City revamps plan for Sunset Park thoroughfares, nixes Eighth Avenue bike lane
Tweaks to a plan to reinvent Seventh and Eighth avenues in Sunset Park as one-way streets to improve safety along the strips have made the proposal considerably more palatable to local advocates.
After area residents and merchants protested the proposal en masse, specifically decrying plans by the city’s Department of Transportation to add bike lanes to both Seventh and Eighth Avenues, the city has come back with a new plan — eschewing the bike lane on Eighth Avenue and instead creating a two-way protected bike lane on Seventh Avenue, in accordance with community requests.
Many other aspects of the original proposal are still going forward, says DOT. Included in the updated plan, which will turn the two thoroughfares into one-way streets between 39th and 60th streets, are expanded pedestrian areas along Eighth Avenue between 60th and 51st streets, including both neckdowns (which are added at intersections to shorten the crossing distance) and wider sidewalks, as well as curbside locations dedicated to deliveries.
According to DOT, the number of travel lanes in the project area will be reduced from two to one, with two parking lanes on each of the avenues.