Since 1990, biking in NYC has increased by 320 percent, and 68 percent between 2010 and 2014. Now that biking is returning in a big way, the trend has to reckon with cars’ legacy in an increasingly crowded city.

1. BIKE LANES IN NYC:
THE GOOD, THE BAD,
AND THE CONGESTED
BCB PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

2. There is a renaissance of cycling across the
country, and New York is no exception.

3. After cars became
affordable, New York's
streets were designed
strictly for motorized
vehicles. The main
island’s narrow streets
and heavy traffic, both
vehicular and
pedestrian, have since
made cycling a hazard.

4. Since 1990, biking in NYC has
increased by 320 percent, and 68
percent between 2010 and 2014.
Now that biking is returning in a big
way, the trend has to reckon with cars’
legacy in an increasingly crowded city.

5. Depending on who you ask, modern
bike lanes are either a blessing or a
curse, as balancing the needs of
different types of commuters has
proven more difficult than anticipated.

6. Veteran taxi drivers and residents will tell
you how different city streets were just 20
years ago, and their opinions are by and large
the same: bike lanes make things worse.

7. While helpful for bikers and good for energy
efficiency, they complicate the rules of the road.

8. Drivers get confused, slow down, and
traffic gets backed up.
Smooth sailing?

9. Not unless you’re a biker, and even
then, you might still get hit: biking
fatalities number in the hundreds each
year, and even spiked in 2014.

10. Bike lanes should in theory
make things safer, but anti-
bike advocates have called
their implementation
“monstrous” and “truly
offensive”, with some
claiming that the Department
of Transportation has vastly
overstated their benefits.

11. They take up valuable road
space, cut lanes of car
traffic from three to two
and make it difficult for
taxis to pick up customers
without getting ticketed.

12. Drivers say that in spite of lanes, many
bikers don’t follow the rules.

13. Those in favor of bike lanes, including
Mayor Bloomberg, who made them part of
his legacy, argue that they don’t increase
congestion and actually stimulate the
economy, since pedestrians and bikers are
likely to patron local businesses.

14. Further, the implementation of Citi Bikes
across the city has enjoyed immense
popularity in spite of some problems.

15. It seems like drivers and bikers will never agree
on the merits of bike lanes, but one thing is for
sure: the city’s many pedestrians are neutral as
long as there are no bikers on the sidewalk.

16. W W W . B C B P R O P E R T Y M A N A G E M E N T . C O M