NYC DOT explains Bike Lanes in the Big Apple

Monday, October 19, 2009

NYC DOT explains Bike Lanes in the Big Apple

Bike lanes: In some cities people are literally dying to have them and some people go so far as to mark their own. Here in New York City, it feels like every time I get on my bike there is a new bike lane - sometimes on the left, sometimes buffered, and sometimes completely separated from automobile traffic. To understand these lanes, I had the opportunity to go for a ride with the NYC DOT bicycle boys. They explained the classes of bike lanes and showed off some of these inventive facilities. You can use Ride the City to find a safe bike route in New York City and watch this video to see what lanes are used on your route.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/ShawnCell shawns.

Lets say we have this installed on Singapore streets, do these lane types actually force drivers to not use them or do these lanes work only depending on the driver's courtesy? Cos' Singaporean drivers are one nasty lot. Note: This is coming from a Singaporean.
http://www.streetfilms.org/ Elizabeth Press

Some designs do rely on the "driver's courtesy" but class 1 bike lanes are physically separated from cars. Check out this primer on biking rules for more details on the different types of lanes. http://tinyurl.com/yjzarol
Green with Envy

Gotta love the green lanes. Nevermind the physical separation, even green paint on some lanes would help in my hood.
Rafael

São Paulo needs that!
Allan

interesting to see that even in the video, pedestrians are using bike lanes for non-biking purposes
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/grenavitar Fritz

I'd love physically separated lanes on K Street here in DC... or even a shared (buy physically separated from cars) bus lane so that the Circulator (bus) could mingle with the bikes but still get priority. I might be mistaken, but I don't think DC has any physically separated bike lanes, and DOT has a propensity to put the lanes close to car doors and areas where you can't rely on traffic yielding, not dooring... like on 14th St. DC has an overuse of class 2 facilities in areas that aren't necessarily safe for class 2 and an underuse of classes 1 and 3. When you build a class 2 facility too close to car doors and traffic what ends up happening is you push the biker towards the doors which gives car traffic more space which allows them to go faster. In such lanes I often end up riding a little out of the bike lane just so cars know I'm there and slow down for me rather than pushing me into doors.
http://ciclonomade.net eduardo green

Hi!

One more excellent video from Elizabeth and Streetfilms.. very well done!!

And it seems like a revolutionary work from DOT in the biggest US city.. good example

Any connection with Critical Mass and popular pressure??

😉 :Dudu - Brasil
http://pedaladas.wordpress.com RC

We in Brazil are so far from implementing such solutions this video becomes depressing. There is no social or political willingness to change the one person per car concept that is clogging our streets and roads and turning ourselves into drones. Thanks for sharing this anyway!
Lixy

It seems very few cyclists in NYC wear helmets. Maybe if we had nice lanes like that in SF maybe I wouldn't either
http://www.facebook.com/startswithj Janas

Transportation engineering is hot!
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/edpino Ed Pino

Education is the way to go.
Thanks guys
Oliver Burke

10/28/09
The day I finally see this in America!
We're getting more European (some parts) in our bicycle infrastructure. How relieving it is to see the green. Reminds me of Amsterdam and Munster.

EXCELLENT JOB NYC BIKE GROUP!! Keep it up!

Check your bicycle mirror!! SFBC is right behind you!
mohamamd nouri

these bike facilties creat busy environemnt resulting in a safer operation for all the users. Keep it up NYC.
Mike Smith

In general I'm very highly in favour of all the schemes described in the video: It's encouraging people to cycle, increasing the feeling of safety and is making cycling much much more visible and "normal".

One slight concern is whether a cyclist can use the normal traffic lane if he/she wants. I find here in Edinburgh, some bike lanes actually are worse than useless (e.g. have pedestrians on, parked cars, or constantly are yielding to other roads) and that I'm generally forced to use the main road. The drivers become annoyed that I'm on 'their' road and not on the cycle track... any thoughts?

Great site and great vids btw!
Gene Morris

This would be a lot better and more effective if the driving public were informed and educated on these lanes. I have driven in NYC for over 35 years and only know that the bike "markings" were put on the streets. No notifcation was ever sent out to let drivers know how to understand them. I just happened to stumble on this website while "surfing" the net.
td

Making it obvious to motorists that they are sharing the road with bicyclists is very important, many of these improvements do that well.

I feel it important, however, that information about bicyclists, a motorists responsibilities vis a vis bicyclists, and policy regarding bicycles should be included in all motorists handbooks published by the States, and same information should be part of the new drivers'curriculum.
MAURICIO ROJAS

.LOVELY BUT HONESTLY DO YOU THINK A LITTLE NIP OF THE CORNER IS GREEN COMMUNITY?
TH

In addition to motorists, pedestrians need to be educated. Riding in a left side bike lane along Prospect Park, I had crashed while trying to avoid a group a pedestrians idling in the bike lane as they packed up their parked car adjacent to the bike lane.

Streetfilms