City reconsiders Queens Boulevard bike lane plan — again
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Cyclists ride down Queens Boulevard in Woodside. Photo via DOT.
By David Brand
It’s been a confusing past couple days for advocates and opponents of a plan to complete bike lanes along a 1.2-mile stretch of Queens Boulevard.
The plan seemed set on Wednesday, when Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said a plan to build bike lanes in the service road would be complete by the end of the summer. But hours later, Mayor Bill de Blasio walked back the proposal at a town hall meeting in Forest Hills.
The next day, he said the city would complete the long-awaited bike lane sometime this year — though it remains unclear what the final project will look like.
De Blasio announced the timeline for the project — which will either feature bike lanes in the service road or in the main roadway, depending on which proposal moves forward — during an appearance on WNYC’s the “Brian Lehrer Show.”
The confusion came after Councilmember Karen Koslowitz put forth a new plan at the Forest Hills event. Koslowitz and the local community board have opposed service road bike lanes because they say they would remove roughly 200 parking spots between Yellowstone Boulevard and Union Turnpike.
“I am not against bike lanes. What I am not for are the bike lanes along Queens Boulevard that are taking away hundreds and hundreds of parking spaces,” Koslowitz said. “I would like to see bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, but not in the service road — in the middle, with protection.”
“We cannot afford, because of our businesses, to lose all these parking spots,” she continued.
De Blasio said he would direct the Department of Transportation to consider Koslowitz’s proposal for the thoroughfare, once known as the “Boulevard of Death” for its extremely high rate of car crash deaths.
“No one wants to go back to those days,” de Blasio said. “[Koslowitz] asked for a different alternative in that stretch … I want to see both proposals.”
Pedestrian and cyclist safety advocates say they are tired of the indecision and delays since the project abruptly stopped in 2018.
Safety measures along much of the roadway have significantly reduced the number of crashes and pedestrians injuries and deaths, said Transportation Alternatives’ Queens organizer Juan Restrepo. Bike lanes along the chaotic service road would help further reduce traffic dangers while avoiding the infrastructure issues along the center median, he said.
“A plan that puts bikes on the median in the middle of Queens Boulevard doesn’t really address how to calm the service road,” Restrepo said. “It’s bad policy.”
