Streetfilms: New York City needs wider bike lanes

For the last few years I’ve frequently tweeted and documented how crowded some bike lanes have become in New York City. Anyone riding in those lanes can feel it, but I’ve done several visual traffic counts to prove it. The numbers at rush hour are so dense it can be uncomfortable and even dangerous. 

And it’s just not the numbers of riders — it's also the different types of micromobility using today’s lanes. There are e-bikes, scooters, electric unicycles and standard bikes, just to name a few. Some riders are fast, some are slow. Some young, some older. Some are working, while others are exercising. This mix of usage at high high volume demands wider lanes for comfort and safety. 

Thus, below we present “The Case for Widening NYC Bike Lanes,” featuring over a dozen citizens, including former NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Mike Lydon of Street Plans, a few NYC Council Members and riders expressing thoughts where we should widen lanes.

Streetsblog recently got a direct statement from current NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez stating,“Wider bike lanes can make cycling more comfortable and social, encouraging the amazing growth we’ve seen in cycling and e-micromobility use. DOT took advantage of a recent resurfacing of Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue to try out this first-of-its-kind ‘double-lane’ design before we incorporate similar wider bike lanes into projects beginning this year.”

That’s very positive. But it means keeping the issue a priority. Below is the most recent (mid-April) documentation of a half dozen traffic counts I performed at rush hour - this one on 2nd Avenue - showing an impressive number of bike lane users.

So what does a wider bike lane look like? Luckily in the last few years I’ve ridden on quite a few impressive ones all over the world. So I decided it might be good to splice some of that together in a montage to prove that they do exist. Comfortable lanes that accommodate the demand:

Here in New York City (and frankly in much of the United States), we need to move toward building a model that encourages what we want to see on our streets, not building for current usage. Many places in New York — from Kent Avenue in Brooklyn to Manhattan’s First Avenue bike lane, to the cramped fiasco of the Queensboro Bridge’s cramped bike/pedestrian crossing — shows we are falling behind accommodating, and inspiring, the mode shift.

We need wider lanes that enable passing that allow riders to comfortably cycle two-abreast if they desire. I made that plainly clear in this video I took in Paris. Riding on some of their most spacious bike lanes feels like the future, if we are brave enough.

I’d like to end with this. Most people look to The Netherlands, Copenhagen, London, and Paris to see the best practices in bicycling right now. But there’s another place you can go that’s only about an hour plane flight from NYC, and they’re making huge bicycling strides: our Canadian neighbor Montreal.

Every trip I’ve made to Montreal it keeps getting better and better to bike. And Mayor Valerie Plante (just elected to a second term) is really putting a good deal of funding and promotion behind an extensive network of wide, protected bike lanes — including ten new sections of the REV (Réseau Express Vélo) which you can see in all its glory below. And think about it: Montreal is much much colder than the four places mentioned above and they are STILL doing it.

So NYC — it's that close if you want to see what our future can feel like!