The city must install a bike lane on Classon Avenue after a driver fatally hit a cyclist there earlier this year, says the sister of the late biker and thousands of others who signed a petition she launched last week.
A motorist ran over and killed Crown Heights resident Lauren Davis as she was peddling to work on the street near Lexington Avenue in Clinton Hill on April 15, and her sister says a path will ensure other riders don’t suffer the same tragic fate.
“My hope is that by installing a bike lane, other cyclists won’t have to endure the same death as my sister,” said Danielle Davis.
Danielle Davis launched the petition with pro-bike group Transportation Alternatives last Wednesday and it has already amassed more than 5,000 signatures as of publishing.
The city has installed signs on the Williamsburg-bound street distinguishing it as a “bike route,” but it doesn’t have any lanes and cyclists still have to ride in regular traffic.
Riding in a separate lane — especially one painted green — would have made Lauren Davis more visible to motorists and kept her out of harm’s way, said her sister.
“Things for her would have been different, it would have increased visibility for my sister,” she said.
Along with Lauren Davis’s death, six other cyclists have been injured this year in crashes along Classon Avenue — which stretches from Flushing Avenue to Eastern Parkway — according to city data.
Department of Transportation officials have no immediate plans to install a bike lane on the street, but are open to suggestions from the community, a rep for the agency said.
The closest Williamsburg-bound street with a bike lane is Bedford Avenue five blocks away.
