Start BK Ninth Street Bike Safety Upgrades This Summer, CB6 Tells City

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — A plan to finally add a protected bike lane and other safety changes to a troubled stretch of Ninth Street in Brooklyn got the green light from local board members, with an urgent condition: start it this summer.

Community Board 6 members last week overwhelmingly approved a city-crafted safety plan that would bring bike lane barriers, remove left-turn lanes and new pedestrian signal for the stretch of street between Third Avenue and Smith Street.

The changes are long overdue after years of deaths along the stretch, including that of Sarah Schick, 37, as she rode a Citi Bike at its Second Avenue intersection in January, a letter written by board leadership to the Department of Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez states.

"We firmly believe that had there been a protected bike lane on the street, Sarah's death — along with many other injuries to cyclists and pedestrians on this stretch of 9th Street — could have been prevented," the June 17 letter states.

The letter signed by board Chair Eric McClure, transportation Chair Doug Gordon and other top CB6 officials informed Rodriguez that board members conditionally approved the Department of Transportation plan for Ninth Street, which was developed amid an outcry following Schick's death.

The outcry was only the latest related to Ninth Street.

A fatal 2018 crash near Fifth Avenue in Park Slope that claimed the lives of Joshua Lew, 1, and Abigail Blumenstein, 4, prompted a new state law and safety updates such as protected bike lanes to Ninth Street from Prospect Park to Third Avenue.

But those safety features stopped just shy of Second Avenue in Gowanus, where Schick and other cyclists had to share the road with largely industrial traffic with just a painted bike lane.

The board's letter alluded to members' long history of pushing for safety changes, and continued that tradition by making approval of the new plan conditional on the upgrades be started and finished this summer.

All the conditions, as stated in the letter, are:

● That the safety upgrades be implemented this summer.
● That DOT adds Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPIs) on 2nd Avenue crossing 9th Street and that this and all existing LPIs extend beyond the current seven seconds to the maximum time allowable.
● That signage be added notifying cyclists that, as per New York City law, they may proceed on the pedestrian signal.
● That DOT continue bike lane markings with green hashes at driveways where the protection disappears.
● That DOT add traffic calming measures that would legally allow a 15-mph speed limit on the corridor.
● That DOT return to our committee after installation to discuss a larger bike lane network and pedestrian-safety plan for the Gowanus Industrial Business Zone as well as plans for traffic-calming features on the north/south streets along the entire 9th Street corridor from Prospect Park West to Smith Street.

The entire letter can be read here.