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Protected Bike Lanes Coming to 7th Avenue by End of Year, City Says

By Maya Rajamani | September 25, 2017 4:33pm
 The intersection of West 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue.
The intersection of West 23rd Street and Seventh Avenue.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

CHELSEA — Protected bike lanes are rolling out on Seventh Avenue as part of the city’s plan to improve pedestrian and cyclist safety along the stretch.

This week, the Department of Transportation started installing the lanes — which will run between West 11th and 30th streets — with work to wrapped by the end of the year, an agency spokeswoman said. 

The bike lanes and safety measures will eventually extend along Seventh Avenue to Clarkson Street, but Con Edison work on the avenue will limit work to the stretch between West 11th and 30th streets for the time being, the spokeswoman said. 

The department will complete the remainder of the project after Con Edison's work is done, she added.

A spokesman for Con Edison said the agency is doing gas main replacement work along Seventh Avenue in the West Village and is expecting to be done by early November. 

As part of the plan, DOT will create a “floating parking lane” for vehicles along Seventh Avenue, the department said in a notice

A plan released by the department earlier this year noted the new bike lane — which will be separated from traffic by pedestrian islands — would eliminate a lane of vehicle traffic. It also indicated that split-phase signals would be installed at West 14th Street. 

In addition to the new bike lanes, the plan will “expand pedestrian space and shorten crossing distances with painted pedestrian islands,” the release added.

Ninety-six cyclists were injured on Seventh Avenue between Clarkson and West 30th streets between 2011 and 2015, the department previously said.