Much more often than not for fear of inciting the wrath of local community boards who sometimes value easy motoring and cheap parking over safe cycling the DOT chooses to accommodate traffic. In years past, the primacy of traffic was easier for the DOT to justify for rates of cycling were fairly low. But today cycling is skyrocketing — doubling in the past four years on many of the city’s most popular bike routes.Eleven cyclists nave been killed so far this year on New York City streets. Two of the recent deaths occurred on East Houston St., a popular bike route that is devoid of bike lanes. These eleven tragedies represent an almost 100% increase in cyclist deaths over the same period in 2004, during which six cyclists died.In response, Public Advocate Betsey Gotbaum convened a meeting last week between the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), the NYPD, and city cycling groups to negotiate an action plan to prevent future deaths. As negotiations between cycling advocates and the city continue, a familiar obstacle looms large: the DOT’S deference to traffic flow over cyclist safety. At issue is whether the agency will risk compromising the convenience of motorists to carve out safe bike lanes on popular routes like East Houston St. Because safe bike lanes require seven feet of street width, the DOT often has to decide between usurping a traffic or parking lane to install a bike lane, thus risking additional traffic delay and parking scarcity or keeping the traffic lane, thus risking additional cyclist injuries and deaths. Much more often than not for fear of inciting the wrath of local community boards who sometimes value easy motoring and cheap parking over safe cycling the DOT chooses to accommodate traffic. In years past, the primacy of traffic was easier for the DOT to justify for rates of cycling were fairly low. But today cycling is skyrocketing doubling in the past four years on many of the city’s most popular bike routes. In light of this increase and to prevent further deaths, cycling advocates are calling upon Mayor Bloomberg to change the craven calculus his DOT uses to gauge the relative importance of easy motoring versus safe bicycling.