Community Board 4 voted last week to create “on street parking” for bikes, instead of on sidewalk. Chekpeds’ board member Eric Muise took the lead in identifiying the many locations where there is a concentration of bicycles which impede pedestrian movements. DOT had sent the board a list of bike racks to install on our sidewalks. After an extensive review, it became apparent that in many locations there is not enough space to accommodate both large bike racks and pedestrians, while the many bike deliveries businesses definitely need a solution. This concept should sound familiar, since the community recommended this approach as part of the 9th Avenue Renaissance vision. The key advantages to this approach are :
- freeing up pedestrian space,
- creating quasi neck down which make cars slow down when they turn, the holy grail for pedestrian safety.
- Reducing the number of delivery bikes using the sidewalks as their access route to parking
We propose to swap two parking spots per intersection: the first car parking on the side streets next to the pedestrian crossing would be converted to a bike parking at each intersection on 9th avenue between 36th and 56th Streets on both the East and West side of the avenue. click Here for the full board letter.