6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JUNE 28, 2020
LANE BLAME! City offi cial ‘misspoke’ about Brooklyn Bridge bike lane: DOT
This newspaper is not responsible for typographical errors in ads beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2020 by Brooklyn Courier
Life LLC. The content of this newspaper is protected by Federal copyright law. This newspaper, its advertisements, articles, and photographs may not be reproduced, either in
whole or part, without permission in writing from the publisher except brief portions for purposes of review or commentary consistent with the law. Postmaster, send address
changes to Courier Life, One MetroTech Center North, Third Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Department of
Transportation cast
blame on one of its staffers
on June 22, claiming the
offi cial “misspoke” when
she said the agency was
in talks with Mayor Bill
de Blasio’s offi ce about a
potential bike lane on the
Brooklyn Bridge’s roadway.
“The DOT employee,
who may not have had every
detail on this available,
misspoke,” said Scott
Gastel in a statement..
When asked about the
staffer’s comments at the
mayor’s daily press briefing
earlier that day, the
agency’s commissioner
Polly Trottenberg spoke
only in vague terms about
having discussed in the
past the troubles cyclists
face when crossing the
East River, without providing
any specifi cs on
further plans for more
space to pedaling across
the borough’s namesake
bridge.
“It’s been sort of a longstanding
question for the
East River bridges which
are certainly — particularly
the Brooklyn and the
Queensboro — you know,
pinch points for cycling
in and out of Manhattan,
about whether we can
take look at traffi c lanes,
it’s something the agency’s
looked at,” Trottenberg
said at the press conference.
However, DOT’s liaison
for Downtown Brooklyn’s
Community Board 2
previously told its Transportation
Committee on
June 18 that the agency
was in talks with Hizzoner’s
office about turning
one of the roadways
on the iconic span into
a bike lane, adding that
more information was to
come soon.
“DOT is in talks with
the mayor’s offi ce and
City Hall for conducting
a study about the feasibility
of a bikeway on the
mainline of the Brooklyn
Bridge and you may hear
about that in the coming
weeks,” Emily Riquelme
told the civic panel at a
virtual hearing .
The agency on June 22
declined to provide any
further details beyond
Trottenberg’s comments.
“The Commissioner
clarifi ed where things
stand,” Gastel said in his
statement.
De Blasio said at the
morning briefi ng that
he had not heard of the
plans, adding his concerns
whether the scheme
would work because of the
heavy car traffi c crossing
the bridge.
“The Brooklyn Bridge,
that one’s a sensitive one,
because it’s such a crucial
artery,” he said at a press
briefi ng June 22. “I had not
heard that, I’m not sure
how workable that is.”
Trottenberg also clarifi
ed that offi cials had yet
to discuss it with Hizzoner
directly.
“To be fair to the
mayor, I don’t think the
discussion has made it to
his level yet,” she said.
The agency’s blame on
one of its staffers came after
Trottenberg tried to
discredit this reporter’s
story as inaccurate, despite
a full recording of
the virtual meeting being
readily available online.
“Somehow I think between
maybe what the
staffer said and what was
in that article, it wasn’t
quite accurate,” Trottenberg
said. “It said that the
DOT, we had completed
our study of looking at
whether the promenade
on the bridge could accommodate
more space
for bikes, but we haven’t,
so that part isn’t true.”
But Riquelme had told
the committee that the
study for the pedestrian
walkway was in fact fi nished
and that it found the
expansion to be unfeasible.
In 2016, the agency hired
consulting fi rm Aecom to
do a seven-month, $370,000
engineering study to see
how much weight the span
can carry and look into
ways to expand the existing
promenade, by decking
over parts of the girders
that run above the car
lanes, the Times reported
at the time.
The Department of
Transportation’s press offi
ce declined to provide a
more detailed update on
the almost four-year-old
study.
The Brooklyn Bridge Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates