The horrendous stretch of West 38th Street to West 45th Street is slated by DOT for an upgrade and not a minute too soon. The changes will take place later this year.
Pedestrian congestion is so extreme on this stretch, that last year conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists escalated with a pedestrian sending a cyclist to the hospital for three days. Community Board 4 requested a study, CHEKPEDS did a walk through with DOT and then with Port Authority, and DOT responded positively .
At the June 2019 CB4 Transportation committee, the DOT pedestrian group and PANYNJ presented an excellent plan for this complicated section: recognizing the imbalance between walk lanes capacity and volume of walkers, DOT proposes to increase the walking lanes by 60% and create a protected bike lane on the whole length of the corridor.
The left turn onto Westbound 42nd Street and one block of taxi stand will be eliminated, while the other taxi stand will be equipped with a floating boarding area in order to maintain the protection of the bike lane.
No more Mixing Zones
Safety is also massively improved by the installation of three split phases to replace dangerous mixing zones.
An offset crossing will be installed where a cyclist was killed earlier this year by a driver turning in a truck
And finally DOT will pilot bike lane markings continuing through the intersection at W45th Stret...
Christmas in July !
See the full presentation here