The protected bike lane on Queens Boulevard, between Yellowstone Boulevard and 73rd Street, in Forest Hills. The plastic bollards will soon be replaced by cement barrier (Photo: DOT)
Feb. 22, 2022 By Allie Griffin
Three protected bike lanes in Queens will be getting safety upgrades as part of an effort to better protect cyclists from cars throughout the city, the Department of Transportation announced Friday.
Bike lanes in Long Island City, Astoria and Forest Hills will be among the first lanes in the city to have their plastic bollards replaced with cement barriers through the initiative. Four Manhattan bike lanes are also scheduled for the first updates.
The three Queens lanes that will be hardened are Crescent Street from Queens Plaza North to Hoyt Avenue North in Long Island City and Astoria; Vernon Boulevard from 46th Avenue to 30th Road in Long Island City and Astoria; and Queens Boulevard from 73rd Street to Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.
The three Queens and four Manhattan protected bike lanes are the first lanes in the program. The DOT plans to harden a total 20 miles of the 40 existing miles of delineator-protected bike lanes in the city by the end of 2023. Existing plastic bollards currently separating bike lanes from car lanes will be removed and replaced with cement Jersey barriers that weigh several tons.
“New York City’s cyclists deserve to be safe everywhere, but especially in protected lanes – where drivers will too often disrespect and block that critical space,” DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said in a statement. “We have an actionable, concrete plan to protect cyclists and we are going to deliver on this work to keep our lanes clear.”
He thanked cycling and transportation advocates for helping identify the bike lanes in greatest need of better protection. The DOT chose lanes with high ridership, a history of cars blocking the bike lanes and/or lanes adjacent to heavy car traffic for the initiative.
The Crescent Street bike lane is one of three Queens protected bike lanes that will soon get new cement barriers. In this photo a USPS van is blocking the lane (twitter)
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said the effort is a great step toward improving cyclists’ safety in the city.
“These enhanced safety measures will provide bicyclists with the solid protection they deserve and will help unclog our roads and reduce pollution by encouraging more people to travel by bicycle,” Richards said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing the hardening of the bike lines at three high-volume locations in Queens in the coming weeks.”
Queens Assembly Member Andrew Hevesi also applauded the DOT’s plan, noting its need in his district that covers Forest Hills.
“I am glad to hear that hardened protected bike lanes are finally coming to Queens Boulevard!” Hevesi said. “New Yorkers deserve safe streets in which they can traverse without fear of needless tragedy.”
The effort coincides with the department’s commitment to build new protected bike lanes throughout the city. The DOT is testing several alternatives to plastic bollards for future lanes, including rubber and concrete barriers as well as curb designs that separate bike lanes from car lanes without requiring large-scale installations.
Queens Council Member Shekar Krishnan and Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris both said the new protection features will save lives.
DOT crews installing new cement barriers along a protected bike lane in Manhattan (DOT)
“New Yorkers are walking more and bike ridership has increased in recent years, and our city needs to be more accessible and safer for those not behind the wheel,” Krishnan said. “We must improve our infrastructure to protect bikers and pedestrians across the Five Boroughs.”
Harris said the cement barriers offer actual protection that is sorely needed for the city’s cyclists.
“Real protection, not just plastic or paint, is needed to keep people riding bikes safe,” he said in a statement Friday. “Today’s announcement by Commissioner Rodriguez to upgrade 20 miles of plastic-marked bike lanes will save lives,”
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16 Comments
Marvelous news. I look forward to this being expanded further. Safer for cyclists to have a hard barrier, and it will also prevent cars from swerving into or parking in the bike lanes. Bonus points for it also serving to discourage pedestrians from mindlessly wandering out into the bike lane as they won’t be able to jaywalk without climbing over the barrier. I’ve been knocked off several times and had a number of other close calls from oblivious people walking out in front of me. If they have to go to the corner to cross at the lights, that is safer for everyone.
They are concrete barriers not cement. These barriers pose a risk to anyone who collides with them. Will the road or cycle lane widths be reduced to fit them?
Keep everyone safe – including pedestrians, who seem to be left out of any discussion and are in danger from cars, motorcycles, bikes and scooters.
If you tried reading it you wouldn’t be so offended!
Yep, the young and able should absolutely be able to keep the old and infirm from moving around the city. You guys are making my golden years darker and darker by the day. I’m so glad I stayed here instead of leaving glide everyone else. Yep. It’s quite a payoff. Stay for decades and see for yourself.
Congestion keep you from moving around the city. Only the young and able are allowed to use these lanes? Has anyone told the e-bike delivery guys?
If they are riding bikes, they are able bodied, no matter what color their skin.
Motorized scooters and wheelchairs are regularly seen in the bike lane. You need to be able bodied to use those? ?
So, people in wheel chairs should drive them along bike lanes where they are liable to further injury? I’m afraid we will have to agree to disagree.
And motorized e-bikes are illegal to ride in the bike lane as well. Guess what…it still happens!
So all kinds of people are using the bike lanes, and they reduce congestion, making it easier for you to get around.Wrong on all counts, again. ?
This is just dumb, a complete waste of space, we need more car lanes and less bike lanes. Listen I’m all for the environment but that shouldn’t be shoved down our throats. Bicycles want to share the road with the motor vehicles they should do it at their own risk.
Listen I’m all for the environment but
Yea sure ya are
for all that think otherwise, when you choose to move and live in nyc, you automatically are anti-environment. everything is cement and chemicals and pollution and over-consumption here. once you come to this city, you are a direct contributor to the pollution, one way or another. you can twist words and sugar coat it anyway you like. time for a reality check behind those woke hipster facades you all pretend to hide behind.
Which causes more damage to the environment . . . 20 apartments stacked on top of each other, or 20 single-family houses in the suburbs? Spoiler, it’s the latter. If everyone in NYC got their own house in the suburbs, we would be much worse off.
How would you know when you don’t live here? Please stop parroting old clichés about “hipsters” (in Manhattan?) when you moved to some flyover state months ago.
Al Boondy do you live in the five boroughs?