Bike Advocates Celebrate Mayor's 100th Added Bike Lane Mile

EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — Bike advocates and a top city transportation official on Wednesday celebrated the 100th bike lane mile installed since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office.

The new two-mile lane, which was recently installed, stretches from Sutter Avenue to Seaview Avenue along Fountain Avenue in East New York, where dedicated cycling infrastructure is limited. The lane brings the total on-street protected bike lane coverage to 126 miles in New York, the de Blasio administraiton city announced.

“We’re very proud of today’s accomplishment," Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said Wednesday at a press conference next to the bike lane. "We’re very excited that, in this community, it’s going to be a really safe and attractive connection to Shirley Chisholm State Park."

The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the bike lane— part of the city's $58 million "Green Wave" plan, which was unveiled in July— comes amid an uptick of cyclist fatalities in New York City this year. The spate of deaths has been particularly stark in Brooklyn; 16 of the 25 car crashes that have killed bike riders in 2019 have taken place in the borough.

“We’ve been going through a tragedy here in Brooklyn, where we’ve been losing people to vehicles, and unsafe streets, and as much as we applaud today, we say that there’s still work to do," said Hercules Reid, a representative from Borough President Eric Adams' office and former City Council candidate. "We will continue to work at Borough Hall to make sure that we work with DOT and everyone in our city to continue to ensure that we lay down more lanes in our city and we protect more lives."

He added, "We want to make sure the streets of Brooklyn are safe so no matter what option you want to travel, you do not have to worry and look over your shoulder."

The 100-mile benchmark's announcement also comes as local elected officials and advocates have called for improving cycling infrastructure in low-wealth pockets of the city, since Citi Bike and bike lanes are most prevalent in the city's richer, whiter neighborhoods.

Bicycling equity advocacy consultant Courtney Williams, chief strategist of The Brown Bike Girl, said people in lower-income areas don't feel safe biking in their neighborhoods.

"The majority of protected bike lanes exist in affluent areas," she said. "East New York, Brownsville are not affluent areas.”

"All of New York's neighborhoods and neighbors deserve to have the [transportation] options that the most affluent have."