Resident urges protected bike lane on Morris Park Ave, cites safety risks

A Bronx resident told Community Board 11 on Dec. 18 that Morris Park Ave’s existing two unprotected bike lanes endangered riders and should be reconfigured into one protected lane.

“Right now, we have 2 unprotected bike lanes that are 5 feet in width and I’d like to bring them together to 1 side to make 1 protected bike lane,” said Gabriel Zayun, who identified himself as a resident during a gallery presentation. He said the change would require “taking just a foot from somewhere else” along the roadway.

Zayun described frequent “dooring” incidents, double parking and U-turns that push cyclists out into motor-vehicle lanes. He said six people were killed this year in New York City by dooring incidents and that the current design effectively makes the lane unusable for many residents. “It’s a double parking lane,” he said of the current configuration.

The proposal Zayun described would consolidate the two existing bike lanes into a single protected lane on one side of the street, using small reallocations of roadway width and possible buffers. He said the change could increase ridership, help local businesses by making short trips feasible by bike, and expand access for families and people with mobility limits.

Board members and residents asked technical questions about where the extra foot of width would come from and how bus and DOT guidelines might affect design. At least one board member cautioned that narrowing parking spaces could make it harder for people to open car doors safely, and other participants noted enforcement of parking rules as a parallel issue.

Zayun said his cost and vehicle-ownership figures were anecdotal and that he would submit slides, photos and a summary to the board’s transportation committee for a fuller review. The chair invited Zayun to bring a shortened, 10-minute version of the presentation to the transportation committee so more members could consider it at length.

Because the full board did not reach a quorum, no formal vote or recommendation was taken at the meeting; the transportation committee will be the forum for technical follow-up and any formal board action.