City Moves Forward With Last Stretch Of Forest Hills Bike Lane Despite Complaints

FOREST HILLS, NY -- Plans to add bike lanes to yet another stretch of Queens Boulevard are moving forward, despite complaints still rolling in about the ones that were installed along the thoroughfare in Rego Park this summer.

The Department of Transportation has started asking for community opinion on the fourth and final phase of its Queens Boulevard project, which would extend the roadway’s controversial bike lanes past Yellowstone Boulevard to Union Turnpike as part of a safety-inspired redesign.

DOT representatives are already planning to be at a community council meeting for Precinct 112, which houses Forest Hills and Rego Park, on Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. to gather public opinion.

They will likely face a tough crowd. Bike lanes implemented through Rego Park in July as part of the third phase of the Queens Boulevard plan have generated a slew of complaints among residents who say they are unsafe, take up valuable parking space and make it difficult for businesses to receive deliveries, Precinct Council President Heidi Chain told Patch.

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Those bike lanes replaced 198 parking spaces along the service road medians of the 1.3 mile section of Queens Boulevard stretching from Eliot Avenue in Rego Park into Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills. Chain said since they've been there, she and members of Community Board 6, which covers both neighborhoods, have been inundated with complaints from residents.

"The more it's there, the more people have been complaining about it," Chain said. "At our September meeting there was a tremendous number of people complaining."

The DOT is at the very beginning stages of conducting outreach for the project's latest phase between Yellowstone Boulevard and Union Turnpike, which it will continue to do through the end of the year, a spokesman told Patch.

"We expect to go back to Community Board 6 next Spring and will look to implement safety improvements next year," the spokesman said.

The department launched an online interactive feedback map that allows people to submit comments for certain issues along the road they would like to see tackled or intersections they would like to see redesigned.

"The DOT is being receptive to hearing us," Chain said. "We do know that they are working very hard with a very difficult situation, but this needs to be tweaked."

The online feedback map has already received dozens of comments in the short time it has been up. Some requested bike lanes along the stretch of Queens Boulevard, saying they were necessary and saved lives. Others argued they take valuable parking away from residents and cause traffic jams.

Chain said she's heard complaints from Rego Park residents saying the bike lanes feel unsafe for bicyclists and drivers. Buses and cars are often forced to swerve into the bike lane when cars are double parked in the lanes surrounding it, she said. Chain wants to see such kinks ironed out before the bike lanes expand any further.

"I would think a better thing to do is first figure out how it's going to work in Rego Park and use the new, improved version in Forest Hills," she said. "Right now, what they have in particular places is dangerous for everybody."

Lead image via Shutterstock.