Sorry to dribble out the posts about last night’s meeting of Community Board 1’s Tribeca Committee, but it was a doozy. The first item was actually a joint meeting of the Tribeca, Quality of Life, and Planning Committees, and it was about the Department of Transportation’s plan to add bike lanes connecting Warren Street and Union Square. (Since CB1 ends at Canal, the discussion was limited to that part.) You may recall that at CB1’s full meeting in July, the bike lanes were shot down. I don’t go to the full meetings, but the word last night was that several-to-many members wanted the DOT to rethink certain parts and present again.

But first! While the DOT was making up bike-related statistics around here studying the area, it decided to go ahead with one “improvement” and propose another. Already instituted, as noticed last month: Instead of one free-for-all signal where Varick meets W. Broadway (by the New York Law School), one street gets a green, then the other. Personally, whatever. Although I do wonder about the effect of red pedestrian signals alongside green traffic lights—I’ve been known to see green and go.

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The second change is shown nicely in the renderings below (the second one is just to demonstrate the aesthetics). That pedestrian plaza ending mid-block on Church, below Franklin, was a real safety risk (despite the lack of accidents?), so the DOT wants to bollard it off and paint the asphalt (hopefully not in godawful blue). I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d feel all that safe anywhere in the green area. The DOT doesn’t plan on adding curbs or concrete slabs yet, but it will eventually.

Now, on to the bike lanes. I’m just going to run the slides in order (minus the ones above), because they tell the story well enough. Generally, the DOT alternates one slide on existing conditions with one on the proposed changes. And remember, the overall idea is to give cyclists a continuous bike path up Church and Sixth, and down Varick and W. Broadway. At one point, in CB2, cyclists will have to toggle west on Broome, which strikes me as wildly unlikely. Cyclists are like crows; they take the straightest route. And they make a lot of noise. Transportation Alternatives had rallied supporters to come to the meeting—tell me, what is it about cycling that makes people so self-serious?

Sorry, got distracted there. Bear in mind that the DOT uses “facilities” to mean accommodations for cyclists and not, say, racks. These all enlarge upon clicking.

Here’s an example of a “buffered lane”:

And now we’re on Sixth Ave., heading uptown.

By “shared lane,” the DOT means a lane that cars and bikes both use. There are lots of markings indicating such, because we all know that drivers in New York don’t remotely treat lane markings like they’re playing Pac-Man. Gobble, gobble, gobble….

Now we’re heading downtown. This next stretch—by Albert Capsouto Park—was a problem last time because of the cobblestones. Cyclists tend to ride on the sidewalk, so the DOT wanted to make the sidewalk a bike lane, which CB1 found upsetting. The DOT says its solution “preserves the historic character” of the area, which is kind of amusing given how that block isn’t exactly Olde Tribeca.

Heading further down Varick…. Of note in the next two slides: Two of the the traffic lanes will be just 10 feet wide. The DOT says—of course it does!—says that narrower lanes are proven to make people drive go more slowly.

Once the full CB1 board approves it—and I have no doubt it will (the vote last night was 5-1), implementation will start, and it could be as soon as next month—except for the granite path part by Capsouto Park, which will come in the spring.