Cyclists travel two-by-two on the new double-wide protected bike lane on 10th Avenue.
Photo by Ben Brachfeld
The city has completed the installation of a new protected bike lane on 10th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, featuring a design considerably wider than the standard across the five boroughs.
Bike lanes vary across the five boroughs but are usually between 4-to-6 feet in width. The new northbound lane on 10th Avenue between 38th and 52nd streets, however, clocks in at a husky 10 feet, wide enough for two cyclists to share the space.
Aside from the bike lane, the Department of Transportation’s redesign project on 10th Avenue includes concrete pedestrian islands and turn-calming infrastructure at sites where motorists often make left turns, adding painted pedestrian space intended to improve visibility and slow down drivers making turns, when collisions often occur. DOT will also reconfigure traffic signals to give pedestrians a head start crossing at 41st and 42nd streets, where many drivers turn to enter or exit the Lincoln Tunnel.
The design changes reduce the number of northbound motor vehicle travel lanes from four to three. Next year, DOT intends to extend the beefy bike path down to 14th Street.
“The future of bike lanes is here, right before us,” said Meera Joshi, the Adams administration’s Deputy Mayor for Operations, at a press conference in Hell’s Kitchen Wednesday. “Everyone benefits from narrower car corridors, more pedestrian islands, wider pedestrian spaces, and bike lanes.”
The wide bike path was not originally in the cards but was requested by the local Community Board and championed by the area’s City Council Member, Erik Bottcher. Bottcher said he regularly bikes along the stretch in Hell’s Kitchen, and predicted his mother would be happy to hear the road is now safer to travel on two wheels.
“10th Avenue has been a four-lane highway running right through our residential community. It’s also been one of the most…
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