New York City added a record number of protected bike lanes this year, breaking the previous record of 18 miles set in 2016 and nearly doubling the number installed in 2015, the Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.
This year saw a 25-mile expansion of the bike network that runs throughout the city for nearly 1,200 miles. Two-thirds of the new mileage was in the outer boroughs.
“Twenty years ago, the city took a big step forward with its first plan to build a bike lane network, and cycling is now growing by orders of magnitude, faster than any other mode of transportation in the city,” DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said at a press conference near the Williamsburg Bridge.
The location was chosen for the role the bridge will play in helping mitigate the thousands of New Yorkers who will be looking for alternate modes of transportation to and from Brooklyn and Manhattan during the L train shutdown in 2019, plans for which the DOT and MTA released last week.
The Williamsburg Bridge, the DOT said, currently has the highest cycling volumes of the East River crossings, with 7,580 cyclists daily. Bike-friendly improvements in its vicinity have included a new crossing for bikers and pedestrians, the creation of dedicated bike lanes and modifying traffic signals.
