Bay Ridge community board asks city for better bike lanes

April 30, 2015 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Marine Avenue in Bay Ridge would have a bicycle lane if a proposal by Community Board 10 is adopted by the city’s Department of Transportation. Eagle photo by Paula Katinas

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Bay Ridge could soon become a bicycle rider’s paradise if the city’s Department of Transportation goes along with a request made by the local community board.

At its April 20 meeting, Community Board 10 (Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights) voted overwhelmingly, 30-5, to request that the Dept. of Transportation (DOT) approve the board’s proposal to establish additional bike lanes on local streets and improve existing lanes.

Here are the streets where the community board has requested bike lanes: Sixth Avenue from 67th Street to Fort Hamilton Parkway; Fort Hamilton Parkway from Sixth Avenue to 92nd Street; Fort Hamilton Parkway from 92nd Street to 101st Street; Marine Avenue from Colonial Road to Fort Hamilton Parkway; 68th Street from Shore Parkway to Sixth Avenue; 72nd Street from Colonial Road to Sixth Avenue; and Seventh Avenue from 66th Street to 67th Street, which is a proposed alternate route around the Gowanus Expressway for bicyclists.

Taken together, the bike lanes would form a loop around the northern, eastern, and southern sides of the community board area, StreetsBlog.org reported on April 27.

Jayne Capetanakis, chairman of the community board’s Traffic and Transportation Committee, said the bike lane project’s goal is to organize the traffic with designated bike lanes to improve bicycle routes between neighborhoods and to connect to existing bike routes.

The plan, which would involve painting markings in the street to designate bike lanes, will not result in the loss of any parking spaces for cars, Capetanakis told the board. “There are no planned parking removals with this proposal,” she said.

DOT had originally presented the community board with a list of proposed bike lanes back in 2011, but the board rejected the agency’s proposal at the time. The board then came up with its own list of proposed sites for bike lanes, which it presented to DOT in 2012. DOT came back with its initial findings last summer and returned to the community board in early April with an updated plan.

The community board voted on the plan on April 20.

In addition to bike lanes, the community board is also asking for pedestrian safety enhancements on certain Bay Ridge streets.

In a letter to Brooklyn DOT Commissioner Keith Bray, Community Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann requested curb extensions at the intersections of Seventh Avenue and 65th Street, at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 86th Street and at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 92nd Street.

“In light of the above, we ask that you move forward with the installation of the designated bicycle route approved by Community Board 10 as well as the implementation of the pedestrian safety enhancements that are part of this project,” Beckmann wrote to Bray.