Demands for taller protective fence on Triborough
BY MAX PARROTT
Elected officials and bike
advocates from Transportation
Alternatives and Bike New
York gathered on the Astoria
side of the Triborough Bridge,
know professionally as the Robert
F. Kennedy Bridge, on Sept.
12 to call on the MTA to improve
the safety of the bridge’s
pedestrian path.
After a recent report from
The City called attention to the
fact that the guard rail along the
bridge is not high enough to stop
bicyclists from toppling over it
in the case of an accident, Councilman
Costa Constantinides
and Senator Michael Gianaris
called on the MTA to put up
a protective fence that could
accommodate riders.
“Right behind us, you have
a metal plate that makes it very
unsafe. Further along, you have
fencing that ends over the water
way. It’s only a four-foot fence,”
said Constantinides.
As it stands, biking along the
bridge is prohibited, according to
signs posted by the MTA that instruct
bikers to walk their bikes.
But many riders ignore the sign
and take the risk of biking along
the path anyways. Others say
that even if they follow the rules,
they don’t feel safe because of
the metal plates that run along
the path.
“If you’re a road cyclist, you
wear clipless pedals, there’s
metal on these. Metal on metal,
you slide,” said Astoria cyclist
Shannon Rudd, pointing at her
metal-soled cycling shoes.
The elected officials and advocates
proposed a two-part solution.
In the immediate future,
they say the MTA needs to put
up a 10-to-12-foot fence over the
whole bridge and legalize biking
along the path.
In the grand scheme of
things, they want the MTA to
open the pedestrian path on the
southern side of the Bridge to
create separate lanes for bikes
and pedestrians, and provide
a ramp for bicyclists to ride up.
Right now riders are forced
to dismount and carry their
bikes up a set of stairs to get on
the path, which Laura Shepard
of Bike New York pointed
out, stops the path from being
ADA-accessible.
“We understand the nature
Photo: Max Parrott/QNS
of the agency we’re dealing with
has slow time horizons. But
it’s important to demand that
they at least start the process,”
said Shepard.
The focus is not solely on
cyclists. The speakers said low
guard rails along five-foot-wide
path also make it treacherous
for pedestrians as they pass each
other as well as bikers. Constantinides
added that four people
have committed suicide on the
bridge since 2015.
The councilman said that
he sent a letter to the MTA with
the immediate proposal but he
hasn’t heard back anything yet.
Gianaris said that they are asking
the agency to fund the safety
measures in their next capital
funding plan.
“It’s a fairly modest cost for
the MTA. The southern access
would cost more money, but it’s
a dop in the bucket for the tens of
billions of dollars that we have,”
Gianaris said.
For Constantinides, who
often warns against the effects
of climate change as an immediate
threat, the goal to open
up the southern walkway and
encourage commuter cycling
fits into his crusade to reduce
Western Queens’ greenhouse
gas emissions.
“In the 21st century we need
to be thinking about multimodal
transportation. How we
are going to move people out
of cars? How are we going to
move them into emission-free
vehicles to get them to work?”
said Constantinides.
Relieve Pain.
Regain Your Life.
ONE ON ONE PATIENT CARE
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