Later today, NYC DOT will present its plan to install a protected bike lane on Second Avenue between the Queensboro Bridge/59th Street and 43rd Street to the Manhattan Community Board 6 transportation committee. The project would significantly shrink the gaps in the southbound protected bike lane but still leave cyclists exposed for several blocks approaching both the bridge and the Queens Midtown Tunnel.

In January, Manhattan CB 8 endorsed DOT’s plan for a protected bike lane and pedestrian islands between 68th Street and 105th Street on Second Avenue. And last month DOT unveiled plans to close gaps in the First Avenue protected bike lane in Midtown.

On Second Avenue, DOT said the nine blocks above the bridge would have a “transitional” design of sharrows, implying that the gap would be filled in later. Until there’s a continuous protected route, however, people on bikes will still have to confront intense traffic and intimidating conditions on the streets near the two crossings between Queens and Manhattan.

If you want to speak up for safer biking on Second Avenue and convey the urgency of closing all the gaps, so there’s a continuous bikeway and safer pedestrian crossings along the length of the whole street, tonight’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the NYU School of Dentistry, at 433 First Avenue.