City Advances Plan to Add Protected Bike Lanes to 14th St.

The New York City Department of Transportation is looking to add protected bike lanes and additional pedestrian space to the 14th St. corridor, which became a dedicated busway in 2019, as part of an ongoing plan that began under Mayor Eric Adams’s administration.

The agency has launched a public planning process, which they’re branding “The 14th Street Plan: Keeping People Moving and Business Booming.”

The potential addition of protected bike lines seems to be generating the most chatter on social media, with some bike advocates praising the move as a necessary safety enhancement and other decrying the banning of cars that is already in effect for most of the day.

The first public comment session on the plan took place between 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on March 25, at the Pratt Institute on W. 14th St. There is also an online survey that New Yorkers can submit on the plan, as long as they do so before April 10, which can be found at www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/14street.shtml.

The current busway, which is in effect from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, bans car traffic along most of the crosstown 14th St. corridor. According to the DOT, that ban has increased bus speeds by up to 24 percent, and ridership by up to 30 percent. [Unlike other routes with Select Bus Service. the 14th St. currently stops at each street with no skip stops, slowing down a bus journey on Manhattan’s longest crosstown street.]

Now, the DOT says, they want to implement a swath of upgrades: “New landscaping, upgraded pedestrian, park, and plaza space, greenery, and safety enhancements that will complement existing busway operations.” The agency also wants to make design improvements for streets and public spaces that abut the busway so that vehicle traffic that is blocked from 14th Street does not simply spill into surrounding streets.

Officials hope to install protected bike lanes along the corridor, as first reported by Gothamist. They also want to upgrade the busway’s bus stops.

Transit advocates appear pleased with the overhaul of the existing busway. The Reddit forum r/micromobility, a barometer of biker sentiment, has celebrated the move—with one prolific commenter, RemarkableCow-3421, questioning why there was even a need for debate.

“Let them know that it’s ridiculous to have a meeting about [bike lanes]. it would be like having a meeting about whether or not to put a fence around a kindergarten, or hand rails on stairs to the subway,” he wrote just before the March 25 event.

More heated debate was evident on the NextDoor app, with Sharon Riley calling the entire busway a “stupid decision” that “should be undone” in a March 24 post. “We need 14th Street for people who need to get taxis or have taxis let them off in front of their building in the middle of the block,” she wrote.

”I think it’s one of the most successful reforms in the city in the 35 years I’ve lived here,” Frazier Moore shot back.

The DOT is already in the midst of a two-year $3 million study on the overhaul; $2 million was committed by the city, while the remaining $1 million would come from the Union Square Partnership and the Meatpacking District Management Association business improvement districts (BIDs).

“This [busway] project has been a remarkable success, delivering faster commutes and safer streets for tens of thousands, but besides a new coat of paint, 14th Street looks and feels like it has for decades,” DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn said in a statement. “This process will deliver truly transformational, permanently constructed upgrades for the corridor.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that the overhaul would take the corridor to the “next level,” adding that he invites “New Yorkers to join DOT later this month and help shape the world-class future of 14th Street.”

Funding for the actual improvements would be derived from a $9.5 million pot, which was approved by then-Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.

Current Manhattan BP Brad Hoylman-Sigal signaled his support for the planned improvements in a statement: “I’m grateful to Mayor Mamdani and Commissioner Flynn for building on that success and launching a thoughtful public process to shape the next chapter for 14th Street.”

Local representatives signaled their support for the overhaul, as well. Assembly Member Keith Powers, who represents the East Side, said that he was “looking forward to NYC DOT beginning this public planning process.”

“I encourage community members to get involved so we can ensure that the future of 14th Street reflects the needs of the neighborhoods it connects,” he added.