Bay Ridge bike lane network will proceed despite community board objections

The city will ignore a Bay Ridge community board’s objections to a network of southern Brooklyn bike lanes, and plans to roll out the paths anyway.

Department of Transportation officials say they will proceed with plans to paint bike lanes in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights despite a Monday vote by Brooklyn Community Board 10 shooting down several of the painted lanes that would not remove any on-street parking. Local pols, including City Council member Justin Brannan, state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, and Assembly member Mathylde Frontus, penned a letter the following day urging DOT to install the rejected lanes regardless.

“We believe that the proposals offered by DOT reflected the best will of the community,” the trio of pols wrote in a letter addressed to Ketih Bray, the Brooklyn Borough Commissioner of DOT.

The community board ultimately voted in favor of less than one-third of the lane milage DOT had proposed, Streetsblog reported. Community Board 10’s district manager did not immediately return requests for comment. Now, the transit agency says it will proceed with laying out the lanes.

“These new bike lanes are critical in creating a safer and larger cycling network in Southern Brooklyn,” says DOT spokesperson Alana Morales. “We thank the elected officials for their letter of support as well as their acknowledgment of our year-long community engagement process.”

The bike network planned by DOT will consist of painted lanes on 11th Avenue southbound from 62nd to 86th Street, 10th Avenue northbound from 62nd to 86th Street, Ridge Boulevard from 66th Street to Marine Avenue, 64th Street from 7th to 14th avenues, 66th Street from 7th to 14th avenues, Bay Ridge Parkway from Shore Road to 14th Avenue, a lane running along the Ovington Avenue Bridge, 84th Street from Colonial to 14th Avenue westbound, 85th Street from Narrows Avenue to 14th Avenue eastbound, 62nd Street between 10th and 11th avenues, and Dyker Place from 84th to 85th streets.

City officials anticipate the lanes will be completed by “late summer/early fall” and expects to return to Community Board 10 in the future to “discuss safety improvements for Third and Fourth avenues.”

Transportation advocates who have long pushed for the Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights lanes lauded the city’s move forward toward securing a “complete, connected comprehensive network” for southern Brooklynites.

“It’s the right thing to do,” says Joe Cutrufo of Transportation Alternatives. “We need to get better about connecting neighborhoods across the city—not just Manhattan, not just brownstone Brooklyn.”