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Claims of surging e-bikes and slower car traffic on a stretch of Third Avenue following a traffic light reconfiguration have some Upper East Siders up in arms, even as transportation officials highlight its benefits.
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An article published Wednesday in the New York Post claims that the portion of Third Avenue that spans between 60th and 96th streets has become an e-bike “racetrack” following a Department of Transportation initiative that retimed the area’s traffic lights from 25 mph to 15 mph. The new sequencing was installed at the end of January.
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“Bike riders are having a field day up here but this has done absolutely nothing to improve the lives of drivers,” Upper East Sider Anthony La Russa, 54, told the Post. “Third Avenue used to be every driver’s favorite avenue because of the way the lights were timed, but the city doesn’t know how to leave well enough alone.”
Slightly inconveniencing drivers, though, has helped others on the road—the initiative was spearheaded to make roads safer for cyclists. Between 2020 and 2023, there was an average of 59 crashes with injuries a year, along with five fatalities, according to Department of Transportation data. Since 2023, when the city added a protected bike lane on Third Avenue, injuries have dropped by 33 percent. All of this is part of a citywide initiative aimed at promoting cycling called “Green Wave.”
Others interviewed by the Post voiced concern about cyclists and e-bike riders flouting the rules of the road and speeding down Third Avenue.
“Who’s enforcing the bike riders, the e-bike riders who go as fast as they want and go through red lights without getting ticketed?” delivery driver Kasper Overgaard asked the Post, highlighting an issue that impacts every single street in the city and is in no way exclusive to Third Avenue.
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Vincent Barone, press secretary for NYC DOT, told East Side Feed in an email that these traffic lights aren’t “slowing down” traffic for cars, explaining that drivers can still go 25 mph.
“With this minor adjustment to traffic lights on Third Avenue, we hope to make the street safer for pedestrians and more comfortable for cyclists and drivers by delivering more consecutive green lights most of the day,” Barone said in his email. “NYC DOT’s redesign of Third Avenue has significantly reduced serious injuries—whether you’re walking, biking, or in a car on the corridor—and this Green Wave builds on that work, with traffic lights better timed to daytime speeds to help reduce red-light running among cyclists and overnight speeding among drivers.”
Preliminary DOT data shared with East Side Feed shows that both vehicular and bus traffic on the 36-street stretch has been flowing steadily with no issues.
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At what times of the day did vehicle traffic formerly move fluidly up Third Ave from 60th St?
I don’t agree with it moving freely. I had to brake at every light from 88th to 96th street last week. Even if you lower your speed limit to 15, when you leave the red light, there are cars at the next light who haven’t taken off yet because they don’t have a green light yet. It was stop and go for me the whole 9 blocks. Very frustrating.
And then one time recently as a pedestrian, I had a red light to cross Third Ave at 87th St. going west, and looking south, there was not one car in sight for several blocks going north. Looking south, i saw cars off in the distance stopped at a red light. And it was a weekday and should have been more traffic going north. It was very strange.
And yes, those e-bikes and scooters don’t think that the lights apply to them. I almost got hit by an e-bike on 2nd Avenue. I abruptly turned on the sidewalk to cross 2nd avenue heading west on E 86th St because I still had a few seconds left on my Walk sign, but an e-bike went through the red light at 86th heading south on 2nd in the bike lane and almost clipped me. And they often ride the wrong way on 3rd avenue. If you forget to look both ways when you cross the bike lane, you might be hit