Bicycle Plan Is Put On Fast Track

As Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal inches its way through Albany gridlock, the city has put on the fast track its Bike Master Plan by moving to double the number of city bike lanes to 400 miles from 200 over the next two years.

About 130,000 cyclists hit the streets every day, and the city is seeing an unprecedented surge in the number of bikers, according to statistics provided by Transportation Alternatives.

The number of daily commuters who ride bikes to work, however, is less than 1% of total commuters, a figure that city officials say they want to increase by making cycling safer and more appealing on the potholed, congested streets.

The city's newfound zeal for cycling is rustling feathers in some communities that see speeding bicycles as unwanted.

Since it was closed to vehicles in 1978 and zoned by the city as a "play" street, the quiet block of East 91st Street between Second and Third avenues has become a private promenade for strolling Upper East Side residents, as well as children who play football and skateboard unattended in the street.

"It's more than just a street to everyone who lives here," a resident of 35 years, Jane Colton, said yesterday, sitting on the curb with her aging Dalmatian. "It's what makes our neighborhood special." The community has even banned running groups from using the street. "We like it dead here," a community resident of 30 years, Louis DeStephano, said.

Next month, the city is planning to install a bike path along the car-free street, to connect the East River with Central Park for cyclists. "It's hard to imagine a worse street to put this on," the chairman of Community Board 8, which last week voted overwhelmingly against the city's proposal, David Liston, said. The Community Board proposed shifting the bike path two blocks south to 89th Street to preserve the tranquility of the street, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation, Molly Gordy, said the city has installed bike lanes on the Upper West Side and the Lower East Side despite community opposition to the plans. "We find after installation the projects fit well in these communities," Ms. Gordy said in an email message.

The city's Bike Master Plan, one of the initiatives outlined in PlaNYC, includes installing 504 miles of physically separated bike paths and 1,296 miles of lanes marked by stripes of white paint by 2030. The Department of Transportation is also planning to introduce a bill requiring large office buildings to provide bicycle storage for employees.