Northeast - NYC - Broadway bike lanes

Looks like lots of construction on Broadway just south of Columbus Circle. It appears that the bike lanes are being expanded in that area. :)

Starting next Sunday 5/24, Broadway from 47th to 42nd St will be closed to traffic and become a pedestrian Mall. I think one lane will be kept open for buses only.

^^yup looks like bike / bus lanes are being made and broadway into times square was 2 vehicular traffic lanes at best. sounds exciting to see major green ways created here in NYC but do fear an increase in road traffic now. guess we will have to make the best of it, still only really do my rides in central park on weekend mornings.

Should be interesting to see how traffic patterns are affected in the area since it's such a congested avenue. In some ways I prefer cars to pedestrian traffic because cars tend to stay in lanes while pedestrians meander all over the place and are oblivious to bike specific lanes.

If you drive daily or cycle in NYC, you know enough to stay out of Times Sq. This won't affect traffic much except for tourists who want to drive through Times Sq. instead of walk it. As for cyclists, if you're a leisurely pootler, the bike lanes are for you. If you're used to higher speeds and keeping up w/ traffic, stick to the car lanes.

yes to the above - but it's nice to know they're there, and they should attract more and more pootlers, which is fine by me!:thumb:

http://nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/broadway_0223409.pdf

Anything to tackle that traffic nightmare that is Times Sq is welcome in my book and triple that with bike lanes and a ped mall? You've got my vote. :thumb:

As a native NY'er I know well enough to stay the hell out of Times Sq (unless I'm going to a B'Way show) but knowing that there's a car-free option through the heart of Manhattan is excellent.

I'm also happy to see the city doing more bike and ped-friendly things. :)

Should be interesting to see how traffic patterns are affected in the area since it's such a congested avenue. In some ways I prefer cars to pedestrian traffic because cars tend to stay in lanes while pedestrians meander all over the place and are oblivious to bike specific lanes.

Cars will actually stop for you as opposed to pedestrians who will literally look you in the eye and step in your path. :mad:

I do a driving route in that area every Saturday and it's going to be a nightmare.
But any bike lanes they add in the city is a plus.
I'll sacrifice convenience for a bike lane any day.

It's great that the city is adding more bike lanes, but the DOT needs to get on local news & talk about the rules surrounding those lanes. They are not extended sidewalks for pedestrians, they are for one way traffic and they are not additional parking for cars & delivery vehicles.

I avoid the lanes south of Times Sq. They're basically sandwiched between 2 pedestrian areas so you know what's going to happen. That was stunningly bad planning.

As someone who works in the area, it's near impossible to walk down the sidewalks now, between the gawking tourists who block every corner trying to decide where they are going while snapping photos, and the street vendors who take up half the sidewalk space with their tables. Walking in the street is easier and faster. This should make it safer. I think that the traffic will easily adjust to the new pattern. The only thing that becomes more difficult is deliveries to the stores on the affected streets.

Was there yesterday. Even sat in a lawn chair by military island for a few minutes. Unfortunately there are signs at the entrance to each closed street that say walk bicycles.

Unfortunately there are signs at the entrance to each closed street that say walk bicycles.

Wait, what happened to the bike lane?? Bikes are supposed to be able to actually ride through there in the bike lane. :eek:

When I was there Sunday afternoon tourist pedestrians had completely taken over Broadway. There were signs instructing cyclists (and pedicabs) to walk their bikes in the closed areas. SO it was either walk the bike or contend with traffic.

DOT was still working in the northern section so hopefully they 'll have a functional bike lane this week.

DOT was still working in the northern section so hopefully they 'll have a functional bike lane this week.

Ok, so maybe the whole "walk your bike" thing is just temporary until they get everything set up. Well, let's hope...

No I suspect the "Walk Your Bike" is the way it's going to work in the pedestrian area. Preliminary illustrations (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/ts_before_after.pdf) didn't actually show a bike lane but there is a new bike path (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicyclesonly/3566920908/in/set-72157618819700506/) that runs south of Columbus Circle. It's not entirely clear where that will wind up once it hits Times Square.

No bike lane?? Boo! I said, boooooooo!! :notamused:

Bus lane, bike lane, same thing.

All the busses that went down Broadway have been rerouted so the only way to bike through Times Square may be on Seventh Avenue.

This will be inconvenient for cyclists, but I think it's for the greater good, so I'm willing to make that sacrifice. It's long overdue that NYC experiment with pedestrian malls. I hope this proves that they can be viable.

Personally, I think "Broadway Plaza" is much more for tourists and some of the Times Square businesses who cater to them, than it is for New Yorkers. Times Square has become so clogged with tourists, day trippers, street performers, mascots, people in costumes, people without costumes, and vendors, who are constantly spilling into the street that closing Broadway to traffic is probably the safest way to contain them.

New Yorkers who don't live or work in the immediate area have avoided Times Square like the plague and the majority of Manhattanites don't even own cars. In the end, whether or not cars are allowed on this particular section of Broadway will have very little impact on the rest of us.

A lot of the arguments made against a Times Square pedestrian mall were made when Fulton Street was closed to traffic. Granted, I rarely go there either but that seems to have worked out OK.

I think it would be nice if they can make the whole stretch of Broadyway from Columbus to Battery Park into a bike lane. There isn't a designated bike lane to downtown unless you are traveling via the Hudson River.

In some ways I prefer cars to pedestrian traffic because cars tend to stay in lanes while pedestrians meander all over the place and are oblivious to bike specific lanes.

Agreed. Honestly, before I considered biking, I admit, I'd be all over the place where benches were placed right by greeways/bike-paths: such areas just feel like "the sidewalk" or "a park," and pedestrians, I think, aren't focused on cyclists as a form of traffic (such as cars) to "watch out for." Alongside a cab, I know what he's likely to do (even if I'm aware he might not do it); near pedestrians, I'm afraid I'll run into someone, then be scolded for not watching where he or she was going...

In Time Square, the other day, a stream of people started to just cross against the light (near Toys 'R' Us) after one idiot on her cell-phone walked into the middle of the street and positioned herself to take a snapshot of a store with her point-and-shoot digital camera. The driver closest to the ordeal got out of his car and grinned (sarcastically) as he gestured with his hands for people to continue crossing; most of the people happily (and apparently unaware of what the hell they were doing), smiled back and proceeded on their way. Horns kept honking, and people just kept pouring to the other side of the block, confident no one would be psychotic enough to mow down such a crowd. When we're on foot, most of us are at our peak of irresponsibility.

I think it would be nice if they can make the whole stretch of Broadyway from Columbus to Battery Park into a bike lane. There isn't a designated bike lane to downtown unless you are traveling via the Hudson River.

I think it would be great to have a bike-path along the East River as there now is along the Hudson. The East-River Greenway is terribly broken for large stretches. Also, a few cross-town bike-paths (paths [isolated], not signed or painted "lanes") on large streets would be nice.

I think it would be great to have a bike-path along the East River as there now is along the Hudson. The East-River Greenway is terribly broken for large stretches. Also, a few cross-town bike-paths (paths [isolated], not signed or painted "lanes") on large streets would be nice.

I agree, the East River is horrible to bike, that's why I prefer biking by the Hudson, not to mention the view is beautiful! The only crosstown bike routes are on 10th Street and 20th/21st/22nd Street. They don't have a crosstown bike route in Midtown, but they should have it soon.:)

If I'm not mistaken, those cross-town routes (most of them, at least) are just "painted lanes," which they must be, as they're on narrow streets. I think it would be useful to have an isolated bi-directional green-way on, say, forty-second street, or thirty-forth, or eighty-sixth — one of the broader ones, which could accommodate such a design. Of course, motor traffic will be affected (probably in a negative way, directly) wherever it must lose ground to bike/skate/non-motor, but, that's too bad, I suppose: There's only so much space around, and it can't all automatically belong to cars, trucks, and buses.

The only crosstown bike routes are on 10th Street and 20th/21st/22nd Street. They don't have a crosstown bike route in Midtown, but they should have it soon.:)

The Bicycle Infrastructure is much better downtown than it is uptown. We also have crosstown lanes on Bleecker Street, Prince Street/Charlton, and one of the new dedicated cycle tracks on Grand Street. There's a partial lane on Far West Houston Street and some plans for a lane on several blocks of East Houston.

It is definitely better downtown, but I'm surprised there is no effective way going to downtown. Most of the routes go from east to west and vice-versa. For a safe route, bicyclists can only use the Hudson River or the East River route going into downtown since there are no designated bike lanes in that area. It's always nice to know, however, that more on-street bike lanes are being planned! At least one can feel "safer." :)

The best bike route through Times Square, north-south, is now 7th Street. The new Broadway bike paths north of there are nice, but no one knows what to do with them, so for the time being they actually seem more dangerous than the old pothole-ridden limo parking lane we used to have.

It is definitely better downtown, but I'm surprised there is no effective way going to downtown. Most of the routes go from east to west and vice-versa. For a safe route, bicyclists can only use the Hudson River or the East River route going into downtown since there are no designated bike lanes in that area. It's always nice to know, however, that more on-street bike lanes are being planned! At least one can feel "safer." :)

That probably depends on what you define as "downtown." The Ninth Avenue Cycle Track has been expanded from 34th Street to West 14th where it hooks up with the Hudson Street bike lane that connects to the Bleecker Street lane. There's a similar Cycle Track on Eighth Avenue that runs from Abingdon Square to around 23rd Street. From there on it's a striped lane, and it does get a little hairy around Port Authority, but that runs up to Columbus Circle and there's the Central Park West bike lane beyond that.

Then there's a new Broadway Bike Lane that connects Columbus Circle with Times Square, and the older Broadway Bike lane that runs through Broadway Plaza down to Union Square. Then there are the really old Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue bike lanes which are probably the oldest in Manhattan. DOT has been laying down the Washington Square/ MacDougal Street Bike lane which will eventually link the Fifth Avenue lane to the Grand Street Cycle Track.

There are so many changes that have taken place in the past couple of years it's hard to keep track - and they can put these things in over night. I can now use bike lanes almost everywhere I might want to go. The only area that's really lacking is the East Side.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3545702143_79c167807b.jpg?v=0