Eyes on the Street: The Queens Boulevard Bike Lane Reaches Rego Park

There's fresh kermit between Eliot Avenue and 65th Avenue, with more to come.

The first bike lane in Rego Park. Photo: RegoParkQueens/Twitter
The first bike lane in Rego Park. Photo: RegoParkQueens/Twitter

The next segment of the Queens Boulevard safety overhaul is well underway. For the third summer in a row, DOT crews are laying down green paint for bike lanes on the Queens Boulevard service roads and expanding pedestrian space in the medians.

At the moment, the freshly painted bike lanes extend from Eliot Avenue to 65th Avenue, according to local resident Peter Beadle. These are the first bike lanes ever striped in Rego Park.

The project will continue to Yellowstone Boulevard this summer, adding about 1.3 miles of bikeway to the most important east-west route in Queens [PDF]. The gravel surface for the expanded pedestrian zones and the plastic posts to provide protection from car traffic have yet to be added.

All told there will be 3.8 miles of Queens Boulevard bike lane, between Roosevelt Avenue and Yellowstone Boulevard, when this phase wraps up, though there’s a discontinuity on the westbound bike lane near the Queens Center Mall. Next year, DOT expects to complete a fourth phase through Forest Hills to Union Turnpike.

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Council Member Karen Koslowitz, far right, said in 2015 that she would support "whatever it takes" to make Queens Boulevard a safe street. Photo: Ben Fried

Karen Koslowitz Walks Back Her Pledge to Support a Safer Design for Queens Boulevard

By David Meyer |
Two years ago, Council Member Karen Koslowitz stood with people who'd lost loved ones to traffic violence and said the city should do "whatever it takes" to turn deadly Queens Boulevard into a "boulevard of life" -- even if that entailed the removal of travel lanes or parking spaces. Now that the city is ready to redesign Queens Boulevard in her district, however, Koslowitz is losing her resolve.