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Planned New Bike Lane in Industrial NYC Neighborhood Garners Strong Opposition from Business Owners
By: Hellen Zaboulani
One of the last-standing industrial corners of Long Island City has plans for a new bike lane. As reported by the NY Post, local businesses in the area are decrying the plan as “just not safe”. Local industries argue that the cyclist carve-out will be dangerous for their truck drivers and for the bikers. “Not every street is safe for a bike lane. You wouldn’t put a bike lane down the middle of the LIE. It’s just not safe. And this is similar,” said Matthew Dienstag, co-owner of the local LeNoble Lumber.
The up-and-coming trendy Queens neighborhood has seen a lot of changes and the city has made plans to connect the Pulaski and Kosciuszko bridges for bikers. On its transportation Web site, the city boasts that close to 1 million New Yorkers regularly ride bikes and that this added path, connecting by way of Borden, Starr and Review avenues, with be a boon for them. But, Blissville is well-known as a dangerous sector infamous for its big-trucks and traffic. There are dozens of warehouse businesses, as well as a city Sanitation Department waste management facility, in the corridor that contribute to the truck and forklift traffic there.
Oversized box trucks already struggle to maneuver across both lanes of traffic to enter and exit their warehouses. The streets are overcrowded and plagued by chronic double-parking. Over the past five years, five people- including two cyclists were killed on these roads— and over 170 others have been injured.
Local civic associations and the community board sought a solution to the current safety issues, and therefore requested the bike lane. “We need to do everything we can to ensure we don’t lose another life to a preventable death,’’ city Councilwoman Julie Won told The Post. “Increasing pedestrian and cyclist traffic will only help businesses by increasing their customer base as well as their workforce,’’ she said. “I look forward to having discussions with any individual business, DOT, and the community board.”
The new biking path would carve up to 15 feet off Review Avenue’s existing 52-foot roadway, to create a two-way cycling path and buffer zone. This will leave just roughly 22 feet for the trucks and vehicles, after allowing for the allotted parking spots on both sides of the road. “There probably will be more truck accidents than there are now,’’ Dienstag argued. “When you have a tractor-trailer pulling into any one of these buildings there to put to back in or to pull out, they’re almost hitting those cars afterwards.”
Construction on the bike lane is slated to begin this fall, the Post reported. Thirty-two business owners penned a petition to the DOT asking that it pause the project.
Business leaders already voiced their frustration to DOT representatives this summer during a project walk-through, but say they feel ignored. “It’s like, ‘This is what we’re doing, we don’t give a s–t.’ Excuse my French,” complained Michael Diamond of J&S Supply Corp, a 75-year-old insulation and roofing distributor company in the area.
The city agency commented to the Post, saying it has already completed a thorough study of the project zone from both the perspective of bikes and freight trucks. “In an area like Blissville plagued by excessive speeding, we developed this project at the request of the community with robust local and business input to improve safety for everyone on these streets,” said rep Vincent Barone. “This route fills a critical gap in our bike lane network and will go a long way towards supporting cycling ridership, which has increased dramatically in the area over recent years. We look forward to implementing these much-needed safety improvements this fall.”