Perhaps they should be the not-so-Priority Bicycle Districts
In 2017, the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) designated ten Priority Bicycle Districts — seven in Brooklyn (Community Districts 303, 304, 305, 312, 314, 315 and 317) and three in Queens (Community Districts 403, 404 and 405). These specially designated districts are marked by “comparatively high numbers of cyclist KSI [(combined fatalities and severe injuries)] — suggesting significant bicycle ridership — and few dedicated bicycle facilities.” At the time of the designation, these districts “represent[ed] 14% of the City’s bicycle lane network and 23% of cyclist KSI.” The NYC DOT vowed to do better. Six years later, has actual progress been made?
It does not seem that NYC DOT prioritizes new projects within the designated Priority Bicycle Districts
Given their name, one would imagine that Priority Bicycle Districts would see a greater number of projects, or at least a higher rate of bike lane construction, than the remaining undesignated districts. Yet in analyzing the current and previous years’ NYC DOT bicycle route projects, it becomes clear that that is not the case.
Indeed, by compiling the total number of projects per year within the designated Priority Bicycle Districts and comparing those figures to the total number of projects per year within the remaining undesignated community districts, we can see that those projects within the designated Priority Bicycle Districts make up but a small share of the total projects undertaken by NYC DOT each year. In 2017, projects within the designated Priority Bicycle Districts accounted for 22.73% of all bicycle route projects. Not horrible given that the Priority Bicycle Districts account for 16.95% of all New York City community districts. Unfortunately, it’s all downhill from there. The following years saw Priority Bicycle District projects account for 16.67% (2018), 6.67% (2019), 6.25% (2020), 9.09% (2021), 14.29% (2022) and 14.29% (2023) of all bicycle route projects.
There is, perhaps, room for hope. 2022 may have been an abysmal year for total number of bicycle route projects (just seven were completed throughout the whole city), but it was also the year in which the City Council and Mayor Adams agreed to fund the 2021 NYC Streets Plan to the tune of an average of roughly $200 million per year, or nearly $3 billion total, from 2022 to 2031. Passed by the City Council in December of 2019, Local Law 195 calls for the NYC DOT to “ issue and implement a transportation master plan every five years.” The 2021 NYC Streets Plan, which calls for, among other things, the construction of 250 miles of protected bike lanes (at least 30 miles in 2022 and at least 50 miles each year from 2023–2026), is the result of that legislation. The marked uptick in total number of projects this year was likely caused by these new benchmarks. Though room for improvement still remains. Only 67% of the required 30 miles of protected bike lanes were constructed in 2022 and we’re on pace to only complete 59% of the required 50 miles of protected bike lanes by year’s end.
At this point, it should be acknowledged that the Priority Bicycle Districts make up a small minority of the 59 total community districts comprising New York City. But even correcting for this, we can see that no real prioritization appears to be taking place.
Looking at the historic bike route network data from 2017, the year of priority designation, in comparison with that from the current bike route network of 2023, we can see no real difference in the rate of bike lane construction. The ten Priority Bicycle Districts saw an increase in total bike lane length of 38.03% (from 152,858.02 feet in 2017 to 210,989.81 feet as of this writing). Meanwhile, the remaining 49 undesignated districts saw an increase in total bike lane length of 38.76% (from 898,649.36 feet in 2017 to 1,244,147.11 feet as of this writing). It would be hard to argue there is any real discernible difference in the rate of bike lane construction between the two. Much less one that favors the Priority Bicycle Districts as we would expect. In fact, the undesignated districts technically saw a higher rate of constructed lanes since the 2017 designation.
Bike lane construction within the Priority Bicycle Districts has been slow and unequal
Adding insult to injury, in visualizing the new bike lanes added each year from the 2017 designation to present, we can see just how small the progress actually is. 2018, 2022 and 2023 in particular saw very few new lanes added the existing network within the Priority Bicycle Districts. Not only has the progress been small, it has also been unequal. Over the last six years, not a single foot of new bike lane infrastructure has been added in Priority Bicycle Districts 305, 312, 314 or 317. Within the same period of time, several new lanes have been added in Priority Bicycle Districts 304, 305, 403 and 404.
When the NYC DOT established the Priority Bicycle Districts in 2017, it promised to install 75 miles of new bike lanes within those districts by 2022. Unfortunately, as of February 2023, only 56 miles had been installed. Additionally, several notable projects within these districts have stalled or slowed. The highly-supported Bedford Avenue bike lane redesign, which would provide Priority Bicycle District 303 with its first-ever protected bike lane and its first feet of new bike lane since the 2017 designation, was initially given a start date of summer 2023. Alas, it’s nearly the end of 2023 and construction has yet to begin. Local Council Member Chi Ossé has stated construction is now unlikely to begin until spring 2024. This is but one of several such projects that have been delayed or scaled back recently.
Unsurprisingly, the Priority Bicycle Districts mostly receive a failing grade for bicycle network coverage — not that the rest of the city is doing that well either
Former NYU MUP student, Ryan Morgan, calculated bicycle network coverage grades by council district back in 2019. Using a similar method, I have calculated current bicycle network coverage grades by community district. Recent research has suggested that sharrows — the symbol consisting of a cyclist and two arrows meant to indicate the lane is to be shared by cyclists and drivers — might actually be more dangerous than no bicycle infrastructure at all. As such, when calculating weighted lengths of bike lanes within each community district, using the current bike route dataset, I filtered out any lane consisting of anything other than Type I (protected lanes) or Type II (conventional/painted lanes) bike lane designations. I then weighted the length of each type of bike lane by multiplying the length of Type I lanes by 1.5 and the length of Type II lanes by 1. I then calculated the total weighted length of all bike routes within each community district. Using the NYC Street Centerline dataset, I filtered out all lines consisting of anything other than streets (i.e. bridges, tunnels, etc.) and calculated the total length of all remaining streets within each community district. Finally, I calculated the total weighted percentage of streets that contain legitimate biking infrastructure. I then assigned letter grades for each community district.
As we can see from the above map, all but two of the Priority Bicycle Districts received a failing grade. Only Priority Bicycle Districts 304 and 403 managed to pass, with a grade of C and a grade of D, respectively. Not that the rest of the city is faring much better. Indeed, most community districts are below average. Only a handful of community districts in the main commercial areas of Manhattan and Brooklyn managed to receive a grade of A.
It will likely come as no surprise that the passing community districts are, on average, both richer and whiter than many of the failing community districts. The Priority Bicycle Districts, in particular, are often poorer and more diverse. In failing to properly prioritize bicycle route construction within these districts, the city continues to put those less rich and less white at a higher risk of severe injury or death than their richer, whiter counterparts. With the number of bike trips increasing over 150% over the last decade plus, the likelihood of injury or death the people living, working or just passing through these districts grows.