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Comment by rememberlenny | Hacker News Reader

This is one of the more exciting things that has happened to traffic in NYC. Getting rid of cars in a city isn't possible, but being able to make this change to one street at a time seems feasible.

I live a block away from this area, and it's completely transformed the neighborhood. It's much safer to walk across 14th st. There are many shops in the area that seem to be getting more foot traffic (no data behind this). There are more people congregating around the bench/sitting areas around 14th street.

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I visited 14th street yesterday and was amazed by the change. I'm hoping that the city stops offering free street parking next.

Free street parking in Manhattan. Can anything be more ludicrous and unfair?

Not sure if your comment is sarcastic. But free is a major mispricing by the city. All you need to do is go to the garage next door to see that they charge $40 for the day.

The streets are a public good and they should be for cyclists and pedestrians.

This is a better strategy than trying to put bike lanes on every street. Drivers don't pay attention enough. Risk of getting doored or having some car turn right without checking their blindspot/mirrors is too high.

Vancouver took their 2-lane each way (4 total) roads and dedicated the outer lane to bikes. They protected that lane from car with planters. So, it can definitely be done.

That said, IDK if it’s a resounding success. There may be measures by which it is, I’m just not aware.

For example, I found it difficult as a pedestrian and saw a few collisions and lots of near misses between bikes and pedestrians. The planters create a nice protected area which feels like it’s safe for walking and crossing. But the bikes were moving quickly and quite unyielding in their perceived right-of-way.

When we were there, there was definitely other challenges. There were terrible traffic jams - especially going into the city. It seems like a lot of traffic needs to go through the city to get somewhere else. It didn’t seem like they had adequate public transportation.

> Vancouver took their 2-lane each way (4 total) roads and dedicated the outer lane to bikes. They protected that lane from car with planters. So, it can definitely be done.

Makes snowplowing a mess. NYC can’t just shutdown like Vancouver does every time it snows :)

It is street parking that ruins winter for bikes. The snow plows can't get to the edge of the road, so the bike lane which marks the parking/plowable road area suffers.

I don't think it's a big deal because we don't really get a lot of snow in NYC. A plan to improve the 50 weeks a year without snow on the ground is better than not doing the plan because a couple weeks in February will be miserable.

About 20-40 inches per year in NYC, while 12 is lucky in a year in Vancouver. And is prone to melting when the sun comes out.

The Pacific moderates a lot better than the Atlantic!

Here in Copenhagen, the city has narrow versions of the usual equipment for clearing bike lanes. The bike lanes are cleared before the car lanes!

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/12/ultimate-bike-lane-snow...

Dooring and people having to check their blind spots is a sign of bad bike lanes.

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