10 Miles Of New Protected Bikes Lanes For Brooklyn: DOT

BROOKLYN, NY — Plans are afoot to carve out 10 new miles of protected bike lanes across Brooklyn this year, city officials announced Wednesday.

It's welcome news to Ben Jones, who pedals everywhere in the borough. He happened to be cycling past a gaggle Department of Transportation honchos in downtown Brooklyn preparing to make the announcement.

"Hell yeah," he said. "There's so many bad drivers out there. The more bike paths the better."

And more is what DOT officials and cycling advocates promised after they made a show of pedaling down Adams Street to make the announcement.

The planned protected bike lanes include continuations of existing projects like that on Fourth Avenue.

New projects include a two-way lane on Meeker Avenue under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway between the Kosciuszko and Williamsburg bridges. DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said it's one of the city's busiest cycling stretches.

She noted there were 17 cycling deaths in Brooklyn last year — a grim statistic that these projects under city's "Vision Zero" program hope to bring down to nothing.

"These aren't just numbers — these are our friends, our family," she said.

A poster next to Trottenberg showed locations for what she said were 10 miles of new protected bike lanes in Brooklyn. They include Flatbush Avenue and Fort Hamilton Parkway near Prospect Park, Franklin and West streets near the Pulaski bridge, a connection to the Brooklyn Bridge and Seventh Avenue in Bay Ridge.

Trottenberg said future announcements will detail 20 miles of protected bike lanes in other city boroughs. She didn't directly say what the total cost would be other than it costs about $500,000 per mile.

"So you can kind of do the math on the total," she said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio requested $98 million for Fourth Avenue improvements in his 2021 budget but didn't provide specific details on the project.

DOT Assistant Commissioner Sean Quinn said officials hope to finish previous work on Fourth Avenue, which runs from Sunset Park to de Blasio's home neighborhood of Park Slope. He said that includes "intersection elements" and extending bike lanes past First Street to Atlantic Avenue.

Many of the announced bike lane projects, including Fourth Avenue, are to fill in gaps left by previous projects, Quinn said.

The gathering of city officials, cycling advocates and media at the announcement grew so large it momentarily squeezed into bicycle lanes heading toward the Brooklyn Bridge.

"Make sure you make room for all the cyclists going to work," Trottenberg told the group.