The lanes wouldn't be death traps if pedestrians and drivers recognized them for what they are.

"dodging pedestrians, turning cars, slower cyclists and trucks loading and unloading" are problems on every street, with or without bike lanes. The more protected lanes, the better- and two-way lanes are even better! It's the unprotected ones that are dangerous.

Getting anywhere in NYC, especially rapidly, is an exercise in frustration.

Personally I'd rather one of those avenues gets designated as a dedicated two-way protected bike lane, separate them from cars entirely. It's unfortunate the current system is merely a shoe-in - but for all that they did a pretty good job even getting it implemented this far.

Why not have a few dedicated "express" bike roads that would get bikes to the general location of where they're going, and the last few blocks a cyclist could ride on the sidewalk at a reduced speed, with caution for pedestrians.

There are many one way streets that don't handle too much car traffic that could be converted without much impact on moving traffic through the city. And pedestrians and bicyclists have mixed on sidewalks for ages. What's better, a slight bump from a bicycle or getting your head run over?

Any cyclist that would rather ride with moving traffic at the same speed it is moving than in a protected bike lane that may have the occasional pedestrian walking in it is clearly speaking for themselves when it comes to what is safe. I'd say about 98% of people put on a bike would disagree. If the lanes are "death traps", how come statistically injuries and fatalities are decreased? And if they're "poorly designed", then what design would make them better? I think if your expectation is to ride at 20-25 miles per hour (the speed of traffic) without having to stop, slow down, or look out for people walking, then you are more the safety problem and not the solution. Having ridden it myself many times obeying all traffic rules, yielding and ringing a bell to the occasional pedestrian in the lane, I can confidently say the 1st Avenue bike lane easily gets you from Houston St. to 34th St. in about 8-9 minutes - what is the problem with that?

Bike lanes are for bikes, sure. The speed limit is 30, so if my bike goes 47, I'm holding up traffic, as everyone and his uncle are going 55.
So, yes we need bike lanes, But are they fast lanes or slow lanes?
The cops ticket motorists so rarely that most people don't even know the limit is 30 per.
The bikes go as fast as 47 mph. That's a fact. When we build bike lanes , we are funneling the fast bikes to the edge of the road. Then pedestrians get hit.
Let bikes use the whole road.

47 mph?!? Maybe after riding off a 100 foot cliff. Impossible otherwise.

A fact? In what universe would a NYC street cyclist travel at 47 mph (without somehow latching on to a speeding cab)? Average flat stage speeds in the Tour de France are well under 30 mph.

I actually love bike lanes, and think there should be more of them. But my biggest frustration is with the pedestrians who like to use the bike lane as an alternative sidewalk. And then they get pissed at ME when I'm riding along and I remind them that it's NOT a sidewalk, but a bike lane. There's a reason they paint white bicycles on the lanes themselves.

It's even worse biking around the East Village at night, though. Because these pedestrians are not just pissed at you for being in the bike lane, but they're drunk, and will even jump in front of you and dare you to hit them. For a half-second, I seriously considered it.

Yes, this used to happen to me too (the drunks jumping in front of you, that is)... for some reason those boneheads think it's the height of wit to jump in front of cyclists.

Dedicated bike lanes are the only way to go. This is being proven repeatedly, in countries/cities with way more ambition and foresight (and intelligence), than NYC's traffic planners.

This title was obvious click-bait. Referencing a tweet by a pol, which references a WSJ article, which references one cyclist.

What a f*cking stretch to generate yet another sensationalized headline for Gothamist.

Cool graphic by B. Nunn, though!

Poor planning in NYC? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

BREAKING NEWS: Journalist finds New Yorker not happy with thing most New Yorkers like.

I guess this is why I saw a cyclist just bike in traffic on 9th Ave rather than the bike lane. Had to stop in the crosswalk to let him past.

I was just riding on the 2nd Avenue bike lane below 14th St. Agree that the design between the sidewalk and parked cars is not the most inviting. A cyclist has to go slow to avoid the wandering pedestrians and the accumulated garbage in these bike lanes (these lanes separated from the street by a row of parked cars seem difficult to clean - therefore they will rarely be cleaned).

Going slow is not a bad thing. If you're in no rush. If I needed to get somewhere fast downtown, I would nix the 2nd Ave bike lane and join the car traffic in the middle of the road.

I don't particularly like this commute, especially the one back up 1st avenue. The lane terminates at around 34t st. and then you're dodging fast moving limos all the way up to Queensboro plaza.

The 2nd avenue bike lane terminates in a horrific mess at Houston and its placement is less than ideal to access areas of lower Manhattan without taking a detour or dodging the insanity that is the cross-island traffic. The lane is regularly filled with delivery trucks, sanitation vehicles and a few brainless dolts trying to park in it.

That being said, I'm still glad that they're there - I'd just like to know why they don't go all the way up.

I completely agree. The 1st ave and 2nd ave bike lanes are pretty useless for getting anywhere quickly, not to mention that they are ironically more dangerous than just riding in the street with cars (assuming you know what you're doing).

i don't mind most bikers, except for a very few messenger-type bikers who howl and charge at pedestrians on the bikers' red light, as if they're trying to recreate a major battle scene from Braveheart. then again, i only see this happening about once a week.

That cavalry charge scene from braveheart redone with bikes would actually be awesome.