CHELSEA — Traffic-clogged Sixth Avenue will get a protected bike lane that runs from 14th to 33rd streets, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation confirmed Thursday.
The new cycling corridor follows years of advocacy by transit activists who've pushed for protected lanes on Fifth and Sixth avenues.
DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced the new lane at a press conference this week.
The busy thoroughfare currently has a painted bike lane that extends from 9th Street to 42nd Street, though there's no lane at all for the bustling 17 blocks north of 42nd up to Central Park.
The lack of bike lane north of 42nd has been a sticking point for transit advocates who, in 2012, crept into midtown at night and painted bike lanes themselves, shortly after a taxi jumped a curb and severed an English tourist's leg, according to reports.
Bonny Tsang, a spokeswoman from the Department of Transportation, said the protected bike lane along Sixth Avenue is in the planning phase and the department will begin discussing the proposal with community members this fall.
