Long-Delayed Fourth Ave. Bike Lane Must Happen Now, Activists Say

GREENWOOD HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The crisis of cyclist fatalities on city streets this year has renewed a call that the city finish a long-delayed Brooklyn bike path, which its proponents say could give an alternative to riding on some of the dangerous thoroughfares where cyclists recently died.

Transportation Alternatives' Brooklyn chapter will make that call known at a rally planned for Wednesday on part of the unfinished section of the path. The protesters will gather at 30th Street and Fourth Avenue to make it known that the 77-block bike lane, meant to extend from Dean Street to 65th Street on the avenue, needs to be done sooner rather than later.

The lane was originally promised in 2017, but MTA work in the same area delayed most of it from being put in. So far, only 1st to 15th streets and 60th to 64th streets are done.

"DOT originally said those lanes would have been finished by this past spring, at least in paint and plastic," Transportation Alternatives wrote on the rally invite. "Instead, only about 20 blocks have been redesigned, with the remaining 3 miles to be done 'sometime soon.' With 18 #bikenyc deaths on our roads this year, including two on nearby Third Avenue, we can't keep waiting for DOT to finish this project."

The Fourth Avenue lane came up most recently when Sunset Park resident Em Samolewicz lost her life when riding on nearby Third Avenue, making her the 18th cyclist to die so far this year.

Council Member Brad Lander and others pointed out that had the Fourth Avenue lane been done in that section, as promised, maybe Samolewicz would have been riding there instead of on Third Avenue, which doesn't have a bike lane. The first cyclist that died on New York City streets in 2019, Hugo Garcia, also was hit on Third Avenue.

Transportation officials have said the Fourth Avenue lane will be installed from 15th to 38th street this summer. They started putting in the 1st to 15th street bike lanes in April.

The MTA work that stalled the project, which started last July, includes reconstruction of the Fourth Avenue express tunnel for the N and R lines and the installation of an elevator at 59th Street station.

MTA officials said that the work on the tunnel will likely be done this summer and that the elevator at 59th Street, which they started to install earlier this year, is expected to be done by 2021.

The rally is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. in front of P.S. 172.