City expedites Sunset Park bike lane plan
BY ROSE ADAMS
A Sunset Park councilman
announced Wednesday that a
substantial portion of the longdelayed
Fourth Avenue bike
lane will open by the end of this
year.
Transit offi cials originally
planned to completely fi nish
the bike lane spanning Sunset
Park and Park Slope this
summer, but the project was
delayed indefi nitely to accommodate
much needed repairs to
the N and R train subway tunnel
that runs beneath Fourth
Avenue.
Mayor Bill de Blasio
claimed he would “accelerate
completion” of the Sunset Park
bike lane as part of his “Green
Wave” plan announcement
last month, but it wasn’t until
Councilman Carlos Menchaca
(D–Sunset Park) reached out to
transit offi cials on July 29 that
the project gained a year’s end
deadline, according to a spokesman
from Menchaca’s offi ce.
As a result, the two-way,
two-and-a-half-mile bike path
will stretch uninterrupted
from First Street in Park Slope
to 57th Street in Sunset Park
before the end of fall, according
to the Department of Transportation.
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DOT now plans to complete
a four-block stretch of cycling
paths between 60th and
64th streets this fall as well,
while leaving construction of a
three-block gap in the bike lane
between 57th and 60th streets
for sometime next year.
Transit offi cials plan to
paint the new bike paths
and place temporary fencing
around them before embarking
on a capital project, which
will replace the barriers with
concrete traffi c islands and
foliage.
Another bike path called
the Brooklyn Greenway is
slated to open along Second Avenue
and part of Third Avenue
in 2022, connecting Gowanus
and Red Hook to Sunset Park’s
waterfront, transit authorities
claimed.
Elected offi cials and local
cyclists praised the upcoming
Fourth Avenue project during
its announcement Wednesday
afternoon.
“We’ve needed a protected
bike lane on Fourth Avenue for
a long time, and I am proud to
stand beside the Department of
Transportation to announce its
arrival by year’s end,” Councilman
Menchaca said.
The Fourth Avenue bike
plan comes after a surge in
cyclist deaths in Brooklyn,
two of which occurred in Sunset
Park. In January, a car fatally
hit a 26-year-old man on
Third Avenue and 29th Street,
and last week, a tractor trailer
struck and killed 30-year-old
woman just seven blocks away,
marking the 13th cyclist fatality
in Brooklyn this year, and
the 18th citywide.
In response to the bike fatalities
and a growing demand
among transit advocates for
better cycling infrastructure,
de Blasio announced a $58.4
million initiative to create an
additional 80 miles of protected
bike lanes throughout the city
before his lame duck term ends
in 2021. The day before, the City
Council passed a law allowing
cyclists to ride with pedestrian
lights at intersections.
But for Brooklnynites grieving
dead friends and family, the
mayor’s bike lane project comes
as too little, too late.
“We’re being reactive instead
of proactive,” said an
emotional Jane Martin-Lavaud,
a member of the advocacy
group Families for Safe
Streets, whose daughter was
killed by a speeding driver
in Gravesend. “These deaths
that we read in newspapers as
statistics, as numbers, are human
beings. They’re family
members.”
A Park Slope councilman
insisted on the need to keep
pushing for better cycling infrastructure
in the wake of
tragedy.
“We have collective responsibility
for the lives we keep
losing,” said Councilman Brad
Lander (D-Park Slope). “It’s
from that place of sorrow and
collective responsibility that
we have an obligation to keep
pushing forward.”
And while the gravity of
the cyclists’ deaths weighed
on the crowd, Lander encouraged
Brooklyn bike advocates
to stay positive.
“Every project we do is probably
saving lives we don’t know
that they’re saving,” he said.
“We’ve got to hold onto that.”
PATH FORWARD: Councilman Carlos Menchaca (center) announced the
Department of Transportation’s plan to open the Fourth Avenue bike lane
ahead of schedule. Photo by Rose Adams
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