Even a last-ditch truce offer couldn't keep the Prospect Park West bike lane battle out of court. The Times reports that bike lane opponents filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday requesting the removal of the lane. Despite the frequent bike lane controversies of the past few years, this is the first anti-lane suit since 1980. And it's a meaty one! It accuses the Transportation Department of putting out misleading information about the lane's safety and conspiring with pro-bike lane folks to shut down local opposition. (The group that filed the suit has "close ties" to Iris Weinshall, former transportation commissioner and wife of Senator Charles Schumer.) The grounds for the suit? According to the Times, "a state statute that allows challenges to government actions deemed to be arbitrary or unfair." What's really arbitrary and unfair: anything that forces senior citizens to shout outside at 8 in the morning.
· Suit Over Brooklyn Bike Lane Challenges City Initiative [NYT]
· Bike Lane coverage [Curbed]
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