Residents clash over Central Park West bike lane plan

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - Over the course of more than two hours at a meeting of Community Board on the Upper West Side, hundreds of residents and others cheered, clapped, pleaded, and cried about a very contentious topic: removing 400 parking spots to make way for a protected bike lane.

They begged for safety barriers and for leniency for middle-class New Yorkers who rely on street parking.

The Department of Transportation's proposal would install plastic barriers over 2 miles of roadway from 59th Street to 110th Street on the northbound side of Central Park West. The DOT said the street is too narrow for parking and bikes, so something has to give.

Members of the Community Board voted to support the plan. DOT will begin installing bike lanes this summer. The project could be finished in 2020.

So far this year, 15 cyclists have been killed on the streets of New York. In all of 2018, 10 cyclists died.