This Week: L Train Shutdown Open House, Crosstown Protected Bike Lanes

The plan for 14th Street calls for a transit- and deliver-only design on the busiest blocks. A two-way protected bike lane is slated for 13th Street. Image: NYC DOT
The plan for 14th Street calls for a transit- and deliver-only design on the busiest blocks. A two-way protected bike lane is slated for 13th Street. Image: NYC DOT

There are two big events on the Streetsblog calendar this week.

On Wednesday, the MTA and NYC DOT hold a second open house on their developing plan to handle the L train shutdown. The first open house, in Williamsburg, included new information about how bus service and bicycling will be prioritized on Grand Street.

This week’s event will focus on the Manhattan side of the plan and 14th Street in particular. The agencies have released an initial concept for a 14th Street transitway and 13th Street bikeway. Some critical questions remain, like the hours that transit priority will be in effect. The 14th Street Y, 344 E 14th Street, 5 – 8 p.m.

On Thursday, DOT presents its plan for protected bike lanes on 26th Street and 29th Street to the Community Board 5 transportation committee. Earlier this month the CB 4 transportation committee endorsed the project, which would lay out the first protected bike lanes on crosstown streets in Midtown. 1 Pennsylvania Plaza, 6 p.m.

Watch the calendar for updates. Drop us a line if you have an event we should know about.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Map: RPA

This Week: Planning for a 14th Street With No L Train

|
The looming L train shutdown will disrupt travel for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and demands a serious response. This week you can speak up for a robust plan to keep people moving sans L train at a workshop in Manhattan, where advocates are calling on DOT and the MTA to implement transitways on 14th Street and Delancey Street.
The MTA and DOT did not indicate any plans for busways on surface streets in a presentation to elected officials last week about the L train shutdown. Image: MTA

There’s Got to Be More to the L Train Shutdown Plan Than What the MTA and DOT Have Shown So Far

|
Starting in January 2019, service on the L train west of Bedford Avenue will be suspended for 15 months to allow for Sandy-related repairs. The only way to keep hundreds of thousands of people moving is to dedicate significant street space to buses on both sides of the East River. But at a presentation to elected officials on Friday, the MTA and DOT did not indicate that bus lanes are part of their plan, except on the Williamsburg Bridge itself.