UPPER EAST SIDE — The city is figuring out what the next step is for a proposal to install six bike lanes in the neighborhood, after Community Board 8 rejected the proposal on Wednesday.
After more than nine hours of public hearings, and a May 4 resolution by the board’s transportation committee to put routes on East 70th, East 71st, 77th, 78th, 84th and 85th streets, the full community board rejected the proposal by a vote of 25 to 19.
Now the Department of Transportation is determining its next steps on the proposal, according to a spokesman.
It's not clear whether the city will decide to go forward with the plan, or whether it will start from scratch again. But officials have said the bike lanes are coming, it's just about where to put them.
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Many members of the community and the board were not convinced that the proposed set of routes were well-thought-out and asked that the city incorporate safety measures for pedestrians into the proposal.
“The transportation committee and the Department of Transportation will go back to the drawing board,” said CB8 Chairman Jim Clynes. “I think there was a lack of safety pre-planning on behalf of the DOT regarding signage, speed bumps and enforcement of the rules of the road which bicyclists must abide by.”
Board member Sarah Chu said the proposal wasn’t "complete because people don't feel safe" and that the board should "infuse it with safety measures,” she said.
Chu suggested the city consider speed bumps and flashing lights that alert people to the bike lanes and asked that the board and DOT consider routes in the 60s, which hasn't been an option yet.
“This entire proposal doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.
