‘Not a safe street for anyone’
Activists ask DOT to install better barriers along Grand Street bike lane
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Backed by a number of local
elected offi cials, Brooklynbased
transportation activists
are urging the city to install
concrete barriers on the Grand
Street bike lane in Williamsburg
as part of the Department
of Transportation’s plan to fortify
protected bike lanes.
In a March 1 letter to
Mayor Eric Adams and Department
of Transportation
Commissioner Ydanis Rodríguez,
activists with the northern
Brooklyn arm of Transportation
Alternatives said
the plastic bollards that currently
protect the lane are insuffi
cient and still allow vehicles
to enter and block the
lane, forcing cyclists into dangerous
situations as they try
to navigate around them.
“The Grand Street bike
lane is one of the fi rst of its
kind in North Brooklyn, implemented
along a vital eastwest
corridor. This is the product
of years of community
meetings and workshops, in
response to the deaths of Matt
von Ohlen and Rafael Nieves,”
the letter says. “However,
since 2019, the year of its full
implementation, there have
been 67 cyclist injuries along
this ‘protected’ path with a
total of 196 crashes across all
modes of transportation. It is
not a safe street for anyone, let
alone a protected bike lane. “
COURIER L 6 IFE, MARCH 11-17, 2022
To remedy the dangerous
lane, the activists want DOT
to add Grand Street to their
list of bike lanes slated to be
beefed up with four-ton concrete
Jersey barriers.
Last month, the department
announced that work had begun
installing those barriers
on a number of heavily-traffi
cked lanes as part of a plan
to “harden” half of the city’s 40
miles of protected bike lanes
by the end of next year.
At the time, the department
had fi nished installing the
barriers on two Manhattan
bike lanes and was in the process
of adding them to another,
with plans to add the mammoth
dividers to more lanes
in Manhattan and Queens in
coming months. Additional
locations in Brooklyn and the
Bronx are being considered
for the program, according to
the department, but none have
been announced yet.
Delays in sourcing the concrete
barriers have slowed
down installation, according
to DOT, so they’re searching
for new sources and alternative
materials.
“We’re working around the
clock to harden the bike lanes
we’ve already announced and
appreciate the support for this
important work,” said Vin
Barone, a DOT spokesman.
“We are considering locations
across the city for future
lane hardenings and will have
more to share soon.”
Concerns about the safety
of the lane began before it had
even been completed, with
neighborhood cyclists criticizing
DOT for using a combination
of paint, fl exible plastic
bollards, and rows of parked
cars to separate cyclists from
vehicle traffi c rather than installing
hardier barriers.
In 2019, a FedEx driver told
Brooklyn Paper he was forced
to stop in the bike lanes because
the new designated loading
zones, meant to help keep traffi
c fl owing, were fi lled with illegally
parked private vehicles.
Those private vehicles had also
already broken several of the
plastic barriers, leaving them
useless in the street.
Even a 2020 spruce-up,
where DOT installed some
more substantial barriers,
wasn’t enough to keep cars out
of the lane.
The busy bike lane serves
as a critical connection to the
Williamsburg Bridge, and
making it safer for cyclists is
good for the neighborhood, the
letter, which was signed by
elected offi cials including Assemblymember
Emily Gallagher,
state Sen. Julia Salazar,
Councilmember Lincoln Restler
and Brooklyn Borough
President Antonio Reynoso.
A cyclist rides in front of a truck illegally parked in the Grand Street bike
lane in 2019. File photo by Joe Hinti
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