This is fantastic, overdue news that will make it faster, easier, and safer for (some) New Yorkers to get into lower and central Manhattan. It’s worth celebrating but should’ve happened years ago and desperately needs to be expanded to serve the millions of New Yorkers who exist north of 60th street.

Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Winnie Hu reporting for the Times:

The bikes lanes are the latest victory for cyclists and transportation advocates who have increasingly pushed Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat in his second term, to chip away at the entrenched car culture that has dominated the city’s more than 6,000 miles of streets.

During the mayor’s tenure, city transportation officials have built more than 120 miles of protected bike lanes as part of the city’s efforts to create 1,375 miles of bike lanes, creating the largest urban network in the nation.

De Blasio’s leadership on transit issues and reducing cars in the city has been, frankly, pretty poor; his administration has done the bare minimum to expand access. The pandemic was a massive opportunity to recalibrate the city’s streets for more equitable access and the city completely blew it — if anything, cars are more prevalent (time will tell if this trend sticks around or if people realize owning a car in the city is too much of a pain in the ass).

And huge kudos to Transportation Alternatives, whose multi-decade push for better streets went completely unmentioned in the Times piece, for their Bridges 4 People plan that laid the groundwork for making this happen.