New, smaller bike signals were installed on the northwest corner of Third Avenue and 69th Street this week–the first of their kind in New York City.
The new signals are smaller and are at eye-level for bicyclists—about five feet off the ground—and have helped cyclists better comply with traffic laws, New York’s Department of Transportation said in a press statement on Wednesday.
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“Our transformative redesign of Third Avenue has already made the street safer —whether you are walking, biking or driving,” NYC DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in the statement. “These new traffic signals for cyclists complement our green wave traffic timing, the next natural step in making sure the thousands of cyclists who use this street every day can keep both themselves and the many pedestrians crossing Third Avenue safe. We are working every day to make our streets safer and to make it easier for New Yorkers to get around our city.”
The NYC DOT completed its redesign of Third Avenue at the end of 2023. Almost two miles of the avenue were revamped to prioritize pedestrian and cyclist safety, with new pedestrian islands, a new offset bus lane and parking-protected bicycle lanes.
The department added that more bicycle-level signals will be installed in the near future. It also mentioned a peer-reviewed paper published at Oregon State University that showed that smaller bike signals increase compliance with traffic laws.
“The average percentage of users who committed a red-light violation [after such signals were installed] decreased from 30.8 percent to 14.8 percent,” the paper states.
In addition to the bike lanes, the Third Avenue “Complete Street” project from 2023 included a redesign of every intersection along the stretch of road to reduce speeding.
“The project now better accommodates all road users, including by delivering faster, more reliable bus service for 50,000 daily riders along the corridor,” the DOT said in its statement.
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A waste of money since cyclists never comply with traffic rules.