a two-way bike lane.
Everyone keeps saying BIKES
It’s more like MOTOR cycles, MOTOR
bikes petal bikes being the minority
Let’s be real.
You’re from the Bronx.
I moved to Manhattan in 1975.
This is a significant problem. I can’t understand why it continues to be ignored.
Just look how busy the bike lane on Central Park West is. Not very.. Ever. Boondoggle. Met its prime goal though of eliminating parking spots.
How many UWS residents will be riding those 72nd Street bike lanes? Surely fewer than one percent.
I will say that when I ride my bike up on Central Park West from midtown I feel safe and protected from cars! It’s a very pleasant ride.
W76er:
I ride north from midtown inside the park. It’s as safe and more scenic.
Was there any count of attendees who live or work in the area vs attendees who don’t?
Count of attendees who don’t even live/work in Manhattan?
I was not able to get into the meeting even getting there 20 minutes ahead.
Not OK
I was not able to attend the meeting either but live in the immediate vicinity and strongly support this project. Glad the CB came to the right decision.
The bike lanes are dangerous because bikers especially the ebikers nowadays with the citibikers too do not obey traffic lights at all , they drive wherever they like . Unless you are hit by the bikes , you have no idea how it is like . ( I was hit by a bike too , he just left ) , at least there is license for car drivers .
It is sad New York City has become so unsafe being a pedestrians , and those communities board members are from the transportation alternative. The system has become so corrupted . I feel sorry for the 72 st residents and the business owners . And for whole New York City with no law and order from those reckless and irresponsible bikers .
In fact I ride bikes too but I follow the lights and I care about the pedestrians especially the senior and the mobility challenged .
The real story of the CB7 vote on the proposed 72nd Street two-way bike lane is not the vote itself. It’s who wasn’t allowed to participate.
Dozens of residents were reportedly unable to enter the meeting. More than 100 people waited on Zoom expecting to testify, only to be shut out before the vote was taken. Telling residents they can submit comments afterward is meaningless when the decision has already been made.
Even more troubling, seven newly appointed Community Board members voted on this major proposal despite having no involvement in the years of committee discussions, safety testimony, public debate, and data presented by residents, businesses, seniors, disabled New Yorkers, and the E-Vehicle Safety Alliance.
When new appointees are installed immediately before a major vote by a Borough President who is a well-known bike lane advocate, residents have every right to question whether this was genuine community review or a predetermined outcome.
The accessibility issues are equally disturbing. Deaf residents who rely on Zoom captioning, mobility-disabled residents who cannot easily attend in person, and many older residents were effectively denied a voice. That is not inclusion. It is exclusion.
Meanwhile, the concerns of thousands of 72nd Street residents and businesses continue to be dismissed. Blind, deaf, elderly, and mobility-impaired pedestrians will be expected to navigate an increasingly dangerous corridor as e-bikes and e-scooters move in both directions through one of the busiest gateways to Central Park.
What happened Tuesday night felt less like democratic participation and more like the silencing of dissent. The Upper West Side deserves a process that listens to all residents—not just those who support the predetermined result.
This is the first I’m hearing of new Community Board members. Do you have links to any information that verifies your insinuation that the board was stuffed? (If you have evidence, maybe send it along to the WSR).
I don’t understand how making public transportation more difficult to access is legal under the ADA.
Wow – seven new CB members installed/voted.
Unbelievable.
Many thanks for your comment.
Yes they made sure vote was the day after they became members. 6 voted FOR the redesign and that made the difference. They hadnt even sent out rejection letters to the applicants not selected! Horrible
Ken said it best. Glad to see the board came to the right decision, can’t wait until this redesign happens and we all can’t imagine it was ever any different.
Bummer!
The CB7 meeting on Tuesday felt to me like the decision as to whether or not to have this two way bike lane on 72nd Street had already been made. And this was just a pro forma exercise.
With so many advocates for Transportation Alternatives now sitting on the community board, how could the decision be otherwise? And as for the outreach the DOT made to the community, I don’t seem to know anyone on or around 72nd St who had been contacted or in a meeting with them. As for any outreach in Tuesday’s meeting, giving the audience 1 minute to speak is about enough time to say your name and thank you.
I find this so unheIpful. It seems to indicate that the real concerns of those in the neighborhood really didn’t matter. Which leads to the notion that this had already been decided. After all over 100 people were turned away who deserved a seat at the table. More than 100 waited hours in the Zoom to speak and never got the chance.
It’s time to take a look at this process and make an adjustment. The residents who have homes and businesses in the area of 72nd Street and pay steep property taxes should have some control over their immediate environment. I don’t believe they got the support they expected from CB7.
The UWS has become unmanageable and very dangerous since the explosion of e-bikes and scooters. Yet the solutions proposed are in my view even more dangerous and DO NOT have the support of this community. We are giving way to a very small, rich and elite group of urban bike advocates to redesign this city to their liking. The people of this community who elect the city government should have the right to speak, to create and to live in a safe and secure place.
Maybe the Board would be more interested in listening to community members if they all didn’t recite the repetitive mantra about how bad bikes are. Everyone repeats the same three complaints about running red lights, riding the wrong way, and riding on the sidewalk.
And that’s exactly what they do Boris! Should we say they wait at the corner until they see a pedestrian, jump on their bike and run smack
into them?
Objective reality and facts are stubborn things. That’s why they’re repeated. Maybe you’d like us to make up some fake news. So you won’t be bored? Meantime every single day pedestrians, cyclists and even yes e-bikers are brought to ER’s all over NY injured by e-nbikes and scooters.
My partner had signed up to comment in person.
We arrived a little after 6pm but then told by others the meeting was already full.
We waited outside for 15-20 minutes to see if anything would open up.
While we were waiting there appeared to be more than 50 people who came, waited, left
There was no announcement by anyone from CB 7 about the situation.
There is a very simple solution, install the bike lanes, with speed bumps. Bikers have a place to bike, and pedestrians are protected from spandex monsters going 30 MPH. Win win.
This is in fact part of the plan – they will be putting in “rumble strips”, not speed bumps, but same intention and effect.
That solves the problem of speeding bikers. It doesn’t do anything about traffic stopped behind buses that are loading and unloading passengers, or retailers like Tip Top and Acker that need to get deliveries all day long, or what happens when you get back from the airport with a bunch of luggage and it’s raining and the alleged loading zone is 400 feet away from your front door.
Of course they did the corruption in NYC never ends
This is going to be a disaster and snarl traffic. Bikers are the most dangerous people on the road.
Acker Wines may already be shutting down but they’ll time it so that they can blame the bike or it won’t and will do better. Will have to watch what happens.
Do you have reason to believe that Acker “may already be shutting down”?
Official studies have shown that two-way bike lanes actually increase injuries. “A study by the Insurance Institute for Public Safety found that two-way protected bike lanes located at street level have a significantly higher risk of crashes and falls than a major road with no bike infrastructure at all.” (You can google the study.)
That study alone should be enough to stop or at least change this dangerous plan. This plan will adversely affect those who are older or frail or have a disability. Their voices were not given enough weight in this planning.
What I don’t get is why so many resources and change of the city landscape is going towards the benefit of a fraction of the population who bike, (what is the percentage of New Yorkers who use bikes?)going towards people Who are able bodied at the expense of elderly and disabled people and those who don’t bike. The cyclist do not use the lanes, they are all over the road weaving in and out of traffic, not obeying traffic lights and stop signs, they make things so dangerous for pedestrians and people who don’t move fast. Big mistake. Dissapointed in the community board
NYC Data:
28% of adult New Yorkers (approximately 1.8 million people) ride a bike
More than seven hundred and sixty thousand (762,000) New Yorkers ride a bike regularly (at least several times a month
61,600 people commute to work daily.
https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/bikestats.shtml
Put another way, almost three quarters of New York adults DO NOT ride a bike at all
Less than half that do ride bikes ride them more than a few times a month.
61,600 people commute to work by bike, That’s just under 1%.
As Eric Schmidt of CB7 said (paraphrasing), “I’d much rather visit a tree lined street and in 5 years no one will think this ever changed. ”
Bottom line. This is a nothing burger from the standpoint of the world coming to a halt.. Businesses will do better. Everyone will be safer. The city will save money. The fact that 72nd will be tree lined and have a bike lane will act to distinguish it until other main drags of the city do the same thing.
How does the redesign save the city money?
72nd Street IS tree-lined, at least east of Broadway.
There are trees lining 72nd all the way to the river! 😊
Not so much on the West Side where the 57 bus stops on the north and there’s the Trader Joe’s delivery area on the south
Let’s get down to the question of who decides whom will sit on Community Board 7 Manhattan. I can name one – Gale Brewer.
It’s high time our community board align more with the majority of residents in this district rather than the favored Transportation Alternatives and Hospitality Industry.
Vote smart people, otherwise it trickles down in ways you could not imagine. Here we are in the thick of it, fighting for what would normally be unnecessary, and taken for granted – our safety.
You have said a mouthful here uws resident!! And it’s 100% correct. I have worked with CB7 on a number of issues over the years. It’s become sadly clear to me that the community board has been commandeered by private interests to such a degree that they are now largely controlled by lobbyists. or those who are affiliated with them. I don’t think they even pretend it’s otherwise. CB7 in such a very critical issue that involves so many of their community members took on the fever dream of Mark Gorton, billionaire, and his band of paid employees of Trans Alt with Robert Moses ambitions to redesign this entire city. He has enough money to fund his ambitions whether or not New Yorkers like it. This is modern day politics. Our representatives “represent” private interests over their constituents.
That’s precisely what happened here. Government is meant to protect us from that but it no longer does. And lobbies like Trans Alt believe that the ends justify the means. They’ve made it a strategy to fill community boards and the City Council with TA members. They certainly did so with CB7 with the help of Brad Hoylman. It’s unclear to me whether those new members were even eligible to vote last night. They had not even been introduced yet.
It’s much more than a disappointment that this unacceptable street redesign on a street filled with active small businesses that serve the community and tens of thousands of residents should have been approved. The fact that the majority of residents in the area are against it shows how little it matters what they think.
As a community we have to seriously examine this and do whatever is necessary to correct it.
Can you point to any other similar street redesigns that have been a failure? Your rant would be more credible if you could point to actual examples. Just because there’s a very loud opposition to this redesign doesn’t support your “fact” that the majority is against it.
Can you point to a street substantially similar to the existing W 72nd Street that was redesigned in the manner that is being proposed that has been successful? I would like to ask the same question of CB7 member Ken Coughlin. People keep arguing that this design will be successful but thus far any references to other redesigned streets have not been substantially similar to the existing W 72.
You state that the majority of residents are against this but that statement is not supported. The elected representatives keep approving these projects and keep getting elected. It suggests this is supported by the majority. A loud minority complaining in the comments does not represent the neighborhood.
So far, no elected representative has approved THIS project.
For unspecified reasons, the Community Board asked the Department of Transportation to create a protected bike lane in July 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
That was the last any of us heard about it until April of this year, when the unelected DOT technocrats released a plan that not only produced a bike lane but knocked out two lanes of traffic along with other changes that would diminish the quality of life for the people who live and work on or near West 72nd.
The unelected community board now defers to the DOT, which answers to nobody but the mayor, who quite likely is in favor of the plan, but none of our other representatives has publicly supported it as far as I can discern.
There are currently 2,122 signatures on the change.org petition opposing the project ( https://www.change.org/p/citizens-in-opposition-t0-the-west-72nd-street-bike-lane-proposal ) plus dozens more collected by hand. Many signatories have provided their names and addresses to prove that they live or work in the area.
If you think this plan is “supported by the majority” then why was its development insulated from public view for nearly six years, then sprung on an unsuspecting public in April with a construction start date just a handful of months away?
The West 72nd Street block association survey shows that most are opposed to this plan.
This vote does not represent the people who live and work on 72nd st. It represents the money funneled through Tranportation Alternatives by Lyft, Uber and all the apps that profit. Huge contracts for the city on all this redesign too.
I’m the paralyzed person Gus references here. He knows my name very well. The rag covered my horrific story in 2022.
“ when her life changed in an instant”
I live on the North side of 72nd. As a disabled person this design is non ADA compliant. It will be too dangerous and impossible for anyone getting anywhere but especially the blind and disabled. There will be no way to stop to get into an accessible ride. This plan is shameful
Two big things to note, as a UWS resident who attended the meeting and spoke in favor of the proposal. One: it’s not fair to say that those who spoke in favor were primarily from outside the district. Absolutely not true. But more importantly:
It felt like almost everyone on both sides agreed e-bikes are a huge problem and need regulation. CB7 has passed resolutions in favor of this twice already, and there was disappointment and anger (including on the board) that the city/state have not moved forward on this. We all need to keep putting pressure on, so there is better enforcement, licensing, etc. Albany should solve this in the next session, and all the passion both sides brought to this should be brought to that.
One of the newer board members referred this to “being able to walk and chew gum at the same time.” These infrastructure things always take a couple of years to be built anyway. Now is the time to put pressure on Albany to make our streets safer from e-bikes, so major progress is made there before any ribbons are cut to open up the redesign.
Doing these things in parallel is the right way to keep pressure on and get both things done.
Infrastructure first then making sure these e-vehicles are registered? Isn’t that backwards Cabe? This infrastructure with 0 accountability for bad behavior only tells those riders that it’s okay to not follow laws. In fact we will reward you for not following the laws
I submitted the following in advance of the meeting but I imagine it was not discussed:
I support a designated bicycle lane on West 72nd Street. However, I wonder whether placing this next to the sidewalk on the north side of the street is the safest and most efficient plan.
Instead, has there been any discussion of placing the two-way bicycle lane in the middle of the street? That would accomplish the following:
• Drivers going to or leaving their cars or people entering or exiting taxis on the north side of the street would not need to cross a 2-way bicycle lane
• Bus traffic and passengers would not be affected by the lanes
• The 2 bike lanes would be aligned with the 2-way flow of traffic
• The concrete islands and delivery zones could remain in the plan and would not interfere with bike traffic as they would under the proposed plan
Not sure how this is going to improve safety if the bike riders don’t follow “safe” biking practices. Just because they’ll have a dedicated lane, doesn’t necessarily mean that that will increase safety unless laws are also instituted that hold some accountability for careless/reckless riders.
Until these riders/bikes must register in some way so that pedestrian who have been hit by those riders who pay no attention to traffic lights and have some recourse, the plan is ridiculous.
Make each bike have a license plate. If pedestrians must follow the rules, crossing in crosswalks,, why are bikers allowed to just breeze through those lights at those same crosswalks?
Tis a shame. I just came back from shopping on W. 72nd st. from Columbus to Amsterdam. Trucks double parked everywhere. Not just the shoe store or the wine store. We do not need a bike lane. Walk your bike to the park like I used to. Take 3 extra minutes on a shopping street.
Lily G.
As a NYer for over 65 years, and a former CB7 member, let me tell you how it actually works.
The bike lobby – represented by groups like Transportation Alternatives, New York Bicycling Coalition, Bike New York, Streetsblog and other bike advocacy groups (even if they also claim to be pedestrian advocacy groups) – donate large sums to political campaigns (mostly through StreetsPAC, since the individual groups are mostly NFPs, and thus cannot donate directly to campaigns). Politicians who get this money – from the Mayor on down – then appoint people (including members of CBs) who just HAPPEN to do their bidding and take the bikers side on issues like this. And sadly, Gale Brewer takes a great deal of money from StreetsPac and other bike PACs, so she has increasingly filled CB7 with bike-friendly appointees. It was one of the reasons I quit CB7 after four years – because I saw what was happening, and how pedestrians – who SHOULD come FIRST – were being “relegated” to “second class” behind bikers. (Using “experts” to provide (cherry-picked?) data that appears pedestrian-friendly.)
That is the hard, ugly truth of “how things work.” And I know this from personal, first-hand experience. (As well as from checking websites that track the money coming into each politician’s campaign.)
So anyone who tells you that the bike lobby either doesn’t exist or doesn’t have any particular “power,” especially via CBs , is simply lying through their teeth.
Ian,
I had heard a slightly different analysis recently – that elected officials were afraid of the bike affiliates Transportation Alternatives-Open Plans-Streetsblog.
That the bike groups are wealthy, powerful, big on social media, and some will go after those who oppose.
(Like a guy in DC…)
You may well be right. It’s time to stand up to Trans Alt as they bully their way to destroying our city.
NYC cyclists are out-of-control. If they really cared about safety, they would get licensed, registered and insured. With vehicles, the driver may go to jail if he kills someone. Cyclists won’t even get a ticket for doing the same.
If we could loose the two Parking lanes, then traffic wouldn’t. be so disturbed. With only one lane each way, everytime a bus stops traffic will come to a standstill. Everytime a truck makes a delivery, traffic will be slowed. There are 7500 residents on my block, between Columbus & Amsterdam, and countless stores and business, ALL paying taxes. We should have more influence on our street. We live here, and are the ones disturbed by the honking horns of a traffic jam.
The loss of parking would also be a problem.
where is the stop sign on W72?
There is one (or 2, one in each direction) at the intersection with Riverside Blvd/the on ramp to the WSH. No idea if that is the ine being referenced.
Lets call a spade a spade. These are not bikes lanes, they are for motorized bikes that weigh 2-3x more than a bike. And of course they do not follow the rules because there is zero enforcement. Do we charge these bikers? I mean we are removing many metered spots that generate healthy revenue every day. How do we make up for the loss revenue? I don’t bike. It’s unfair the bikers cause money to be lost without making them pay. They should pay. Free bike lane that generated thousands of dollars everyday. Doesn’t make sense. Why is the city bending over backwards to placate this small minority?
STOP! E bike injury crash statistics reported by the DOT are massively incorrect. They should not redesign one more street using false e vehicle crash stats.
Nypd are RARELY at scene of e vehicle accidents prior to ambulance taking victim to
ER! FACT. Rider flees scene majority of time.
-DOT states 37 e vehicle crashes in 2023. WRONG.
-City Journal Dec 1- ER Trauma Surgeon Angela Pfaff reports “220 e vehicle related admissions Jan 2023-Aug 2024! We now average one e vehicle admission per day at Bellevue”. This is just ONE of 54 ERs in NYC!
NYU Langone reports a 400% increase in e vehicle crashes from 2018-2023. E-vehicle related crashes now make up over 50% of all their trauma admissions.
Deaths related to e vehicles ARE accurately reported from morgue, not NYPD. There have been 13 e vehicle related deaths in 2026 YTD compared to 7 deaths this time last year. Almost a 100% increase!
DOT/Trans Alt ( bike lobby) refuses to acknowledge the ACCURATE ER injury crash stats. They redesign our streets based on NYPD reports only. No bike lane should be laid down anywhere without these FACTS first considered.
“Change is really difficult. And it brings out the fear mechanism,” CB7 member Ken Coughlin” comments like this are patronizing and dismissive of people’s real and valid concerns. The problem isn’t change, it’s bad design.
We expect more from our leadership than gaslighting. Bike lanes, yes. But not this design, which does not take all users into full consideration. residents and business on the Northside of 72 st and on the east side of riverside dr deserve direct curb access to their homes and businesses. This isn’t about car storage, it’s about mobility, accessibility, affordability and safety.
Most people I know do not experience bike lanes as they are currently designed as safer, but as yet another obstacle and potential danger. but let the lords of Lyft, uber, citibike and grubhub design our lives around their convenience…..
Music to my ears! What wonderful news!
Several commentators here have said that a bike lane will result in more business for shops and stores on 72nd Street.
I’d appreciate hearing more detail from those commentators.
For example…..
Do they currently shop at stores on 72nd Street like Gartner’s hardware?
How exactly is a bike lane going to mean more business for a store like 72nd Toys & Stationery? Fischer Brothers & Leslie?
It is fair to say that on the walkable West Side most people already walk if they wish to shop locally.
Or take a bus or subway.
My family shops locally.
But many neighbors (including cyclists) just get Amazon.
Thank you community board 7! This represents the will of the people who actually use 72nd, ride buses, shop. The street dead ends into two parks. If there was ever a place that should be pedestrian and bike friendly, this is it. I have a car, but I’d be insane to drive it around the upper west side. Hopefully with these thoughtful redesigns more people will come to my common sense conclusion, ditch their car, and create an environment that favors pedestrian safety & allows people who actually need to get around in a car or bus (seniors and the disabled) to do so efficiently. More bike lanes = more safety. Easy.
If you don’t drive your car around the UWS where do you drive it? I only use mine to keave the city. To do that I get on the West Side Highway at 72nd St. There are very few alternatives and they would all involve more driving in the neighborhood. I doubt this redesign will reduce the nunbers of cars and trucks by much. It will just cause more congestions. And slow down the buses.
I believe most of the CB 7 members recognized that the lack of regulations for ebikes and motorized scooters and the disregard on one way bike lanes is a safety hazard and requires enforcement /regulation. To support these lanes particularly on the heavily residential street between Columbus and CPW is a complete disregard for safety particularly of seniors. There is no urgent need for the lanes until these methods of transportation and lane regulations are regulated and enforced. Hopefully this can be stopped by protest and the courts.