DOT Proposes Protected Bike Lane Connecting East New York and Jamaica Bay

The project would calm traffic on Fountain Avenue, a wide, dangerous two-way street.

The parking-protected bike lanes would narrow the dangerously wide motor vehicle lanes on a stretch of Fountain Avenue in East New York. Image: DOT
The parking-protected bike lanes would narrow the dangerously wide motor vehicle lanes on a stretch of Fountain Avenue in East New York. Image: DOT

Building on the rollout of painted bike lanes in Brownsville and East New York that began in 2013, DOT is now planning the area’s first significant stretch of protected bike lanes, which would connect to the Jamaica Bay Greenway [PDF].

The project calls for repurposing one lane of motor traffic in each direction on Fountain Avenue between Pitkin Avenue and Seaview Avenue to create parking-protected bike lanes along the curb.

Traffic-calming is sorely needed on Fountain Avenue, where five motor vehicle occupants and two pedestrians were severely injured from 2010 to 2014, and hundreds of other people suffered less serious injuries, according to DOT. Most drivers currently speed in both directions on the wide-open asphalt:

Photo: NYC DOT
Photo: NYC DOT

Further west, the project would add a north-south pair of painted bike lanes on Hinsdale Street and Snediker Avenue.

The proposed new bike lanes, identified in purple. Image: DOT
Dark purple marks the new bike lanes. Image: DOT

Two previous phases of bike lanes and sharrows were installed in Brownsville and East New York in 2013 and 2015, following a neighborhood planning process that began in 2011.

A CB 5 told Streetsblog that on Monday the transportation committee tabled the project to take up at a later date, but did not explain why.

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