May 3–9, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 3
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Department of Transportation
A rendering showing the existing and proposed conditions on Flatbush Avenue, where the city wants to
build a protected bike lane.
Protected along the park
City unveils plans for Flatbush Ave. bike lane by P’Park
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Paper
City transit reps presented
designs for a protected bike
lane along the Flatbush Avenue
border of Prospect Park
at a closed-doors meeting in
Borough Hall last week.
The two-way bike lane
will be painted onto the western,
southbound side of Flatbush
Avenue between Grand
Army Plaza and Empire Boulevard
where it borders Brooklyn’s
Backyard — opposite
the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
— with both north and
southbound lanes stretching
to four feet wide, according
to a PowerPoint presentation
Department of Transportation
provided community members
at the April 24 meeting,
which was not open to
the press.
The bike lanes will be situated
between the sidewalk and
a row of parked cars, which
will offer cyclists protection
from traffic on the bustling
thoroughfare.
The new bicycling infrastructure
will require axing a
northbound driving lane, but
city transit honchos plan on
suspending parking on the
MEAN
Streets
east-side of Flatbush Avenue
from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.
on weekdays to revive the
lost travel lane during the
morning rush.
Community members in
attendance at the sneak-peek
preview meeting praised the
new bike lane, although some
local transit honchos argued
the cycling paths should be
widened to accommodate future
bike traffic, which can
only be expected to grow as
Brooklyn becomes a friendlier
place to cyclists.
“I would like it to be a couple
feet wider,” said Eric Mc-
Clure, chairman of Community
Board 6’s Transportation
Committee. “We should be
planning for the New York
City of 10 years from now,
when we’ll have many more
people riding bikes.”
And there’s a concern about
illegal, overnight truck parking
that plagues the thoroughfare
through the park, a perennial
issue that city law
enforcement has yet to solve,
according to a member of bike
advocacy group Transportation
Alternatives.
“You get a lot of 18 wheeler
trucks that park there, and the
city hasn’t offered any solution
for that,” said Dulcie
Canton.
“My big issue is the big
trucks that park overnight,”
said Stanley Greenberg.
The city’s plans for the
Flatbush Avenue bike lane
will be officially unveiled
within the coming months
at meetings of both community
boards 6 and 9, according
to Alana Morales, a spokeswoman
for the Department
of Transportation.
The Flatbush Avenue bike
lane will feature as a key aspect
of the city’s master plan
to ring Prospect Park with protected
bike lanes.
Prospect Park West is currently
the only roadway bordering
the park with a protected
bike lane, but the
city discussed plans for another
protected bike lane on
the Ocean Avenue border at
a meeting of the Prospect
Park Community Committee
in March, which will be
constructed as part of perimeter
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enhance project expected
to finish in fall 2021, and will
be installed atop a 30-footwide
sidewalk there.
Flatbush Avenue is currently
undergoing a similar
perimeter improvement
project, featuring repaved
sidewalks, along with new
benches, lighting, and fences,
which was substantially delayed
after the city’s chosen
contractor suffered serious
setbacks, and at times failing
to show up for work, although
the Parks Department
now contends that construction
is back on track and expected
to be completed sometime
this summer.
The bike lane project will
follow this fall and is expected
to be completed fairly quickly,
with the work mainly consisting
of applying paint to
asphalt, according to Stanley
Greenberg, a member of
the Prospect Park Community
Committee.
Locals are still waiting to
hear the city’s plans for Prospect
Park Southwest and Parkside
Avenue, which remain the
only roadways bordering the
park where bike lane designs
haven’t been discussed.
Brooklyn’s
boulevard
battle lines
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