Construction is set to kick off this week on a new protected bike lane along 10th Avenue in Midtown.
The avenue’s current four travel lanes for motor vehicles will be reduced to three, with a parking-protected bike lane added on the stretch between 38th and 52nd Streets.
Once completed, all of the west side’s north-south avenues will have been outfitted with a bike lane in the heart of Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen, a far cry from the comparative dearth of bike lanes on the east side.
The ten-foot wide, two-way bike lane is more sizable than the agency’s typical bike lanes, officials with the Department of Transportation say.
“This project will deliver much-needed safety upgrades to the Hell’s Kitchen corridor and help support more efficient transportation options,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “More people are cycling than ever before, and by designing wider bike lanes we can keep encouraging this growth while providing more comfortable riding experiences.”
The agency initially proposed a one-way, eight-foot-wide bike lane for the project but opted for the heftier, bi-directional option amid a push by the local community board.
Further south, DOT plans to add a bike lane on 10th Avenue between 14th and 38th streets next year after the completion of the Midtown segment.
The Adams Administration has faced criticism for a slow pace on installing new bike and bus lanes throughout the city, but more progress has been made on major Manhattan avenues. Much of Broadway in Midtown has now been converted to a “shared street” where cars are allowed but severely limited in the speed they can travel, with the design more tailored to pedestrians and cyclists. And construction started this summer on a project to add a bus lane and bike lane to Third Avenue on the Upper East Side.
