Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani and New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Commissioner Mike Flynn today announced that the City will double the width of one of Manhattan's busiest protected bike lanes along Sixth Avenue to improve safety ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup™.
"What better way to welcome the World Cup than by making our streets safer and more accessible for everyone who uses them?" said Mayor Mamdani. "From Sixth Avenue in Manhattan to Broadway in Queens and the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, we're redesigning our streets to better protect pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike. Long after the sun sets on this summer of celebration, these improvements will continue serving New Yorkers every single day."
"The Mamdani administration has tasked us to work with urgency to improve safety on our streets. With a colorful history, Sixth Avenue now hosts one the city's most popular bike lanes, and it is time we make it even better," said NYC DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn. "New Yorkers and visitors alike should be able to connect to Manhattan's major tourist destinations comfortably, whether they are traveling by bike, on foot or by car. Widening this bike lane will make the street safer for everyone and provide a calmer, more comfortable cycling experience by allowing more room for passing."
The project will expand the protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue from six feet to 10 feet between 14th Street and West 31st Street. Between 31st and 35th streets, NYC DOT will maintain the existing five-foot protected bike lane and add nine feet of expanded pedestrian space with a painted sidewalk extension. Wider bike lanes create a safer and more comfortable riding experience by allowing faster riders, including e-bike users, to pass more safely while also supporting side-by-side riding.
In 2024, NYC DOT installed a double-wide protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue from Lispenard Street in Tribeca to West 13th Street in Greenwich Village, closing a key gap in the City's bike network. This latest project will extend those improvements farther into Midtown.
Bicycle ridership across New York City continues to grow. Daily bike trips over the East River bridges reached a record high of nearly 29,000 riders in 2025 - almost 18 times the number recorded in 1980, when the City first began tracking bicycle traffic on the bridges.
In 1980, Sixth Avenue briefly became home to New York City's first on-street protected bike lane. Inspired by a visit to China, Mayor Ed Koch directed the former Department of Traffic to install a curb-protected lane in Midtown. The lane generated significant controversy and hostility at the time, including from then-Governor Hugh Carey, and was removed six months later. The current protected lane was installed in 2020.
While safety has improved under the current street design, Sixth Avenue remains one of NYC DOT's Vision Zero Priority Corridors, meaning it has a high rate of pedestrian deaths and serious injuries per mile. Between 2019 and 2023, there were 29 traffic deaths and severe injuries recorded along this stretch of Sixth Avenue. Similar redesign projects have reduced deaths and serious injuries for all road users by 30% and for pedestrians by 31.7%.
NYC DOT plans to complete installation of the widened bike lane before the World Cup matches begin in June.
"Sixth Avenue is one of the busiest corridors in all of New York City, and every New Yorker - and the millions of visitors descending on the city for the World Cup this summer - who walks, bikes or drives on it deserves to feel safe," said Congressman Jerrold Nadler. "Widening the Sixth Avenue bike lane will make our streets safer for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers near some of our most visited destinations. I'm proud to have supported protected bike lanes all over my district, and this initiative will greatly benefit my constituents from the East to the West Side in our fight for safer streets."
"I'm grateful to Mayor Mamdani, Commissioner Flynn and DOT for moving forward with the widening of the protected bike lanes on Sixth Avenue, one of the busiest cycling corridors in Manhattan. As more New Yorkers choose to bike to work, school and everywhere in between, we need streets that are safer and better designed for everyone. These improvements will help make cycling in Manhattan safer, faster and more accessible for all," said Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
"The expansion of the Sixth Avenue bike lane, which runs through the heart of Council District 3, is a major step in creating safe and effective micro mobility options across New York City," said Council Member Carl Wilson. "This investment guarantees protected biking in one of the most highly traversed corridors in the City. As a Citibike user myself, I am pleased to see this improvement, and I am so grateful to DOT for their quick efforts to move this project forward."
"We're thrilled to see that DOT is widening the Sixth Avenue bike lane to meet New Yorkers' growing demand for getting around by bike," said Emily Jacobi, Senior Organizer at Transportation Alternatives. "As warmer weather brings even more people onto our streets, we need infrastructure that keeps everyone safe and makes it easier for people to hop on a bike during the World Cup and beyond! Joining recent expansions on Second, Third, Ninth and Tenth Avenues, this upgrade is another great sign that our streets are evolving."
"Major global events should leave cities better than they found them, and we are thrilled to see the New York City Department of Transportation and Mayor Mamdani use this moment to accelerate the kinds of mobility improvements that make streets work better every day, from protected bike infrastructure to faster, more reliable buses," said Adrian Cacho, Senior Organizer at Open Plans. "The World Cup is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how we make New York City's public spaces calmer, more welcoming and more vibrant. Improvements like a wider protected bike lane on Sixth Avenue will help people better access and move safely around Greeley and Herald Squares, public spaces that deserve continued investment."
