Long-Awaited BK Ninth Street Bike Safety Fixes Start This Month: CB6

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The end is finally in sight to a years-long push to bring bicycle safety fixes to a dangerous span of Ninth Street in Brooklyn.

Work will begin this month to add barrier-protected bike lanes to the stretch of street from Third Avenue and Smith Street, among other changes, Community Board 6 officials told Patch.

The July start to the changes came after recent pressure from the local board on the Department of Transportation to get them started this summer.

Community Board 6's position becoming official policy is always welcome news, said district manager Michael Racioppo, though he noted it only did so after years.

"If it had been done when we first asked DOT for it, death could’ve been avoided," he said in a statement to Patch.

"Now that it’s happening, we hope that it prevents future deaths."

Death came to the Ninth Street stretch in January, when a box truck's driver struck and killed Sarah Schick, 37, as she rode a Citi Bike through its Second Avenue intersection.

Schick's death galvanized local advocates, including many Community Board 6 members, who had long called for city transportation officials to add safety features to Ninth Street from Park Slope through Gowanus.

Indeed, Department of Transportation officials had done so years before, but their bike lane didn't extend west of Third Avenue as Community 6 members had wanted.

After Schick died, transportation officials finally presented plans to improve bicycle safety along the stretch. Local board members approved them in June with the urgent condition that work start this summer, which the city apparently will.

The work this month, according to documents provided to Patch, includes adding barrier-protected bike lanes to Ninth Street from Third Avenue to Smith Street and updating the road's signal timing.