Family of Lauren Davis Asks CB 3 to Support Classon Ave Bike Lane

The intersection of Classon and Lexington, where Lauren Davis was struck and killed by a turning driver last April.
The intersection of Classon and Lexington, where Lauren Davis was struck and killed by a turning driver last April. Image: Google Street View

The family of Lauren Davis, who was killed biking on Classon Avenue in April, appealed to the Brooklyn Community Board 3 transportation committee last night to support a bike lane on the corridor.

Northbound Classon is notoriously prone to reckless driving by motorists heading to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. It’s also a DOT-designated bike route. A 2012 DOT traffic-calming project converted the street from two traffic lanes to one but did not include a bike lane. Instead cyclists are expected to ride in the leftover space of an extra-wide parking lane.

Lauren Davis. Photo: Family of Lauren Davis
Lauren Davis. Photo: Family of Lauren Davis

Davis, 34, was biking on Classon in the direction of traffic on the morning of April 15 when a left-turning driver in a Fiat struck and killed her.

“It’s kind of a misconception that that’s an area that’s available for cyclists, and everyone’s using it,” Lana Norton Davis, Lauren’s mother, told the committee. She said detectives investigating her daughter’s death told her that a bike lane on the street would have allowed them to prosecute the driver under the city’s Right of Way law.

In August, Lauren’s sister Danielle launched an online petition urging community boards 2 and 3 and local council members Laurie Cumbo and Robert Cornegy, Jr. to get behind the idea of a bike lane on Classon. Almost 6,000 people have signed on since, but Borough President Eric Adams remains the only local elected official to express support.

“I sincerely believe that if there had been a bike lane on Classon Avenue, Lauren would have been alive today,” Danielle told committee members yesterday. “Building a bike lane on Classon Avenue would do more than define safe, separate spaces for people on bicycles and people driving, it would help prevent the next crash.”

The Davises spoke during a presentation by committee member and neighborhood resident Shawn Onsgard, who proposed a painted bike lane, bulb-outs, and automated camera enforcement on Classon Avenue. In Onsgard’s conceptual plan — which he hopes CB 3 will endorse to compel DOT to put together its own proposal — the bike lane would end at DeKalb Avenue, where BQE-bound traffic increases. Northbound cyclists would be directed to continue to Willoughby Avenue and jog over to Taaffe Place.

Transportation co-chair Greg Glasgow was amenable to Onsgard’s proposal, but the committee did not have quorum and thus did not hold a vote. Glasgow said he would instead bring the plan to the CB 3 executive committee when it meets in two weeks.

“It’s not a comfortable situation, I know for me as a driver and also for people biking,” Glasgow said. “You don’t need to mix bike traffic with all of that truck traffic trying to get to the BQE.”

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Lauren Davis was killed by a turning driver on Classon Avenue last April. Photo: Family of Lauren Davis

Instead of a Classon Avenue Bike Lane, Bed-Stuy Electeds Want a Street Where No One Rides Bikes

|
On Thursday, DOT announced plans to paint a bike lane on Classon Avenue, the northbound one-way street where a left-turning driver killed Lauren Davis as she rode her bike to work last April. As bicycle infrastructure goes, it's the bare minimum -- some stripes and stencils to designate space for biking, with no changes to moving lanes or parking. But that hasn't stopped a group of local officials from coming out against it.

Eyes on the Street: Dekalb Bike Lane Used for NYPD Parking

|
From Clinton Hill Blog via Gothamist: Since I’ve been biking a lot lately, I’ve come to realize how wonderful bike lanes actually are.  I’m pleased to say that we now have a bike lane on both Myrtle AND DeKalb!  However, I have noticed that the DeKalb bike lane seems to be contributing to the bottle […]

DOT Planning Buffered Bike Lane on Lafayette Avenue in Fort Greene

|
DOT plans to install a buffered bike lane this summer on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn between Fulton Street and Classon Avenue. The project, which the Brooklyn Community Board 2 transportation committee voted for unanimously last night, calls for a five-foot bike lane protected by a three-foot buffer zone [PDF]. It will be an upgrade from the current shared lane […]