Mark your calendars for early next week, when DOT will be presenting its plan to replace sharrows with a parking protected bike lane on First Avenue, filling a gap between protected bikeways south of 49th Street and north of 59th Street.

This 10-block gap in the First Avenue bike lane is a key missing link, and would give cyclists coming from below 49th Street safe passage to both the Upper East Side and the Queensboro Bridge. These blocks were left out of previous plans for First Avenue. In 2011, CB 6 favored buffered lanes for this stretch, not protected lanes, but DOT eventually went with sharrows.

Upgrading to a parking protected bike lane will also bring pedestrian islands, which shorten crossing distances on this extra-wide section of First Avenue.

Even if First Avenue is upgraded to a protected bike lane, southbound cyclists on Second Avenue will continue to be stuck with sharrows north of 34th Street, where the protected lane begins.

DOT is presenting its plan at the next Community Board 6 transportation committee meeting, scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the NYU School of Dentistry, Room 611, located at 345 E. 24th Street.