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AUG. 4, 2019, BROOKLYN WEEKLY
Mayor announces bike lane expansion
Hizzoner reveals vast $58.4 million plan to construct 80 miles of protected paths by 2021
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
a sweeping, multimillion
dollar plan to
vastly expand the city’s
bike lane network in the
wake of a bloody year that’s
already claimed the lives of
18 cyclists, most of them in
Brooklyn.
De Blasio will funnel
$58.4 million to the Department
of Transportation to
construct 80 miles of protected
bike lanes by the time
he leaves offi ce in 2021, as
part of a grand scheme to lay
out a connected network of
bike paths that span the Five
Boroughs, and hopefully
prevent future fatalities, according
to the mayor.
“The fact that this all
happened in such a small
amount of time — it’s a crisis
and an emergency,” de
Blasio said at a press conference
at Bay Ridge’s PS 170.
“We’ve got to see this end. It
cannot go on like this. These
last weeks have been something
that should never be
repeated in this city.”
Out of the 17 cyclist’s
deaths, 12 occurred in
Brooklyn, and the borough
routinely rates as the deadliest
place to bike in New
York, according to fi gures
provided by the DOT, which
showed that more cyclists
have died in Kings County
than other boroughs in all
but four years since 2008.
So, it seems fi tting that
— in addition to the 30 annual
miles of bike lanes —
the mayor’s plan calls for
the construction of an additional
75 miles of bicycling
infrastructure by in
10 priority districts, seven of
which are in Kings County.
These priority zones include
parts of Bay Ridge,
Borough Park, Midwood,
Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island,
East Flatbush, Bedford
Stuyvesant, Bushwick,
Brownsville, and East New
York.
The department will use
most of the funds to hire 80
new transportation workers,
adding to its existing 110
staff members.
In Brooklyn, the fi rst
phase of the bike lane expansion
will bridge the large
ROLL OUT: Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his new $58.4 million bike safety plan, which will start by adding 80 miles of protected cycle lanes across the fi ve boroughs by
the end of his tenure in 2021. Photo by Kevin Duggan
gap in existing cycling paths
between Red Hook and Bay
Ridge, with new protected
bike lanes to create a continuous
route along the
Kings County waterfront
by 2021, linking Greenpoint
via the borough’s western
and southern coasts to the
frontiers of East New York,
where riders can continue
onto existing Queens bike
lanes to distant Rockaway.
De Blasio also vowed
to speed up construction
of an ongoing Fourth Avenue
bike lane through Park
Slope and Sunset Park, connecting
with existing bike
paths that will take riders to
Downtown Brooklyn, Prospect
Park, and Bay Ridge, in
addition to forging new eastbound
routes connecting
with Ocean Parkway.
Hizzoner also vowed to
resist pressure from bikewary
community boards
that shoot down city proposals
to install bike lanes
through their neighborhoods,
saying that, while he
valued their on-the-ground
perspective, that he would
use his executive mandate
to roll out the cycling infrastructure
regardless of any
grassroots resistance.
“Community boards’
voices should always be
heard, because sometimes
what a community board offers
is a perspective on how
to do it better,” he said. “But
you know, inaction is not
acceptable. That’s the standard
I’ve held. If a community
board offers a critique
or alternative that’s a better
way to do things, great. If
they simply want no change
and we believe no change
means less safety, I just give
the order.”
The plan calls for the Police
Department to crack
down on risky driving behavior
— such as speeding
and failure to yield — in addition
to featuring monthly
enforcement sweeps, dubbed
“operation safe passage,”
targeting motorists blocking
bike lanes.
And NYPD traffi c agents
will keep their eyes peeled
for reckless truckers, according
to de Blasio, who
noted trucks have been involved
in 40 percent of cycling
deaths this year.
“I want everyone that
drives a truck in this city to
know that the NYPD will be
watching and they will take
action if any trucker does
the wrong thing and endangers
a bicyclist” he said.
The mayor touted the
success of a three-week enforcement
blitz he ordered
police to conduct in the
wake of a Williamsburg
bike fatality during the fi rst
three weeks of July, when
offi cers handed out double
the amount of tickets for
cars blocking bike lanes as
compared to that same time
period last year, hizzoner
claimed.
But the mayor’s multimillion
dollar infrastructure
scheme falls short for
some bike advocates, including
one Brooklyn lawmaker
who said the mayor should
do more to discourage New
Yorkers from driving, saying
cars remain at the heart
of Kings County’s transit
woes.
“The Mayor’s plan fails to
address the root cause of our
emergency,” Councilman
Carlos Menchaca (D–Sunset
Park) said in an emailed
statement. “What we need
is the courage to break the
car culture and implement
a master plan that protects
the safety of our most vulnerable
street users — cyclists
and pedestrians.”
PROPOSAL: The Department of Transportation plans to connect
several of the borough’s existing bike networks with new safe
lanes, shown in yellow, by 2021. Department of Transportation