This Week: CB 7 Votes on Protected Bike Lanes for Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue

Image: DOT
Image: DOT

This week’s marquee event is Wednesday, when Brooklyn Community Board 7 is expected to vote on protected bike lanes for Fourth Avenue between 65th Street and Atlantic Avenue.

The DOT plan calls for curbside protected bike lanes linking Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Park Slope, bringing a much-needed north-south bikeway to western Brooklyn [PDF].

Last year, Council Member Carlos Menchaca pressed DOT to include bike lanes in its upcoming capital reconstruction of Fourth Avenue, and the agency has been refining its design concept for protected bike lanes at public workshops for much of 2017. Last week the project was unanimously endorsed by the CB 7 transportation committee.

DOT plans to get started with with low-cost materials between 38th and 65th streets as early as next spring. The permanent street reconstruction and redesign would begin next fall.

A strong showing at Wednesday’s CB 7 vote could give the project momentum heading into DOT’s presentation of the plan to the CB 6 transportation committee on Thursday.

Here’s what else is happening this week. Check the full calendar for more info on these and other events.

  • Tuesday: DOT hosts a town hall on the plan for protected bike lanes and safer crossings on 43rd and Skillman avenues in Queens. Sunnyside Community Services, 43-31 39th Street. 6 p.m. Details and RSVP info here.
  • Wednesday: The full board of Brooklyn CB 7 votes on the redesign of Fourth Avenue with protected bike lanes. 4201 4th Avenue (entrance on 43rd Street), 6:30 p.m.
  • Thursday: DOT presents an update on the landscaping design for Times Plaza to the Brooklyn CB 2 transportation committee. LIU-Brooklyn, 1 University Plaza. 6 p.m.
  • Also Thursday: DOT presents the Fourth Avenue bikeway project to the Brooklyn CB 6 transportation committee. Good Shepherd Services, 441 Fourth Avenue. 6:30 p.m.

Watch the calendar for updates. Drop us a line if you have an event we should know about.

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To keep making progress on traffic safety, redesigns as substantial as this protected bike lane planned for Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn will have to be implemented citywide. Image: NYC DOT

DOT Shows Its Plan to Get the Reconstruction of 4th Avenue Right

By Ben Fried |
Fourth Avenue is far and away the most viable potential bike route linking Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Park Slope, but it's still scary to ride on, with no designated space for cycling. At 4.5 miles long, a protected bike lane would make the reconstructed Fourth Avenue one of the most important two-way streets for bicycle travel in the city, connecting dense residential neighborhoods to jobs and schools.