[Shannon Hill]

There are two friction points that immediately come to mind that I’ve ridden in the past week with my 12 year old.

This first one is showing the intersection of Columbus Ave and West 96th St, both major roads on the Upper West Side. There is a protected bike lane on Columbus Ave, it’s just hiding behind the cab, but it disappears as you reach the intersection and it merges into the right hand turn lane. Interestingly past Google Street View images show the protected bike lane paint at least extending to the intersection, but now this has disappeared. I don’t trust the cars to see me, or stop.

This second one is on Central Park West. The bike lane itself has now changed (this image is a year old) and is now fully protected along some of its length with the rest to come (apparently). There are significant friction points with the bus stops along CPW. I was very unsure of where I was meant to be riding, and how the bus would also react. Very unclear.

 

 

 

 

[Shannon Hill]

Reply to #26907 (not sure if it’s replying directly or this is a new post!)

All these improvements look pretty new and neat! My suggested improvement for the top photo would be to make the bike lane wider, and also to provide a buffer to the traffic. I’d be a little nervous using this with no separation to the vehicles. This lead us to the likely impediments to achieving this. It is noted that the traffic lanes were narrowed slightly to allow width for the bike lane – I can imagine this was a difficult process and resulted in the slightly less than ideal width and lack of separation. Additional reduction of the lane width would not be possible without removing one of the lanes entirely, likely a completely untenable proposition. It looks like there is a nice median and perhaps sidewalk off to the right of the road. While perhaps not a great alternative either, but would it have been possible to create additional room here for a wider bike lane with buffer? Certainly demonstrates that retro-fitting our spaces is difficult.

[Shannon Hill]

Image 1: Newly constructed protected bike lane on Central Park West, Manhattan. This was constructed following a cyclist death in 2019. It is not completely constructed for the full length, though is planned to be. It’s a really nice bike lane, but has issues with tourist buses parking in it (it’s adjacent to Central Park) as well as delivery vehicles. It also caused an uproar with apartment buildings on CPW as it required the removal of car parks…

Image 2: Aerial view of largely protected southbound bike lane on Columbus Avenue, Manhattan. Is not protected the whole length of Avenue. Protection is generally same width as green bike lane (except adjacent to turning lanes as shown here), but this is because NYC Sanitation Dept needs its snow plows to get through, and won’t buy narrower plows!

[Shannon Hill]

Hi there! My name is Shannon and I’m an urban planner, Australian trained and worked for 20 years, but currently based in New York City. I currently work for a non-profit where I happily teach planning, architecture and heritage programs to elementary aged public school kids.

1. My expertise primarily lies in urban planning and design, with my most recent work involving greenfields, outer suburb project. Many of these projects were car based, with bicycle planning an afterthought, if at all. Having now spent 5 years in NYC I daily see the benefits of how greater transport options improve mobility for everyone, but also how we can, and still need to, do so much better from an equity perspective. I also know I need to learn more about how our streets can be made safer for everyone, and that the idea of safe can be different across race, gender and age.

2. I can offer several perspectives regarding designing for cycling. Living in two quite different cities (Melbourne, Australia and now NYC) has provided me with different experiences and knowledge on what our cycling infrastructure looks like, how it is used, and how it is perceived. Additionally, as an urban planner, I bring the policy based perspectives together with knowing the implementation of the policy is equally important. Earlier this year I completed the ‘Unraveling the Cycling City’ course which provided me with a strong theory and policy base from which to build on, and now I’d like to understand the practical implementation better.

3. Shannon Hill, @shannonhill_tw, linkedin.com/in/shannon-hill-29191030

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