Defend the Columbus Avenue Bike Lane [Updated]

UPDATE: This meeting has been postponed to next Tuesday.

We mentioned this in the calendar post on Monday but it bears repeating: If you support the new Columbus Avenue bike lane and want to see the safety benefits of pedestrian refuges and physically-separated bikeways extend elsewhere on the Upper West Side, come out to the Community Board 7 meeting tomorrow night at 6:30 (St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, 1000 Tenth Avenue at 59th Street).

The Columbus Avenue lane is the first protected bikeway above 59th Street, and as with other new street designs, it’s taking a bit of time for some people to adjust. We hear through the grapevine that opponents of the lane are preparing to air their complaints to the CB at the meeting.

The Upper West Side Streets Renaissance gathered several hundred signatures in favor of this project before DOT proposed it and the CB voted in favor of it. As we’ve seen on Prospect Park West, it’s important for supporters to stay organized and committed after a project like this gets implemented.

The Columbus Avenue lane is a mile-long trial balloon for what could later be a pair of protected lanes on Columbus and Amsterdam, eventually linking up with the protected lanes on Ninth and Eighth Avenues. Defending it strongly now can only help when extensions come up for consideration.