Bedford Avenue Bike Lane Plan Is 'Recipe For People To Die': Locals

CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — The city's newest bike safety proposal for Crown Heights would send cyclists darting across a lane of moving car traffic on a street locals describe as a transit "meat grinder."

The Bedford Avenue redesign between Dean and Bergen streets would skew the northbound bike lane — which currently runs alongside a row of parked cars — into Bed Stuy-bound car traffic a few feet before the stoplight, newly released plans show.

"That's not safe, that's a recipe for people to die," William Meehan said at a Community Board 8 transportation committee meeting Tuesday.

"I would not bike in this, I especially would not bike in that block between Bergen and Dean."

Bedford Avenue, among the most dangerous thoroughfares in Brooklyn, is part of a massive street redesign project released recently by the Transportation department. Activists and locals have long called for safety improvements to Bedford Avenue for pedestrians and bikers.

The new plan calls for the stretch of Bedford between Dean and Atlantic to get protected bike lanes, pedestrian islands and retimed lights after two particularly fatal years on the avenue.

Five pedestrians died on the stretch of Bedford between Flushing Avenue and Dean Street in 2021 and 2022, according to Lauren Rennée, a Transportation department project manager.

And similar bike safety projects have shown great returns, Rennée said, noting data collected between 2007 to 2017 show streets with protected bike lanes saw only a 3 percent increase in cyclist injuries despite volume spiking more than 60 percent.

“We are looking to improve safety for all users,” Rennée said. "We are most importantly protecting cyclists in a really heavily used cycling corridor that has really sobering safety data.”

But at Wednesday's meeting, locals argued shifting the lane did not solve the bigger problem bikers face on the block where Bedford and Rogers avenues merge.

While Transportation department planners argued it was safer to cross traffic before Dean, Bedford and Rogers meet, Community Board 8's transportation committee chair noted the new plan still directs cyclists in front of moving cars.

"I don't see how that's much different than what we have to deal with today,” said Robert Witherwax.

Locals chimed in to agree.

“Cars don’t slow down," Liam Duffy said. "So it’s a huge conflict point at that kind of transition."

"It's still crossing of vehicles and cyclists," Saskia Haegens added. "That doesn't seem particularly safe to me as a cyclist."

The cyclists argued the Transportation department missed an easy solution in a two-way bike lane on southbound Bedford Avenue that would not require bikers to cross car traffic.

Haegens also raised safety concerns about plans for Bedford and Atlantic avenues, and was not appeased by Transportation department plans to add a delayed left-turn signal and a concrete median at the intersection in the near future.

"That doesn't make me feel particularly safe anywhere there's left turn by trucks or cars at fairly substantial speeds," Haegens said. "I would really also recommend a protected signal phase for pedestrians and cyclists, not a delayed version."

While a slew of cyclists attended the meeting to raise concerns, just a few drivers spoke out about the impact on cars.

Car lanes would not see significant changes, but a number of parking spaces would be lost in the area between Atlantic Avenue and Halsey Street as well as Dean and Pacific streets.

A few Parking lanes would move to buffer bike lanes in other spots, and a Bedford car lane would narrow, which Rennée said encourages drivers to stick to the speed limit.

These changes left car owner Fior Ortiz-Joyner feeling unseen.

“I may be the minority in this meeting, but there are many folks who share the same concerns that I do," Ortiz-Joyner said. “It seems that the motorists have been forgotten."