MIDTOWN EAST — The city is planning to fill holes in the bike lanes along the Midtown section of First Avenue beginning this summer, according to a Department of Transportation spokesman.
The DOT is looking to complete the First Avenue protected bike lane by filling in a three-block gap between East 46th and East 49th streets and a four-block gap between 55th and 59th streets, according to a proposal by the agency.
The plan calls for the removal of one travel lane on most of the targeted blocks in order to make room for a series of parking-protected bike lanes while preserving parking in the neighborhood, said DOT representative Patrick Kennedy, who presented the plan at a Community Board 6 Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The layout of the parking-protected lanes will consist of a curbside bike lane on the avenue's westernmost side separated from the parking lane by a five-foot painted buffer.
In order to make that happen on the block between East 47th and East 48th streets, the DOT will reverse the order of the current layout, moving the bike lane to the curb and the current short-term parking lane to where cyclists currently ride.
In order to keep moving vehicles out of the new parking lane, DOT will build concrete islands at the corners of East 47th and East 48th streets to direct the flow of traffic.
The stretches between East 55th and East 56th streets and East 57th and East 58th streets will get the same style of parking-protected lanes, Kennedy said.
On the blocks leading to East 57th Street and East 59th Street, where cars need to make a left-hand turn, the parking lane will taper off at the middle of the block, leaving two left-hand turning lanes for cars to head west.
First Avenue is a busy thoroughfare for bikes, with an average of 1,605 cyclists using the corridor in a 12-hour span in a 2015 DOT count, up from 1,447 in 2014 and 1,411 in 2013, according to the agency’s numbers.
Adding to the high rate of cyclist traffic in the area is the Queensboro Bridge at East 59th Street, which saw an average daily ridership of 4,865 cyclists during the peak biking season between April and October last year, according to a DOT count.
A protected bike lane currently covers much of the length of First Avenue from East Houston Street to the Willis Avenue Bridge leading to the Bronx, with the exception of the gaps in the 40s, where there is an unprotected lane, and 50s, where the lane disappears.
The goal is to protect cyclists without worsening traffic flow in busy Midtown, according to Kennedy.
“The worst thing we could do is add to gridlock,” he said.
A DOT representative said the agency hopes to have the new lanes installed sometime this summer.
