4th Ave. Bike Lane Proposal Draws Mixed Reactions In Sunset Park

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — A proposal by the Department of Transportation to install a parking-protected bike lane along Fourth Avenue drew mixed reactions from people at a Thursday night workshop in Sunset Park.

The plan would slightly narrow the two current car lanes and that run in each direction down the busy corridor while adding a bike lane in between the side walk and car lane.

Advocates of the plan were excited to have a space to ride from Barclays Center to Bay Ridge with no worries of encroaching cars and other traffic.

SEE ALSO: New 4th Ave. Bike Lane Would Run From Boerum Hill To Sunset Park

Zak Jasie, for example, is a 12-year Sunset Park resident and chair of Community Board 7's transportation committee who cycles across Brooklyn for his job in film.

"It's a great step forward to the city of the future. People want alternatives to how they travel, people don’t want to drive cars," Jasie told Patch. "My daughter goes to school nearby, and I'd be tickled silly if she could ride her bike to school."

But others, such as Elizabeth Yeampierre, were concerned about the effects of pedestrian safety. The plan would slightly narrow the "pedestrian refuge islands" in the middle of the road where street-crossers can stand safely.

"This concerns me," said Yeampierre, who heads the Latino advocacy group UPROSE. "The community had already said they didn’t want bikes on Fourth Avenue. They said they want it to be pedestrian friendly. They wanted it because there’s so many children and elderly going across. In reality, cyclists treat pedestrians the way cars treat them."

Yeampierre also said the mostly young and white attendees of the workshop didn't reflect Sunset Park, which has large Latino and Chinese populations.

"This is a homogenous group," she interjected at the beginning of DOT's presentation. "It does not represent a cross-section of this community."

The proposal is still just that, and the DOT is still taking community feedback. A similar session was held in Park Slope to discuss the stretch of Fourth Avenue that runs through that neighborhood. Community Board 7, which covers Sunset Park and Windsor Terrace, will vote on whatever final proposal the DOT comes up with.

You can view the DOT's presentation from Thursday night online here.

The DOT's past experience with protected bike lanes have shown dramatic improvements in both pedestrian and cyclist safety.

A 2014 DOT study on protected bike lanes in Manhattan, for example, found a 22 percent drop in pedestrian injuries and only a "minor" decrease in cycling injuries as bike traffic increased "dramatically" in areas after a protected bike lane was installed.

Cesar Zuniga, the first vice chair of CB7, called the proposal "a good plan" but said he wants to see more community engagement on major projects.

"We have to do a better job of engaging the entire community," Zuniga told Patch. "In terms of the outcome, I'm fine with it. The idea that we'll have protected bike lanes — we should have done that a long time ago. The thing I want to make sure we do is engage people."

City Councilman Carlos Menchaca, whose district includes Sunset Park, took it a step further. He said he'd like to see similar DOT sessions done in Spanish, Chinese and Arabic, languages spoken regularly in the diverse neighborhood.

He also said DOT should consider the concerns of small businesses such as a car wash that could get blocked in.

"The most positive thing about this plan is that it continues to get input from our community. You don’t always get to see that on capital projects, massive ones like this," Menchaca told Patch.

"This bike lane, it represents a natural community concern. And we have to make sure that we balance everything — businesses, elders, schools, bikes — and we can get to a place that makes this safer."

Lead image: Marc Torrence, Patch