Good Morning. Chairman Degnan.  Director Foye.  Commissioners.

My name is Mark Levine. I represent the 7th District in Northern Manhattan, near the George Washington Bridge, where there is a desperate shortage of capacity for pedestrians and bicyclists currently.

We’ve now added a thousand miles of bike lanes in the five boroughs.  On the Jersey side too.  9W is about to be upgraded for bike capacity.

The GWB link is not adequate, even at today’s level of usage. And by any estimate we’re seeing soaring growth in the usage of bicycles on both sides of the river.

You’re now rebuilding a major component of the bridge with the recabling project.  This is the perfect time to upgrade bicycle-pedestrian capacity. You can do it more efficiently, cheaper and more quickly now.  You can take advantage of the lower interest rate climate.

This should be done now, so I’m urging you to not waste this opportunity to give us the kind of modern infrastructure on that bridge that we need to move our bicycle and pedestrian network.

Thank you very much.

Mark Levine, NYC Council Member, 7th District