Clove Road is set to get bike lanes this summer, including a half-mile road diet, nearly two years after Staten Island Community Board 1 asked DOT for the street safety fixes.

Running past the Staten Island Zoo on the way from Wagner College to Port Richmond, Clove Road is a key diagonal connection across North Shore neighborhoods. The project covers 2.3 miles, from Richmond Terrace to Howard Avenue, just north of the Staten Island Expressway.

With 7.3 traffic deaths or serious injuries each year per mile, this section of Clove Road is a “high-crash corridor,” according to DOT [PDF].

The northernmost section, between Richmond Terrace and Forest Avenue, will get sharrows. On the southernmost section, from Broadway to Howard Avenue, existing car lanes will be narrowed to make room for five-foot, painted bike lanes on each side of the four-lane road.

For the half-mile in between, which runs from Forest Avenue to Broadway near the Staten Island Zoo, DOT is proposing a road diet. The street will be converted from four lanes in each direction to two, with a striped center median and turn lane. Painted bike lanes will be added in both directions.

The plan also nets 14 new parking spaces and converts approximately 103 parking spaces on Clove Road from overnight-only to 24-hour parking.

“It adds a bike lane, it adds pedestrian improvements, and it actually adds parking,” said Transportation Alternatives Staten Island organizer Greg Mihailovich. While there was some skepticism of the road diet from CB 1 members on Tuesday, Mihailovich said, most seem to believe the project “would protect pedestrians and it would help traffic flow.”

DOT first showed the plan to CB 1 last November [PDF], and presented a modified plan [PDF] on Tuesday to the CB 1 transportation committee. The new plan features additional turn lanes, including dedicated right-turn lanes at Purcell Street, Martling Avenue, and Broadway.

Despite general support, CB 1 has yet to vote on a resolution backing the proposal. “[DOT] will review suggestions from attendees before finalizing a plan,” an agency spokesperson said. “We anticipate the community board will support the project at its next full board meeting in May. DOT is aiming for implementation in the early summer.”