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It’s a wheel concern
Cyclists: City must fi nish promised bike lanes through
Williamsburg despite recent about face in L shutdown
COURIER L 60 IFE, JAN. 18–24, 2019 B
BY JULIANNE CUBA
The city must fi nish installing
new bike lanes it began
laying along Grand Street
ahead of the long-promised Ltrain
closure that Gov. Cuomo
abruptly called off this month,
demanded cyclists, who worried
the change in plans will
jeopardize the completion of
long-sought-after infrastructure.
“I’m absolutely concerned
that all sorts of stuff could
fall through the cracks,” said
pedal pusher Philip Leff, a
Williamsburger and member
of the pro-cycling group
Transportation Alternatives.
Department of Transportation
workers last fall began
work on the two so-called protected
bike lanes on Grand
Street between Morgan Avenue
and Rodney Street,
months after agency honchos
revealed their redesign of the
commercial strip where three
cyclists died in fatal crashes
since 2016.
The redesign calls for removing
one of two parking
lanes on that stretch to make
room for the green bike paths
— one of which is separated
from traffi c by the remaining
parking lane, while the other
runs behind a painted buffer
and plastic poles — which
transit leaders said would allow
Grand Street to better
accommodate some of those
250,000 daily L-train riders
whom offi cials expected to
pedal across the East River
once subway service to Manhattan
stopped during the
shutdown.
But now the job is seemingly
in limbo, according to
cyclists, who said swaths of
the green bike lanes are still
not in place, causing chaos
because motorists continue to
park on the incomplete pedalers’
paths, forcing bicyclists
to swerve into traffi c.
“It’s problematic because
cars just park there, and I
have to go around them into
traffi c on Grand Street, which
is used by a lot of trucks going
to and from industrial areas,”
said Yehuda Pollack, a Queens
resident who regularly cycles
through Williamsburg.
Another bicyclist who frequently
pedals along Grand
Street echoed Pollack’s complaints,
accusing the city of
abandoning the in-the-works
project despite the Transportation
Department assuring
him in a November tweet that
work on the lanes would continue
through the winter.
“There’s really no effort
being made to actually fi nish,”
said Eric Helms, who
lives just beyond Bushwick
in Queens, and rides through
Williamsburg nearly everyday.
“No one is taking it seriously,
someone likely will get
hurt because of it.”
Last week, the in-theworks
lanes on Grand Street
between Manhattan and
Graham avenues — where
a hit-and-run driver fatally
smashed into cyclist Matthew
Von Ohlen in 2016 —
were only semi-complete
when this reporter paid a
visit on Jan. 8. There was no
green paint on the pavement
to identify the paths, and
plastic Con Edison barriers
sat in the middle of the Bushwick
bound lane.
Other blocks’ lanes are
similarly unfi nished, according
to Leff, who blasted the
city for not cracking down
enough on those scoffl aws
who blatantly obstruct the inprogress
paths.
“There are defi nitely spots
where either they’re not completely
painted, or not completely
enforced, that’s a key
part of it too,” he said.
And cyclists aren’t the
only ones concerned — a
handful of local pols recently
rallied to demand that city
and state offi cials move forward
with installing the bike
lanes, and that transportation
bigwigs better communicate
with anxious straphangers
as they sort out the details
following the about face in repair
plans.
“You can’t merely implement
a major change in procedure
without major planning
and communication,” Borough
President Adams said
outside the Lorimer Street
L station during the Jan. 6
demonstration also attended
by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D–
Williamsburg), Rep. Nydia
Velazquez (D–Williamsburg),
Assemblyman Joseph Lentol
(D-Williamsburg), state
Sen. Brian Kavanagh (D–Williamsburg),
and other pols.
City transit leaders, however,
continue to remain
mum about the fate of the various
alternative transportation
options planned for the
now-cancelled shutdown —
which in addition to the bike
lanes include a dedicated Williamsburg–
Manhattan ferry
service, new bus routes, and
more — only promising to
reveal any changes to those
plans after the state-run Metropolitan
Transportation
Agency provides more information
on its newly adopted
scheme to fi x the L line.
DON’T STOP NOW: Chunks of the
green Grand Street bike lanes are
still not in place (above), causing
chaos because motorists continue
to park on the incomplete
pedalers’ paths (right), forcing
bicyclists to swerve into traffi c,
they said. Photos by Julianne Cuba