Ditmas Park, Flatbush Will Get More Bike Lanes As A 'Priority Bicycle District'

DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — Ditmas Park and Flatbush cyclists will have more dedicated bike lanes to ride through under a new Department of Transportation plan to make area streets safer.

Community District 14, which includes the two neighborhoods, was designated a "Priority Bicycle District" in a new DOT report about cycling in New York City.

The priority districts are areas where cyclists are killed and injured more often that the rest of the city and where bike lanes aren't as abundant.

It's not immediately clear where exactly the new bike lanes would go in Ditmas Park and Flatbush. Typically, DOT provides recommendations, which are then reviewed by local community boards.

The new changes come as the city is seeing "more New Yorkers than ever before" riding bicycles around the city, the report says. The city wants to double the number of cyclists on the road from 2013 by 2020.

The report also touts the importance of dedicated bike lanes. From 2006 through 2016, just 11 percent of cyclist deaths occurred on streets with these "bicycle facilities," the city says.

Read more from DOT here.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images