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 BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JUNE 28, 2020 
 LANE BLAME! City offi cial ‘misspoke’ about Brooklyn Bridge bike lane: DOT 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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 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