Brooklyn CB6 to vote on Fourth Avenue bike lane plan Wednesday

Revised plan would speed up installation of lanes in Park Slope

January 9, 2018 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

4th-ave-bike-lane-dot.jpg

Share this:

The New York City Department of Transportation’s (DOT) plan to add 8 miles of protected bike lanes to Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue is coming up for a vote at Community Board 6 (CB6) Wednesday night.

The proposed lanes would run along Fourth Avenue from Sunset Park to Atlantic Avenue.

During a presentation on Dec. 21, DOT said it planned to install the bicycle lanes and other improvements along Fourth Avenue in segments. In this original plan, work would be done from 65th Street to 8th Street in the spring and fall of 2018 (Phase A), then from 8th Street to Atlantic Avenue in the summer of 2021 (Phase B).

CB6’s Transportation & Public Safety Committee made a motion to support the project — but encouraged DOT to accelerate the timeline for the Park Slope portion, Phase B, by using temporary materials until permanent lanes could be installed.

According to Tuesday’s CB6 bulletin, at the encouragement of the committee and support from Councilmember Brad Lander, DOT Commissioner Trottenberg has since committed to extending the interim improvements to Atlantic Avenue by fall of 2019, using in-house materials.

Temporary measures have already reduced serious pedestrian crashes on the avenue by 68 percent, according to DOT. These include changed signal timing, narrowed travel lanes, some left turn restrictions, more visible crosswalks and speed cameras in several school zones. Citywide Vision Zero rules have also reduced the speed limit to 25 mph.

Brooklyn experienced an 83 percent growth in daily cycling between 2010 and 2015, according to a DOT study, “Cycling in the City.”

DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a release in March 2017 that the dramatic surge in cycling plus recent safety improvements led the city to consider adding the bike lanes to the formerly deadly thoroughfare.

“The chance to redesign one of New York City’s ‘Great Streets’ may only come about every 50 years, and so it’s critical we get it right,” Trottenberg said.

The Fourth Avenue changes run through Community Boards 2, 6 and 7.

Wednesday’s board meeting will be held at the Cobble Hill Health Center, 380 Henry St. (between Congress/Warren Streets) at 6:30 p.m.

See DOT presentation here.