DOT began installing new bike lanes leading to and around Union Square this week.

The project — which will eventually include a two-way protected lane around the park’s eastern and northern edges — is not nearly complete, but fresh paint along Fourth Avenue between 12th and 15th heralds bigger changes on the way.

In addition to the new protected lanes, the project adds painted lanes on 15th Street between First Avenue and Union Square East, on 16th Street between Stuyvesant Square and Union Square East, and on 17th Street between Union Square West and Sixth Avenue.

The Lafayette Street/Fourth Avenue protected lane previously ended at 12th Street. The new design is only parking-protected up to 13th Street. This afternoon it was filled with illegally parked cars between 13th and 14th streets, where there is a no standing zone.

The bulk of the green paint installed so far ends at 15th Street, with a little more on Union Square East just north of 16th Street.

DOT has marked where the new two-way lane will be installed around Union Square’s western and northern borders. There’s already a bike lane there, but it’s regularly filled with parked NYPD vehicles. That was the case this afternoon, as shown in the photo below.