City scraps Sunset double bike lane
Locals continue to call for changes to controversial DOT plan for 7th, 8th Aves
BY JESSICA PARKS
City transportation honchos
scrapped their plans to
build protected bike lanes on
both Seventh and Eighth Avenues
in Sunset Park, opting
instead to build a single twoway
lane on Seventh.
“Through substantial engagement
with local businesses
and stakeholders, we
are modifying our plans for
these corridors to better address
community needs — most
importantly making the streets
safer for everyone,” Seth Stein,
a spokesperson for the city Department
of Transportation,
said in a statement to Brooklyn
Paper.
While both avenues will
still be converted to become
one-way between 39th and 65th
streets, the city DOT’s updated
plan nixed the idea of having a
single bike lane in both directions,
and on both avenues.
The new plan will also keep
parking on Eighth Avenue,
while still extending the sidewalk
near intersections.
DOT’s change of heart
comes after some members
of Sunset Park’s Asian community
COURIER LIFE, N 30 OVEMBER 19-25, 2021
slammed the original
plan as potentially destroying
commerce in their ethnic enclave,
as it would remove muchneeded
parking.
After several community
board meetings, a lawsuit, and
a protest outside of Transportation
Commissioner Hank Gutman’s
home, the community’s
concerns were fi nally heard
and the city agency offered a
compromise — an altered plan
that provides more space for
cars, while still allowing for
curb extensions at crosswalks
and a protected bike lane to provide
more safety to the pedestrians
and cyclists in the area,
which has typically lacked traffi
c-calming infrastructure.
The travel lanes on both
thoroughfares will be reduced
to one with Eighth Avenue traveling
north and Seventh Avenue
in the opposite direction,
but they will both continue to
feature two parking lanes from
39th to 60th streets in the modifi
ed proposal.
“The community is happy
that fi nally DOT is really opening
up and hearing our concerns,”
Paul Mak, head of the
Brooklyn Chinese American
Association, said.
Still, despite the major concession
from DOT, Mak is still
pushing for more changes to
the street-design overhaul.
“There are still one or two
issues on Eighth and Seventh
avenues that we will be contacting
the commissioner again
and hope to resolve,” he said.
A major sticking point for
Mak is he fears that outfi tting
the avenues with only one
travel lane could create more
congestion and create a standstill
when double-parking inevitably
occurs. “The community
is really concerned about
the bottlenecking that will be
created as a part of their proposal,”
Mak said. “By only having
one travel lane, whenever
there is double parking, whenever
someone puts their car in
the bus stop… then it will really
hold up the whole avenue with
all the traffi c.”
But on the fl ip side, a cofounder
of a southern Brooklyn
bicyclist group is disappointed
with the changes on Eighth
Avenue as he was hoping the
plan would calm the congested
corridor and asks that the city
agency not make any further
changes to the now lacking
plan.
“The plan they’ve come up
with for Eighth Avenue largely
is forsaken the benefi t for anyone
who is traveling on foot
or by bike,” Brian Hedden, cofounder
of Bike South Brooklyn,
told Brooklyn Paper. “I
wouldn’t say there is zero improvement
on Eighth Avenue
over what currently exists, but
it is far inferior to what they
originally proposed.
Although, Hedden said the
city Department of Transportation
turned around a better
plan for Seventh Avenue with
the adjustments.
“As far as the new proposal
for Seventh Avenue, I would
actually say it was better than
what they came up with before,”
he said. “My personal
feeling is that DOT should be
doing more two-way bike paths
and one-way car traffi c streets,
I think it will be of some benefi t
mostly to the businesses on Seventh
Avenue and to anyone who
is going point-to-point on Seventh
Avenue.”
He batted away the common
“misconception” that installing
a bike lane in place of
some parking spots destroys
small businesses, but instead
argued that commercial areas
that have seen the construction
of bike lanes have reported
boosts in business.
This story has been edited
for brevity. For more on the
DOT’s plan for Seventh and
Eighth avenues, visit Brooklyn-
Paper.com.
“DOT is really opening up and hearing our concerns.”
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