Ydanis taking fast lane
Vows better protection for bicyclists in his first 100 days in office
The city’s incoming transportation commissioner wants beefier bike lanes — and he wants them soon.
Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez — Mayor-elect Eric Adams’ pick to run the Department of Transportation — said Tuesday he plans to replace “50% of all plastic-protected bike lanes with sturdier and more permanent structures within the first 100 days” he’s in office.
It’s an ambitious goal, and Rodriguez said it’s part of a larger vision to “to take more space from cars and give it to pedestrians and give it to cyclists.”
City streets have roughly 198 miles of protected bike lanes, many of them separated from traffic with flimsy plastic bollards easily wrecked by cars.
Bike lanes do not need bollards to be considered “protected” by the city DOT — they just need to be separated from traffic with a buffer or parking spaces.
DOT officials did not know Tuesday how many miles of protected bike lanes had plastic bollards, but said the data would be provided to Rodriguez once it’s compiled.
Rodriguez said that “2021 has been one of the deadliest years in recent memory for pedestrians and cyclists on our city’s streets. We are not only facing a pandemic due to COVID, but a pandemic of unsafe streets that must be tackled head-on.”
Replacing half the city’s bike lane barriers with “more permanent structures” like concrete barriers is a good step toward protecting cyclists, said Jon Orcutt, advocacy director for Bike New York and a former Transportation Department official.
“We applaud this goal but would also like to see DOT dig into developing some test designs that actually keep cars and trucks out,” said Orcutt. “Heavier barriers won’t do it if the bike lanes are still wide open to motor vehicles at every intersection.”
Rodriguez said he also plans to grow the city’s bike sharing network in areas that do not have Citi Bike docks.
And he said the DOT would “get right” regulations for the city’s outdoor dining program — and install trash containers on some blocks to “to clean up our streets.”