What: "Bike commuter pools" along Delancey Street escorted by trained marshals
When: Friday, October 24th, 6 pm
Where: Delancey Street and Bowery, Manhattan

More than 3,000 bicyclists cross the Williamsburg Bridge every day, and find themselves amid eight chaotic lanes of traffic on dangerous Delancey Street. A new initiative, Adopt-a-Bike-Lane, is taking aim at this hazardous corridor with the goal of installing a physically-protected bike lane along its entire length. It launches the Delancey Street campaign this Friday evening, with escorted "bike commuter pools" that will change the daunting, solo commutes of the thousands who bike on Delancey into safe, escorted group rides. Rides will leave the starting point every five minutes between 6 and 6:30pm.

"The thousands who ride on Delancey every day shouldn't feel like they are taking their lives in their own hands," says Marin Tockman, founder of Adopt-a-Bike-Lane, who was herself the victim of a crash while riding on Delancey. "We want these rides to show bicyclists how much better their commutes would be if this street made space for them."

Adopt-a-Bike-Lane is supported by Transportation Alternatives, and empowers New York City cyclists to develop bike lane campaigns on their own streets. The campaign's focus on Delancey Street was motivated by the death of Rasha Shamoon, who was killed by a car while riding her bike at Delancey and Bowery on August 5, 2008. Between 1995 and 2005, 99 bicyclists and 308 pedestrians were injured by motor vehicles on Delancey Street. The intersection of Essex and Delancey is the third most dangerous for bicyclists in all of NYC.

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