New York Grand Street bike lane row: Manhattan board asks DOT to revise 8-foot two-way path

Manhattan Community Board 2 has passed a non-binding resolution opposing the Department of Transportation's (DOT) bike lane plan for Grand Street, asking the agency to go back to the drawing board: widen the lane, or shift it onto Canal Street instead.

Eight feet shared by two directions

Under the redesign DOT unveiled in July, Grand Street's currently eastbound protected bike lane would become an 8-foot-wide two-way crosstown path between Varick and Chrystie Streets — just four feet in each direction. Officials said the city needed to find balance by preserving curbside parking spots.

Critics point out that the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) recommends against two-way bike lanes at just eight feet, saying they should be avoided except on short segments — while the Grand Street lane runs for 16 blocks. At a committee meeting, one resident called four feet almost dangerously narrow for two-way traffic, warning that fast e-bikes risk head-on collisions; another cited the fatal crash in May on the Queensboro Bridge bike path, which at 11 feet is actually three feet wider than the Grand Street proposal.

DOT says it will press ahead

DOT plans to complete the western section, from Varick to Centre Street, by year's end, and finish the remaining six blocks to Chrystie Street next year. The redesign belongs to DOT's years-in-the-works overhaul of Canal Street, meant to give pedestrians and cyclists more space between the Manhattan Bridge and the Holland Tunnel; the crosstown paths would link the East River bridges to the Hudson River Greenway.

A DOT spokesperson told Streetsblog the agency plans to forge ahead with its redesign, saying that after evaluating all east-west routes, Grand Street provides the best crosstown route for cyclists, and New Yorkers cannot afford yet another delay to the Canal Street redesign. The board, meanwhile, asked DOT to address traffic signals on the two-way bike lane on Lafayette Street and Fourth Avenue first, and to study moving the route to Canal Street entirely. The resolution is non-binding; the final decision rests with DOT.