UES Board Backs Study For Pedestrian Path On Queensboro Bridge

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side community board is asking the city Department of Transportation to study the feasibility of a plan to create a dedicated pedestrian path on the outside of the Queensboro Bridge.

Community Board 8 voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution requesting the study of a plan proposed by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer in partnership with the nonprofit Bike New York during the board's Wednesday night meeting.

Brewer's plan would result in the creation of an ADA-accessible walkway by re-purposing a lane of the Queensboro Bridge, which spans the East River at 59th Street in Manhattan and Queens Plaza in Long Island City. The lane is currently used by cars heading into Queens.

Creating a dedicated path for pedestrians on the bridge will enhance the safety of people biking and walking across the East River span, according to a Bike New York presentation. The bridge's current configuration forces bikers and pedestrians to share the same path on the north side of the lane.

Two-way bike traffic is confined to a 6-foot-wide lane and pedestrians are forced into a 4-foot-wide space, according to the safe streets nonprofit. Modern-day design standards call for at least 12 feet of space for two-way bicycle lanes with an absolute minimum of 8 feet, according to Bike New York.

Community Board 8 members spoke to the dangerous current conditions on the bridge during Wednesday night's meeting.

"I've gone over that bridge in both directions both as a pedestrian and a bicyclist. The space there is too narrow for just one bike let alone a bike and a pedestrian," board member Paul Higgins said during the meeting. Higgins added that even experienced bikers with good breaks have trouble avoiding pedestrians because they pick up too much speed going down the bridge's slope and have no space to swerve out of the way.

Proponents of the plan say that the time is right to re-purpose the traffic lane because fewer cars are using the bridge to cross the East River. Traffic on the bridge dropped 8% between 2006 and 2016 and bike ridership on the bridge increased by 35% between 2012 and 20127 up to 5,000 daily riders, according to a Bike New York presentation. The plan's backers say the 2021 implementation of congestion pricing could cause even fewer vehicles to use the bridge, which will be included in the congestion zone.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer urged DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to consider the plan in a November 2019 letter. Brewer cited congestion pricing in her letter, writing that New York must follow the lead of cities like London and Stockholm to incentivize sustainable transit such as biking and walking.

"We must invest in safe and comfortable bicycle infrastructure like the aforementioned cities did in anticipation of congestion pricing’s roll-out. As I have long said, if we are to increase charges for one transportation option, we should improve others to make any transitions as seamless as possible," Brewer wrote in the letter.

Community Board 8 approved the resolution asking for a study by a vote of 32 in favor, four against and two abstaining.