New Bike Lane Uses Parked Cars as Barrier

Bicycles and cars are grudging partners on Manhattan's congested streets, dodging and sometimes cursing each other as they share the road. But soon they won't have to, at least for a few blocks.

The city plans to experiment with a heavily buffered bike lane in one part of the Chelsea neighborhood, City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said. Bicycles will be separated from auto traffic by both a strip of pavement and a lane of parked cars.

The design, which has been tried in Europe, will be installed within the next month on Ninth Avenue between West 16th and West 23rd streets, Sadik-Khan said.

``It represents the kinds of innovative ideas that we can explore to make the streets more livable,'' she said.

The project will condense cars from four lanes to three, but Sadik-Khan said traffic in the area was light enough that the change wouldn't be a problem.

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