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Board backpedals on Eighth Avenue bike lane proposal

By Diane Vacca

Community Board 4’s Transportation Planning Committee enthusiastically presented and recommended the city’s proposal for a bike lane on Eighth Ave. at Wednesday’s full board meeting. But the committee might not have been prepared for the onslaught of opposition from the rest of the board.

The plan, for a new bike lane along the avenue from Bank to 23rd Sts., was recently introduced by the city’s Department of Transportation, much like the current one running from 14th to 23rd Sts. on Ninth Ave.

“We’re very happy about it,” committee co-chairperson Jay Marcus said at the meeting. Others, however, didn’t share his sentiment.

“I think it will very, very seriously transform Chelsea… in a way that doesn’t benefit [it],” said board member Corey Johnson, the first person to comment.

Board member Allen Roskoff was more specific. “I refer to Eighth Ave. between 14th and 23rd Streets as ‘Gay Boulevard,’ he said. “Large numbers of gay people go there… It’s where we feel at home. … The atmosphere there—the restaurants, the activity, the people walking— it’s a home to many of us that no other avenue is. I don’t think these changes are for the positive in any way, shape or form.”

Board member John Weis, a resident of Eighth Ave., added, “I think Ninth Ave. is a mess. And to think that there’s a movement to do the same thing on Eighth Ave., which is more of a commerce strip—it has more pedestrians on it—it’s mind-boggling,” he said. “It’s ridiculous how much worse [the traffic] is since the bike lane went in.”

Eighth Ave. has a supermarket, many restaurants, and trucks delivering and parking all the time, Johnson said, making it very different from Ninth Ave. The board agreed.

Board member Tony Juliano, a member of the Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, was concerned about the adverse effects on business. He said that businesses on Ninth Ave. are still very unhappy, and that the Eighth Ave. lane shouldn’t move forward until there’s an impact study done for them.

Dirk McCall, executive director of the GVCCC, told Chelsea Now that the Eighth Ave. lane is all wrong.

“Eighth Ave. is the lifeblood of our community,” he said. “DOT isn’t consulting local businesses. If you kill the businesses, who’s going to want to bike up the avenue?”

Marcus was “shocked” at the vehement reaction to what he and his committee thought was a good proposal from the city. The board originally requested the bike lane years ago and strongly advocated for it, and he thought the proposed changes would make for a “much more pleasant, safer atmosphere,” Marcus said after the meeting.

But the outcry against the bike lane was not universal.

Board member David Hanzel observed that “walking down Ninth Ave., I think it’s an improved experience.” He said there’s less traffic, fewer cars making sharp turns, and it’s “more of a leisurely stroll now.”

Hanzel was seconded by longtime member Bob Trentlyon, who observed that the discussion was the “most retro conversation I’ve heard at a board meeting in a long time. … There must be two Ninth Aves., because the Ninth Ave. I see, the traffic is moving very smoothly along… There are no businesses that have gone out of business since this has happened; there are more people starting to use the bike lanes.”

Yet other commenters continued to emphasize what they felt was added noise and congestion because of the lanes.

A common complaint was that there had been little or no outreach to the community, particularly to those most involved, in the stretch between 14th and 23rd Sts. on Eighth Ave. Marcus and Eric Muise, also on the Transportation Planning Committee, were surprised. Marcus said they had made “a very thorough outreach.” In view of the opposition to the plan, however, Marcus said after the meeting that he plans to hold a large public meeting in early September on the issue.

The other DOT proposal, which would extend the existing bike path on Ninth Ave. from 23rd to 31st St., was met with cautious approval.

“Yes, traffic flow does improve from 25th St. to 17th St. [on Ninth Ave.],” admitted Johnson. “But then you get below 17th St., and traffic is very bad again…. I understand that; it was like that before, but I think it’s worse now than it used to be. Eighth Ave. is fairly different. People don’t speed up Eighth Ave. like they speed down Ninth Ave. when they get out of the tunnel,” he said.

Johnson also noted that when more than three cars are waiting to turn left off Ninth Ave., they line up on the avenue because “there’s not enough room, so all cars move to the other side of the avenue, because one side of the avenue is completely blocked.”

Marcus agreed, saying, “some issues are real. The left turns need to be discussed and thought through,” he said after the meeting. He has already e-mailed DOT, advising it of the concerns raised by the board.

“We asked for a new DOT,” Marcus said, one that would encourage alternative forms of transportation and put pedestrians first over vehicles. “This is how we make changes. This is how we change the way we live and start to say that this is a city that is pedestrian-friendly, that does encourage alternative transit systems. … This is the time and place to have bold vision, and our community board has always been the leader on it.”