Alan Gerson

If you've seen those eerie white "ghost bikes" on Houston Street, you may know that three cyclists have been killed on "the Boulevard of Death" during the past two years: Derek Lake, Brandie Bailey and Andrew Morgan. In the wake of this loss of life, members of Community Board 2's Traffic & Transportation Committee are holding a rally on Wednesday to ask the DOT to install buffered bike lanes as part of the street's reconstruction, which is taking space away from pedestrian islands to create left-turn bays for cars.

The death of Derek Lake, killed one month ago at age 23 when his bicycle tripped a metal plate on Houston Street, hints at a tragedy shared by all New Yorkers: City Hall's continued insistence that the ultimate goal of a New York City street is to move as many cars and trucks each day as physically possible.

Derek Lake died on June 26 when his bike tripped over a steel plate and fell beneath the wheels of a moving truck in the midst of Houston Street's reconstruction mess. Brad Hoylman, a Village resident, chairs the Traffic and Transportation Committee of Community Board 2. Hoylman talks to Streetsblog about the  Community Board's reaction to Lake's death and its plans to try to prevent similar horrors. And he reminds us that, despite a $30 million reconstruction project that includes no new bicycle amenities, Houston Street is supposed to be a part of New York City's Bicycle Master Plan.