Bike Lanes and Safety Changes Proposed for School-Filled Blocks in Brooklyn

An unprotected bike lane on Kingston Avenue north of Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, August 5, 2024. Photo by Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

by THE CITY

08/09/2024 0 Share

Neighbors note the span also has a high volume of student pedestrian traffic due to the more than 10 schools in the area, including Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts and Beth Rivkah School.

In its study of the corridors, the DOT found speeding was rampant and drag racing common. Adjacent to the school campus next to Wingate Park, 95 percent of cars were driving above 41 miles per hour. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, at least 70 percent of drivers were driving more than 38 miles per hour.

Locals that rely on biking to get to work were excited to see the proposal from DOT, which includes bike lanes on the east-west side streets of Rutland Road and Fenimore Street

“As someone who commutes with my bike, I think something like this seems like necessary infrastructure,” said George McCracken, an attendee at Monday’s meeting, who noted that existing unprotected bike lanes “always become a parking lot basically and bikes have to whip out into traffic.”

The board’s vice chair, Ethan Norville, told THE CITY the district has “only one proper, full-length north-south bike lane that fully spans the district,” Bedford Avenue, which is among the most dangerous bike lanes in the borough.

“Some would call this deadly and unacceptable. Others, however, want it to stay this way,” he said. “My goal has been to balance both opinions and get road setups that work for everyone.”

Protecting the Children 

Those opposed to the new bike lanes worry that narrowing the streets could lead to even more congestion. CB9 board member Jolee Cobb said parents who use these thoroughfares to pick up their children after school already have to deal with loads of traffic.

On Brooklyn and Kingston avenues, especially, drivers “succumb to traffic during school hours regardless, which is like a heavy car traffic time between three and five,” she said.

She suggested that instead of narrowing the road to discourage speeding, the city should lower the speed limit on the avenues from 25 miles per hour to 15 and install speed bumps.

Brooklyn Community Board 9 ranks lowest of 59 community boards for the presence of protected bike lanes, with zero street miles with the feature, according to Spatial Equity NYC, a mapping project by Transportation Alternatives and MIT. (The neighborhood has some bike lanes that share space with vehicles, but none that are separate from traffic.) 

However, not all meeting attendees agreed that bike lanes would provide more safety. Meir New, a longtime resident of Crown Heights and a member of  the neighborhood’s Jewish Community Council, said that protected bike lanes posed a greater risk to children.

“I have a bunch of kids and I’ve many times parked on such a protective bike lane. I have to tell you that my heart goes right into my throat every single time I park by one of these things because my kids are now running out of the car, they’re running to the sidewalk, and they’re not thinking at all about a bike flying by in either direction. It’s extremely anxiety-inducing,” he said. 

The proposed plan is also set to eliminate 54 parking spaces, according to the DOT. Some voices raised in the meeting believed that was inconsiderate to local car owners. (According to Spatial Equity NYC, citing Census data, about 36 percent of households in the district own cars, lower than the citywide average of about 45 percent.)

“The fact is that people do have cars in the city and the whole agenda DOT’s trying to eliminate parking spots to make it more harder for drivers, is not going to work. It gets cold here, it gets cold. Not everybody can go on a bike,” said attendee Menachem, who did not share his full name in the meeting. He questioned how emergency vehicles will operate on narrow streets, predicting that “it’s only gonna make response time and people’s lives worse.”

In a statement, DOT spokesperson Vincent Barone said by “repurposing a very small number of parking spaces” the city can “save lives.”

“Protected bike lanes and curb extensions have proven to make our streets safer for everyone — whether you’re biking, walking, or in a vehicle — and, with 10 schools located within a block of these corridors, these redesigns will help keep young children safe as they travel to and from the classroom,” he said.

CB9 plans to hold another hearing about the proposal in September, according to Norville. A date has not yet been set for that meeting.

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