39th Avenue in Sunnyside is an Open Street closed to vehicles daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. except for local traffic and deliveries. Drivers are not permitted to go more than 5 mph along the stretch (Photo: Instagram @SWOpenstreets))
June 21, 2021 By Allie Griffin
The Department of Transportation (DOT) will present a proposal Wednesday to create a “bike boulevard” along 39th Avenue in Sunnyside.
The agency plans to convert 39th Avenue, from 45th Street to Woodside Avenue, to a bike boulevard that would involve making significant changes to the strip. The DOT will discuss its plans during a Community Board 2 meeting that the public can view on Zoom on Wednesday.
The stretch of road is one of five current open streets — one in each borough — that the city plans to convert to a bike boulevard, a corridor designated and designed for bicycle travel.
The open street is currently closed to through traffic from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on most days. Local traffic, however, is permitted access for parking, deliveries and drop-offs at all hours.
The DOT plans to reduce vehicular traffic on 39th Avenue to prioritize it for cyclist usage by reducing speed limits, diverting cars to other streets and making some cross streets one-way as part of the bike boulevard proposal.
The agency also hopes to connect the bike boulevard to existing bike lanes and signed routes. For instance, workers plan to install shared bike lanes on Barnett Avenue and 43rd Street to connect to the Skillman Avenue bike lane.
The DOT aims to transform the five selected streets into bike boulevards by either November or December this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio previously announced in May.
The agency will first present proposals for each bike boulevard to local lawmakers and community boards like Queens Community Board 2 in the coming weeks.
The Queens CB2 meeting Wednesday starts at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. It is unclear what time during the meeting the DOT will make its presentation.
Lisa Deller, chairperson of the community board, said the board has yet to weigh in on the plan.
She said the board needs time to review the plan, since it was unaware of the proposal until de Blasio announced it during a press conference in May. The board also didn’t request it.
Deller said that she could see the appeal of the bike boulevard on 39th Avenue– especially given the proximity of the stretch to local parks. However, she said that Barnett Avenue should also be considered as a location.
To see the DOT plan, click here
The DOT is presenting its plan for the 39th Avenue Bike Boulevard this Wednesday
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54 Comments
Van b is on the way out. He just wants to stick it to the neighborhood one more time
I watched the presentation this evening the DOT is going to make both ends of 39th Ave one way. The only way to drive to Woodside or will be on Northern Blvd. This will eliminate through traffic but increasing driving for anyone who actually lives on 39th Ave.
This can not happen if it means losing parking spots. Sorry but we have already lost so many spots in the last year and people keep parking like jerks in the first place (taking what could be two spots for one car)
This is fantastic. More and more neighbors use 39th ave to bike to school and work. All you see are cars speeding up and down 39th ave with no regard fo anyone else o nthe road. Bikes, joggers and walkers are all jammed on narrow fake bike lanes. It’s dangerous and not right. Why should the cars have all the space and everyone else get pushed to the side? It’s ridiculous that cars get a free pass on our public spaces like this. Time to evolve and share the road. Go Sunnyside!
Roads are for cars.
No, no, no. I bike AND drive. I live in the neighborhood. Hardly any bicyclists and pedestrians use this street. This is an absolutely STUPID proposal.
Have you considered that bicyclists and pedestrians don’t use the street because it’s full of cars that have refused to heed the rules of the Open Street? I’ve tried to walk on the street. Cars push you against the parked cars, speed by, and yell at you for being in the road.
This is a Field of Dreams moment. If you build it, they will come. If we get rid of the speeding cars, the people will come out to enjoy the street. Same as 34th Avenue Open Street.
This is just what we need, another under used traffic jam creating open streetfor a few bikes and pedestrians .De Blasio has created a war on car owners and people who need cars for transportation work and to do their shopping and recreation.
There’s a link above that says you can sign up to speak about this at the Community Board Meeting on Wednesday. The link goes here:
https://tinyurl.com/cb2-signup
This might be a better link. The message is easier to find:
https://tinyurl.com/3ypatxhw
Look closely – you won’t be able to drive eastbound on 39th Ave from 52nd st to Woodside Ave! Any vehicle going towards Northern Blvd will have to loop around BARNETT AVE which is already too narrow for two way traffic. They want to kill us off.
I live on Skillman and fire trucks use it day in and day out. There is plenty of room for first responders when people don’t selfishly double park their cars and create hazards for people in need of help.
bingo.
I’m so sick of all of these bicyclists and every electric vehicle rider speeding wherever they want, going through red lights and stop signs and never getting a ticket the way a driver would. Also, having bike lanes repaved when the rest of our roads are in horrendous condition when they don’t pay a dime, don’t have to have a license, insurance, registration, don’t pay taxes when buying gas and don’t have to pay a meter! This is a walking and driving city. If you want to ride a bike or scooter, move upstate!!!!!!
I’m for it. I’m tired of NYC car culture. We need fewer dangerous and entitled drivers with their cars taking up all that public space. Not to mention less pollution.
People complaining this will mark car life harder are missing the point. Policies like this are designed to make car life less appealing and I support that.
I really do welcome the Bike Boulevard. As a parent with a small child in a big stroller and another one on a bike, I suffer daily on our neighborhood’s very narrow sidewalks, especially on 39th Avenue, where the opposing pedestrians must always stand aside for each other. And how many children have fallen from their bikes because there is no room for them to ride?
39th Avenue is a vital artery to the three public parks in this neighborhood (Windmuller/Doughboy, Lodati, & PS 150). We must consider that not everyone can easily use Skillman and 43rd Ave for walking and biking. They are on a massive incline difficult for children and the differently abled. 39th Avenue is beautifully flat nearly the whole way. When the Open Street worked best, last spring and summer, it was newly freeing to be uncrowded on the suffocating sidewalk.
And while I feel confident riding in the Protected Bike Lanes on Skillman and 43rd Ave, there are just too many gaps in the bike lane with turning cars quickly entering the bike space. A child or inexperienced rider is at the mercy of the motorists.
The Bike Boulevard will greatly reduce the amount of vehicles and the velocity of them. It will be a safe and beautiful neighborhood street for all to enjoy. We must remember that while it’s called a Bike Boulevard, the intent is to create more safe space for pedestrians, too: to walk, to cross, even to play.
Sunnyside Gardens was built as a model neighborhood for the future. A quiet place to live and enjoy the community. I’m happy we were chosen to continue that tradition as the first model for Queens Bike Boulevards. Let’s embrace this and be grateful that we have a new way to enjoy the beauty and quietude and community of our home.
^^^^Shill for TA
The problems you cited do not exist. At all. You admitted the failure on 43 & Skillman Aves, so maybe there’s hope.
Vehicle traffic will simply be rerouted to other streets, creating MORE pollution, confusion, accidents, and delays in emergency services and deliveries.
Go back to Iowa. This is NYC, there has also been a car culture here , and there always will be. Stop your whining, or move to the burbs.
I would gladly move back to Iowa BUT THERE AREN’T VEGAN RESTAURANTS FOR MY KIDS! And the vegan restaurants that are there DO NOT HAVE A SATISFYING MIX OF COMFORT FOODS AND HEALTHY OPTIONS!
Why do people think only Midwest transplants ride bikes? Also there isn’t a big car culture. I’m from here too, but it’s really not a good look to use that as a reason why your opinion should matter more. My family has been here since colonial times and I’d be a real moron if I use that as a way to say that my opinion matters more.
Are you going to be able to travel from 39th Avenue to 52nd Street which is a one way street running south to Skillman Avenue?
Yes, you can reach 52nd St from Woodside Avenue or 51st St in this proposal. There will be a traffic light at 52nd. I hope you support it!
There is no parking as it is. Mayor pot head is churning up his war on cars before we are finally relieved of him. How about putting it on his block in Park Slope. Why bother presenting a plan to the Community Board? The city will ram it down our throats any way. Better to require licensing and insurance of bike riders first. Also enforcement of traffic signs and lights since the bike riders ignore them to everyone’s peril.
What’s fair is fair! Motorists had the opportunity to share the road when it was an Open Street, but instead they flagrantly and violently dominated it, going against the rules stating it was for Local Traffic only and all vehicles must go 5 mph. Cars are the reason nobody can use the Open Street.
Well, you abused it and you lost it!
Door dash deliveries and your ride-share drivers abused it. Not local residents.
This is a disaster in the making, and once again a major decision affecting the neighborhood is being rammed thru CB2 via a Zoom meeting.
There should be a traffic light at the corner of 45th and 39th Ave. to slow traffic. Many non-local drivers use 45th Street to cut over from Queens Boulevard to Northern Blvd. because they don’t encounter a traffic light. And that intersection is confusing as it is, with many drivers ignoring the right turn only sign.
Many non-local drivers use 45th Street to cut over from Queens Boulevard to Northern Blvd.
We know, Mike.
Motorist are not the ones who recklessly rage the road and speed thru stop signs and red lights. I will post a link shortly to a YouTube video of a man on a city bike who ran the light northbound on 48 St crossing northern blvd and caused a QM2 express bus to slam on the brakes.
I live near an intersection and I watch all day as car after car rolls through the stop sign (next to a playground!). No car ever stops, they just barrel headlong into the crosswalk and keep going. And the parked cars block the motorists and pedestrians from seeing each other. Getting hit by a bike would suck. Getting hit by a car or truck would kill.
I look forward to watching your video of that one time that thing happened!
No, you took over what was intended for BOTH vehicles and bikes, but your self-important snobbery is backed by PACs.
Totally unacceptable and a terrible idea for the Sunnyside/Woodside neighborhood! We have plenty of bike lanes that bikers already don’t use. They took parking spots away from those in the neighborhood and made it nearly impossible to find parking. This idea is a waste of time and money that could be better spent cleaning up the parks!
The bikes need to pay registration license and inspection as well as tolls if they’re going to use roads built for cars that cars pay for.
But this is a lie. Taxpayers pay for the roads. No motorist has ever paid for a road. Even the parking is free in this neighborhood! And there are for more taxpayers who don’t drive than those who do. So cars owe us our streets back.
THANK YOU, Rim. This argument has always bothered the crap out of me. In NYC we also pay city and MTA taxes and if someone is not willing to use our vast transportation network, then that’s on them. Other cities like Philly have paid, permit-based parking for residents. Everyone here feels so entitled to their free parking and doesn’t stop to think about the distribution of taxpayer money.
Do the members of the Community Board live in the area that they are making decisions about?
Do they actually care?
Uhh yes. That’s why it’s a COMMUNITY board.
I echo previous comments made here: protected bike lanes on 43rd and Skillman Avenues already provide east-west access through this section of Sunnyside. There is NO NEED to convert 39th Avenue into a bike boulevard! Look at any street map: the LIRR and Windmuller Park already create enough obstacles for vehicles entering this area and for the residents of Berkeley Towers, Sunnyhill Gardens, and Phipps Apartments. I hope CB2 also asks FDNY Engine 325 and Ladder 163 for input about this idiotic proposal.
It’s telling that a motorist sees a park and a train line as obstacles in their life. There are more people out here than just you. We like the parks, the trains, the Bike Boulevard and the Open Streets. We’d like much more of it. The cars have enough of our public space.
Thousands of bikers and pedestrians use 39th ave every day. It’s way overdue. Very excited to see more support for this!!!
Ridiculous!!!
The CB will vote no and the council will do it anyway.
As always in a liberal dictatorship.
Is there any way to show the community’s opposition to this proposal? This will impact those who live in the community and drive. 43rd and Skillman Ave have already been sacrificed by making it a one way road with ode space for bikes but less parking spaces. This is ridiculous. This is usually being told to the public that it is to reduce traffic and accidents, but this proposal will only bring forth more accidents and congestion.
How will it create more accidents? This will reduce straight lanes for cars to drag race and will force them to slow down.
I bet they’re doing it via Zoom so they don’t have to fear live public backlash.
I am a biker and a car owner. I am in favor of more bike lanes but this in nonsensical. The Skillman snd 43rd bike lanes are sufficient and far or logical because they actually connect with other bike lanes. If this were part of a larger connected network it would make sense.
Additionally the current barricades on 39th Ave. are a hazard. They do not decrease traffic so far as I can tell and provide a false sense of security to the joggers and bike riders. Irritated drivers swerving around obstacles does not make for a safer street. CB2 clarity in traffic patterns is essential!
I 100% agree that there are already sufficient bike lanes on Skillman & 43rd Aves. When they converted Skillman Ave the fire station has had to revert to using 39th Ave for runs, now what will happen?
And I also agree that the signs don’t do anything to stop or slow down traffic on 39th Ave. It was a great idea but no one walks on the streets at all because of the traffic.
Oh and I’m sure Queens Post will delete all these comments mysteriously like they did with all the opposition to the Phipps Housing site.
Another reason to move.
Why bother having a meeting. Council will ram it down our throats one way or another, then lie about accidents and fatalities and hide that data.
No way should this be fast-tracked to a vote this summer, no matter how much the outgoing mayor wants it.
Ridiculous! You have just put protective bike lanes a block away on Skillman Avenue and 43rd Avenue which took away over 100 parking spots all for ‘safety’ and to have a route to the bridge. Now, you want to do this? Why are bikes permitted on 39th Avenue when Skillman Ave and 43 Ave have been designated and sacrificed parking spots for it, as well as, it is a large distance. Nobody is going far on 39th Avenue from Woodside Ave to 43 Street and then go up to Skillman to continue! Why a park being put on 50th Street when everyone can play in the street? Once again, terrible idea! CB2 Vote No!
This is 100% unacceptable!!!! On the 43rd. Street not only would this take away parking spots and make the route very unsafe it would also knock out the restaurant set-up – The Lowery, Bar 43 etc.
Horrible the community must fight back and stop this.
Parking is a privilege not a right. This is not the suburbs.
Nobody complained until you newbies, hipsters, morons moved to Sunnyside. Go back to the mid-west, or where ever you came from.
It’s called freedom, baby. Bikes get to use our roads, too. Share the road: car lanes, car parking lanes, bike lanes. Heck, even crosswalks for the unwheeled. That’s America, sister: Love it or leave it!