A young cyclist rides through the Jay Street bike lane. The city’s Department of Transportation has failed to deliver on a five-year-old plan to upgrade cycling infrastructure in high-risk areas of Brooklyn, according to the commuter advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
Ten community board districts were classified as high priority due to the comparatively high numbers of cyclists killed or severely injured in those areas, according to a 2017 DOT report on bicycle ridership and safety.
Along with that report, the Department promised to prioritize those areas, which currently feature significant bicycle ridership and few dedicated bicycle facilities — and to install 75 lane miles of pedal-pushing infrastructure by 2022.
Yet, since then, those “priority” areas have seen just 56 miles of bike lanes.
The DOT, for their part, attributes the delay to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the virus slowed construction on new projects.
“We’re moving full speed ahead to reach that goal in Brooklyn and across the entire city,” said a DOT spokesperson.
Nearly eight of those lane miles were completed in the high priority districts of Community Boards 3, 4 and 17. The DOT rep pointed to enhancements made to the cycling infrastructure on important, high traffic corridors (Classon Avenue, Washington Avenue to Flushing Avenue, Himrod Street, Harman Street, Troutman Street, Starr Street, Evergreen Avenue to Woodward Avenue and Knickerbocker Avenue) as examples of the work that they’ve done over the last few year.However, Transportation Alternatives argue that many of those districts currently have zero miles of protected bike lanes […]
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