BIKE LANES
which now just span the avenue
from 60th to 64th streets,
halted last August to accommodate
two construction projects
led by the state-run Metropolitan
Transportation Authority.
One of the projects required
Transportation Authority
workers to close one of Fourth
Avenue’s two Bay Ridge–bound
traffi c lanes from 52nd to 59th
streets, in order to repair N-
and R-line subway tunnels beneath
the road, according to
agency rep Amanda Kwan.
That seven-block stretch of
work was supposed to wrap at
the end of last year, but is still
in progress, according to Community
Board 7’s district manager,
Jeremy Laufer.
And amid that ongoing project,
state transit leaders last
month kicked off a second job
to install elevators at the 59th
Street subway station , which
is expected to wrap this fall,
and required shuttering one
of Fourth Avenue’s two Downtown–
bound traffi c lanes between
58th and 60th streets to
accommodate construction.
Both affected Fourth Avenue
lanes are closed for most
of each day, except for during a
2–8 pm window when they open
to vehicle and bicycle traffi c.
But cyclists must fi ght drivers
for room on the road while
riding through those areas due
to the incomplete bike lanes,
according to Ziglifa, who said
motorists often erupt in bouts
of road rage because they’re
forced to share the street.
“You get beeped at and
honked at and people fl ipping
you off,” she said. “I’ve been
clipped by a couple of side-view
mirrors.”
The construction nightmare
more or less negates any
convenience the partial bike
lanes offer, according to another
cyclist, who blasted the
city and state agencies for not
coordinating to complete the
cyclists’ paths before the subway
construction.
“You have these four blocks
of pretty good protected bike
infrastructure, and then on either
end of it you’ve got kind
of a traffi c mess,” said John
Tomac, who lives in Bay Ridge.
Reps for the state Transportation
Authority and city
Transportation Department
said offi cials at both agencies
are working with each other
to manage traffi c, construction,
and safety measures in
the area.
And the city agency’s rep
added that workers will paint
another stretch of the bike
COURIER L 18 IFE, FEB. 22–28, 2019 PS
lanes, from 38th to Second
streets, later this year, with
plans to install the 39th–59th
street stretches of the paths after
the state agency fi nishes its
projects this fall.
But the current chaos on
Fourth Avenue is reason to
doubt those claims that city
and state offi cials are keeping
each other in the loop, according
to Laufer, who predicted
the traffi c nightmare that the
Transit Authority’s construction
would cause at a community
board meeting with
agency reps last summer .
— with Maya Harrison
PEDESTRIANS
bers in August the agency
would work with local police
to install the traffi c agents before
the start of construction,
which required closing lanes
on Fourth Avenue in order to
set up equipment-staging areas,
and setting up barriers
that narrow the busy road
to a single lane at points. But
no agents were in place when
work kicked off later that
month, according to the panel’s
top staffer.
“They told us they had
money in their budget for
traffi c agents, then the project
started and no agents
materialized,” said CB7
District Manager Jeremy
Laufer.
Laufer, fearing an impending
disaster amid what he described
as a “traffi c mess,” in
October wrote to Police Department
brass, describing
crosswalks on that stretch of
Fourth Avenue as “a frightening
experience,” and demanding
cops heed the state
agency’s request for agents to
monitor the road.
“The situation is dangerous
and intolerable and we
fear that our constituents’
lives are in danger because
the promised traffi c agents
have not been assigned,” his
letter read.
The CB7 district manager
claimed cops never responded
to his letter, but Police
Department spokesman
Lt. John Grimpel told this
newspaper that authorities
chose not to reassign traffi
c agents on other posts to
Fourth Avenue.
Grimpel argued the department
lacked the funds
necessary to beef up enforcement
on Fourth Avenue, but
Transportation Authority
spokeswoman Amanda Kwan
claimed the agency set aside
$2.5 million specifi cally for
that purpose.
Kwan added that the authority
turns to city offi cials
for enforcement support
when its projects affect local
streets.
“We don’t have the ability
to enforce traffi c such as impose
fi nes,” she said.
Police have not entirely
ruled out diverting resources
to Fourth Avenue,
however, and will continue
to liaise with state transit
leaders about traffi c issues,
according to Grimpel.
“We are always willing to
talk to our partner agencies
regarding community concerns,”
he said.
DEAD END: The city endangered
cyclists by painting four-block bike
lanes on Fourth Avenue that end
abruptly, spitting bike riders out
into construction sites and forcing
them to merge into one lane of vehicle
traffi c. Photo by Maya Harrison
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