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City punts fi x for ‘treacherous’ Queensboro
Bridge bike and pedestrian path another year
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Cyclists and pedestrians
will have to fend for space for
a year longer than expected
on the Ed Koch-Queensboro
Bridge’s dangerously tight
shared path because the city
decided to postpone giving
walkers their own lane until
the end of next year.
The bridge’s south outer
roadway was supposed to be
dedicated to foot traffic by late
2022, but the Department of
Transportation pushed that
deadline back to December
2023, when the agency wraps
up a 20-month construction
project on the upper deck of
the span, according to a notice
DOT sent to local stakeholders
last week.
Currently, cyclists and pedestrians
have to share the
notoriously narrow northern
outer roadway, while
vehicle traffic takes up nine
lanes across two levels of the
bridge.
The plan announced by former
Mayor Bill de Blasio a year
ago was to give the southern
outer roadway to pedestrians
and make the northern one
bikes-only, mirroring the setup
on the Manhattan Bridge.
“This current situation is
quite treacherous already as
pedestrians and bikes cross
the bridge together in a narrow
space on the north outer
roadway,” the pols wrote in
a Feb. 3 letter. “It is urgent
that the city convert the
south outer roadway into a
pedestrian-only path and the
north outer roadway into a
bicycle-only path to create
more space and remedy the
safety concern.”
DOT’s contract for the work
was already “well out the door”
before the then-mayor’s announcement,
A rendering of the proposed new walkway
an agency rep revealed
to local Queens Community
Board 2 in November, and
officials want to first finish the
repairs first, which begin this
month and last until the end of
next year.
DOT has since bundled the
bike and pedestrian revamp
into the same project, according
to the agency.
The overhaul will extend
the upper deck’s lifespan by between
50 to 75 years after more
than a century of wear and tear
since it opened in June 1909.
During the repairs, one
lane on the upper deck will be
closed at all times and another
one will be out during off-peak
travel times, leaving the bridge
with seven or eight lanes for
cars, depending on the time of
day.O
ne Queens cycling advocate
slammed the city’s delay,
saying the agency should not
prioritize the comfort of drivers
over the safety of bicyclists
and pedestrians.
“It’s an unacceptable delay.
We need more space now. We’ve
needed it for years,” said Woodside
resident Laura Shepard,
who is also an organizer with
the group Transportation Alternatives.
“The convenience
of car drivers cannot be prioritized,
it’s 2022, we need to recognize
that a lot of people are
walking and biking.”
Agency reps have described
the 112-year-old Queensboro
as the “workhorse” of its four
East River bridges, carrying
around 89,000 cars a day, compared
to 51,000 on the Brooklyn
Bridge, according to April figures.
In their letter, both politicians
agreed with DOT’s assessment
that six lanes were
not enough for cars and that
the southern path must remain
reserved for vehicles
during the rehab, but at the
same time lamented the yearlong
setback.
“It is infeasible to remove
cars from the south outer
roadway until the construction
is finished given the lane
closures required. At least two
more years of a shared pedestrian
and bike path is not the
best outcome for our constituents,”
they wrote.
Nearly 175,000 cyclists
crossed the span in August, or
more than 5,600 a day, the most
recent agency counts show, but
the steep and confined space
along with a hairpin turn on
the Manhattan end make for
a daunting trip, according to
Shepard.
“A lot of people are afraid
to take it, whether walking or
biking just because it’s so chaotic
and cramped,” she said.
“That really shouldn’t be the
case at the time when we want
to encourage more people to
walk and bike.”
DOT reps said there were
delays in building the new
deck, but Commissioner Rodriguez
vowed to finish the overhaul
quickly.
“I am absolutely committed
to putting a new and separate
pedestrian path on the Ed
Koch-Queensboro Bridge and
bringing the span into a state
of good repair,” Rodriguez said
in a statement. “This project is
a priority for me, and I know
New Yorkers are excited about
it, so we are going to get it done
properly and safely.”
Vol. 10, No. 6 32 total pages