It really got its asphalt into gear.
The city opened new protected bike lanes over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge last Thursday, offering cyclists a safer way to traverse the Newtown Creek. The Department of Transportation first unveiled its plans to build the new paths in late March, and bike activists say they’re delighted at how fast it got them up and running.
“I am encouraged by the DOT’s quick turnaround of something that is so immediately impactful to rider safety,” said Luke Ohlson, the head Brooklyn organizer for transit activist group Transportation Alternatives.
The bridge previously had no accommodations for cyclists, and many of the approximately 600 bike-riders who travel between Greenpoint and Queens on the connection every day were either pedaling alongside cars or on the sidewalks with pedestrians.
The city added two 6-foot wide bike lanes in either direction with a 4-foot wide buffer between cars and cyclists in the main drag of the bridge. To make room, it eliminated one Brooklyn-bound car lane, one foot from each remaining car lane and sidewalk, and narrowed the median strip.
The city is still working on bike lanes for the more heavily-used Pulaski Bridge, which is plans to have ready by fall.
