Whoopi Goldberg isn’t the only one who hates bike lanes.
A battle over bikeways has erupted in Manhattan where the lanes were installed as a contingency measure ahead of the L train shutdown.
With the shutdown plan in flux, some residents are demanding that the lanes be removed and parking restored.
The DOT eliminated one lane of parking on 12th and 13th streets when it installed the bike lanes, which run from Avenue C to Eighth Avenue.
Drivers are now using the painted buffer next to the bike lanes as illegal parking spots while others search in vain for spaces.
“It’s a nightmare finding parking around here,” said Michael Gomez, 58, who lives on East 13th Street. “Now it’s intolerable.”
Gomez said he’s even gone as far as parking in Brooklyn and taking the L train back home to the East Village.
Some haters have resorted to vandalism with broken glass spotted this month on parts of the bike lane in the West Village, according to Streetsblog NYC.
Graffiti reading “Bring back our parking!” was found painted on East 13th Street and a sign saying “Bike lanes only benefit other people” popped up in the West Village,” the blog reported.
Goldberg unloaded on Mayor de Blasio during his appearance last week on the “The View,” deriding the proliferation of bike lanes in general.
“You screwed the city up!” she barked at Hizzoner.
The 14th Street Coalition, which represents blocks associations and sued to stop the L train shutdown, is asking the city to remove the bike lanes and abandon a plan to turn 14th Street into a busway with a ban on traffic.
Red bus lanes have already been painted on 14th Street and new signs prohibiting turns installed. Some bus stops were also relocated.
Paul Mulhauser, a member of the coalition’s steering committee, said the changes were no longer needed and the city and MTA should return “normalcy” to 14th Street.
“They committed to making all of this temporary,” he said.
Instead of shuttering the entire L train line, as had been planned, a new proposal would confine work to one tube at a time in the Canarsie Tunnel and only on nights and weekends.
The city Department of Transportation said no decisions have been made about whether the mitigation measures such as the bike lanes and dedicated bus routes would remain. The agency could not provide a cost estimate for the work already in place.
Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group, wants to keep both the bus and bike lanes.
“New York has some serious transportation challenges regardless of the L train needing work,” said spokesman Joseph Cutrufo. “It’s pretty clear that Manhattan has some of the worst congestion imaginable.”
Gabriel Manga, 30, a writer who commutes on his bicycle from East 9th Street to Chelsea said the bike lanes made him feel safer and should stay.
“It’s ridiculous that they’re thinking of getting rid of the bike lanes,” he said. “I don’t care what Whoopi Goldberg says.”