VAST BIKE LANE EXPANSION
Southern Brooklyn
community boards
blast mayor’s plan
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The mayor needs to
stay in his lane!
Southern Brooklyn
community boards
slammed Mayor Bill
de Blasio for asserting
his right to overrule
their recommendations
in the name of
street safety when it
comes to his recentlyannounced,
sweeping
bike lane expansion
De Blasio said that,
while he would take
community boards’s
input into consideration,
he would “just
give the order” to install
new bike lanes if
he feels that the civic
panels were obstructing
city efforts to save
lives — but one Manhattan
Beach community
board honcho said
the city has ignored the
boards plenty of times
in the past, leaving locals
with an already severe
shortage of parking
spaces as a result.
“In the past, they
have unilaterally decided
to remove parking
in southern Brooklyn,”
said Theresa
Scavo, chairwoman of
Community Board 15,
which includes Sheepshead
Bay, Gravesend,
and Brighton Beach.
And a longtime
member of nearby
Community Board
18 — which stretches
along Jamaica Bay
from Marine Park to
Canarsie — urged the
mayor to not act rashly
and bring his sprawling
bike lane proposal
before the community
to get their advice.
“I think de Blasio
should take a deep
breath and look at the
bigger picture,” said
Marine Parker Bob
Tracy. “It seems to me
that it is an irrational
decision. I think this is
something that should
be brought to community
boards so we can
make a plan together
to make safer streets
for bicyclists — that is
our concern” he said.
The mayor’s plan
will add 80 miles of
protected bike lanes to
the city streets by the
time hizzoner leaves
offi ce in 2021, and will
result in the loss of
parking spots “in the
thousands,” according
to Department of
Transportation Commissioner
Polly Trottenberg,
referring to
the cost to drivers following
the completion
of a city-wide network
of protected bike lanes
in 2030.
Rather than protect
bikers from cars, Tracy
argued that the mayor’s
proposed network
of protected bike lanes
would put pedestrians
in the crosshairs of
cyclists, despite the astronomically
low number
of bike-caused fatalities
— four deaths
since 2014, according to
a Gothamist report —
as compared to the 113
New Yorkers killed by
drivers on city streets
this year, police statistics
show .
Meanwhile the plan
garnered support from
a member of brownstone
Brooklyn’s Community
Board 6, who
said that the mayor
should press his mandate
to save lives, even
if it means axing parking
spots and overruling
community
boards.
“Considering that
fi ve cyclists have been
killed in the last three
weeks, I think this is a
worthy trade-off,” said
Eric McClure.
Additional reporting
by Chandler Kidd,
Aidan Graham, and
Rose Adams
COURIER LIFE, AUG. 2-8, 2019 3
lice 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.”
VISION: The agency plans to have a citywide network of
protected lanes by 2030. Department of Transportation