Upper East Side Politicians Unite To Fight Bike Lane

Elected officials who represent the Upper East Side are throwing their political weight behind growing opposition to the city's plan to paint a bicycle lane on a car-free segment of East 91st Street.

Responding to objections from the Upper East Side's congresswoman, four state lawmakers, the president of Manhattan, two City Council members, the community board chairman, and other officials who penned letters to city officials this week expressing opposition to a bike path they said would make the street more dangerous for the children and senior citizens who use it, a spokeswoman for the Department of Transportation said the city would consider an alternate plan for a bike route on East 89th Street.

It will come to a decision within a few weeks, she said.

The quiet, car-free block of East 91st Street that stretches between Second and Third avenues has been used as a park for 30 years, since it was zoned a city "play" street.

"Generations of Upper East Side pedestrians have become accustomed to relaxing their guard when strolling along the block," Rep. Carolyn Maloney said in a letter sent yesterday to the Department of Transportation. The bike path poses huge risks to pedestrians from "lawless bike-riders," she said.

A bike lane on East 91st Street could feed cyclists into Central Park. A state senator of the Upper East Side, Jose Serrano, said bike lanes should be painted on streets where cyclists need protection from passing vehicles, not where they would encourage riders to pedal on pedestrian promenades. Preserving the tranquility of the street has struck a chord with Upper East Side residents, who say daily life there has already been turned on its head because of construction on the Second Avenue Subway.

"The area already sort of looks like Beirut," the chairman of Community Board 8, David Liston, said. "I've never seen the Upper East Side unify on anything quite like this."

Cycling advocates, meanwhile, are defending the bike lane.

"Though cycle volumes are low, people already ride bikes slowly up 91st Street's steep hill, and it'll stay that way," a spokeswoman for Transportation Alternatives, Caroline Samponaro, said.