Transportation Alternatives celebrates completion
of Queens Boulevard redesign
BY BILL PARRY
It was a celebratory bike
ride more than a decade in the
making.
Transportation Alternatives
volunteers, elected officials
and supporters gathered
in Sunnyside and rode all the
way to Borough Hall on Sunday,
Nov. 14, on the Queens
Boulevard protected bike lane
they advocated for, and asked
for more to be done to protect
cyclists.
“This celebration belongs
to the countless activists who
over the course of a decade have
participated in rallies, events,
collected petitions, and stood
up for undoing the destructive
legacy of the ‘Boulevard of
Death,’” Transportation Alternatives
senior organizer Juan
Restrepo said. “Through your
activism, fewer families along
the boulevard will know the
torment that is losing a loved
one to traffic violence. Mayorelect
Adams will look at extending
this project to its original
endpoint, Jamaica Avenue in
Jamaica.”
The extension of the project
into Jamaica would fulfill
the vision of Lizi Rahman who
rode along with the activists.
She held a portrait of her son
Asif, a poet, rapper and artist
who was struck and killed
on the boulevard by a reckless
truck driver in 2008 as he rode
his bike home from work.
“Part of me is very sad
and part of me is very happy,”
Rahman said. “After he died, I
started this campaign. From
now on, more people in the future,
they will be safe, so that’s
a happy feeling for me. I’m sure
he’s smiling in heaven and he is
happy, too.”
TA also called on the city
to co-name a street in honor of
Rahman who was 22 years old
when he died from his injuries
in Elmhurst. State Senator
John Liu rode along and spoke
of Asif, who would have been 30
had he survived the collision.
“Many years after Asif Rahman
was killed on Queens Boulevard,
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cementing its notoriety
as the ‘Boulevard of Death,’ the
grief and pain is still felt by his
family and community,” Liu
said. “We honor his memory
with the completion of this bike
lane, an important milestone in
the continuing transformation
of Queens Boulevard into the
boulevard of life, and look forward
to seeing more improvements
and reconstruction of
other thoroughfares into more
human-friendly zones.”
The city began installing
the safety infrastructure along
the corridor in Woodside beginning
in 2015 including protected
bike lanes, pedestrian paths,
and improved crosswalks and
intersections. As a result, and
its recent expansion into Forest
Hills and Kew Gardens,
injuries have declined by 19%,
while pedestrian fatalities and
injuries declined by 24%.
“I am grateful to the city
for taking the necessary steps
to address the traffic safety
crisis on Queens Boulevard,”
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi
Lizi Rahman, holding a portrait of her son Asif, celebrates the
completion of the Queens Boulevard redesign during a rally at
Borough Hall. Photo courtesy of Transportation Alternatives
said. “The safety redesigns on
Queens Boulevard including
wider pedestrian crossings and
expanded medians will help
prevent further tragedy from
befalling others in our community.”
Councilman Jimmy Van
Bramer was an early advocate
of the Queens Boulevard reconstruction
and called for bike
lanes on Skillman Avenue and
43rd Avenue in Sunnyside after
cyclist Gelasio Reyes was killed
by a drunk driver in April 2017
at 43rd Avenue and 39th Street.
“From Skillman and 43rd
Avenue to the very first phase
of Queens Boulevard, which established
protected bike lanes
on what was then known as the
‘Boulevard of Death,’ helping
to transform it to a boulevard
of life, we have fought arm-inarm
for the street-changing
successes we have achieved,”
Van Bramer said. “There are
few things I am more proud of
during my time in the Council
than my advocacy to make
our streets safer in western
Queens.”
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