Mayor Bill de Blasio. Image credit: CityLand

The recently completed projects are part of an effort to add more protected bike lanes in Brooklyn by the end of the year. The protected bike lanes are part of the City’s Green Wave plan for cycling. On November 5, 2020 Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the completion of two protected bike lanes in Brooklyn. The new Flatbush Avenue and 4th Avenue protected bike lanes add 3.2 miles of protected lanes.

The Flatbush Avenue Protected Bike Lane runs .8 miles each way in both directions from Grand Army Plaza to Ocean Avenue. The lane connects Downtown Brooklyn and the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges area to Flatbush, East Flatbush and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, and increases access to Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and the Brooklyn Public Library. The new lane reduces speeding, shortens pedestrian crossings, adds bus boarding island and helps protect cyclists. The speed limit along this section of Flatbush Avenue was reduced to 25 MPH earlier this year. 

The 4th Avenue Protected Bike Lane runs .8 miles each way in both directions from 65th Street in bay Ridge to Barclays Center in Prospect Heights. With this addition, 4th Avenue now has over eight miles of protected bike lanes, which have been a part of a three year effort to make this corridor safer. 

The new lanes are part of the 15 miles of protected bike lanes completed in 2020, and the City projects another ten miles of protected lanes to be completed this year. Since 2016, 106 miles of bike lanes have been added across Brooklyn.

Further Brooklyn protected bike lane projects for this year include Smith Street, Tillary Street and 7th Avenue in Bay Ridge. 

Mayor de Blasio stated, “Our city’s recovery depends on giving New Yorkers safe, reliable, and green transportation alternatives, and I’m proud to support the growing cycling movement in Brooklyn and beyond. I know these lanes will be used well and often, and I’m looking forward to cutting the ribbon on even more lanes across the city this year.”

Council Speaker Corey Johnson stated, “New Yorkers have turned to biking in record numbers during this pandemic, making our need for bike infrastructure citywide all the more urgent. These new bike lanes are an exciting addition to Brooklyn’s bike lane network and the Council will keep pushing for more throughout the five boroughs.”

Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, Chair of the Transportation Committee, stated “The safety of pedestrians and cyclists has been my top priority as Chairman of the Transportation Committee. The additional 3.2 miles of protected bike lanes that were placed on Flatbush Avenue and Fourth Avenue will increase the protection and safety of all cyclists. New York City has been working to be a role model for the whole country when it comes to turning municipalities more cyclists and pedestrians friendly.”

By: Veronica Rose (Veronica is the CityLaw fellow and a New York Law School graduate, Class of 2018.)