Streetsblog New York City

Greenpoint Avenue has long been a dangerous connection between Queens and Brooklyn. The intersection with Borden Avenue in Sunnyside, where it crosses the Long Island Expressway, is often overrun with drivers heading toward an LIE onramp or exiting the highway so they can get to Manhattan via the free Queensboro Bridge. The waves of traffic make crossing Borden a dangerous mess for people trying to walk or bike around their neighborhood.

“It can be a pretty daunting intersection at the best of times,” said Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who has lobbied for safety fixes.

In April 2012, a bike rider was struck and killed by a livery cab driver at the intersection, and months later another cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run just blocks away. The deaths spurred action from Queens residents who had long worried about traveling through the area. Steve Scofield and four other volunteers recorded conditions and behavior at the intersection, ultimately producing a list of recommendations to improve street safety. On December 18, they presented their findings to Queens Community Board 2′s transportation committee.

The group suggested adding lane markings on eastbound Greenpoint Avenue to mark where turning and through traffic should go. Currently, “it’s kind of a free for all,” Scofield said.

The group also proposed adding a dedicated left turn signal from westbound Greenpoint to eastbound Borden, as well as adding a leading signal for cyclists and pedestrians headed eastbound on Greenpoint, to give them a jump start on drivers turning to access the expressway. Currently, many cyclists heading east on Greenpoint Avenue illegally ride on the sidewalk on the other side of the street because they feel unsafe on the road, said Jessame Hannus, who presented with Scofield.

The problems at this intersection are also a symptom of the city’s lack of a coherent road pricing system. Much of the traffic is due to drivers using local streets as a shortcut between the Long Island Expressway and the Queensboro Bridge, instead of staying on the highway and paying a toll at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel. Consistent tolls on the East River crossings would cut down on the traffic, Scofield noted. He often sees the intersection of Borden and Greenpoint gridlocked while traffic flows freely underneath on the expressway to the tunnel.

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After DOT met with community members, the first round of new bike lanes for Long Island City and Sunnyside will go before Community Board 2 this fall. A new survey asks where they should go next. Map: DOT

With the first phase of new bike lanes set to go before Community Board 2 this fall before being installed in the spring, DOT has a new survey asking western Queens cyclists where they’d like to see bike lanes come next.

The survey is the latest step in months of outreach and feedback with members of Community Board 2, Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer and western Queens residents.

“Our district has a special responsibility to ensure safe cycling,” said CB 2 transportation committee member Evan O’Neil, “since we are the access point to the Queensboro Bridge.”

Dana Frankel, district services manager for the Long Island City Partnership, was also supportive of the new bike lanes planned for the neighborhood. “We’re excited that bike-share is coming to LIC,” she said. “The bike lanes will help make our streets safer.” She also mentioned that the area’s first StreetRack bike corral at MoMA PS1 has been well-used. “We are happy to help connect property owners and institutions who may want StreetRacks with DOT,” Frankel said.

The first round of bike lanes, which will bring nearly 10 lane miles to Long Island City and Sunnyside, were identified at community meetings with DOT in March and July [PDF]. They include critical connections such as 11th Street between the Pulaski Bridge and Queens Plaza South; 39th Street between Northern Boulevard and Greenpoint Avenue; and Skillman and 47th Avenues in Sunnyside.

The first phase will not include Greenpoint Avenue itself, which community members identified at a March workshop as their top priority for bike lanes. Greenpoint Avenue has a dangerous history: In July, a cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run near 39th Place, after a cyclist was killed in April at the intersection with Borden Avenue. Bike lanes on Greenpoint Avenue would connect to the avenue’s bridge across Newtown Creek. DOT had proposed buffered bike lanes on the bridge, but backed off in the face of opposition from nearby companies that operate trucks across the span. The proposal has not seen much public progress since.

“Long term, it’s pretty clear that protected lanes like the excellent new infrastructure on Queens Plaza North should be the standard,” O’Neil said. However, the bike lane projects being considered by DOT are restricted by the department’s promise not to eliminate any parking.

The online survey will help DOT identify phase two projects for next year, as part of a four-year plan for bike lane expansion in the area.

New bike lanes would be installed next spring along the routes marked with green dotted lines, and could be added along the routes marked in blue in subsequent years. Click here for a larger image.

Bike lane mileage in Long Island City and Sunnyside, Queens, is set to double next year, under a preliminary plan from the Department of Transportation, with significant expansions to follow in subsequent years. The nine miles of new routes — along 11th Street, Skillman Avenue, 47th Avenue and 39th Street — were selected in a community planning process convened earlier this year by Community Board 2 and City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer.

Queens’ disjointed street grid poses a particular challenge for cyclists. With relatively few streets that provide a through route from neighborhood to neighborhood, cyclists often find themselves on the same handful of wide, busy streets with the most dangerous automobile traffic. In this plan, DOT is making room for cyclists on those in-demand routes. “These are major routes,” said CB 2 member Emilia Crotty. “They cut all the way through the neighborhood.” 11th, for example, feeds into the Pulaski Bridge. Additionally, new bike lanes will extend down into Hunters Point on the smaller streets of 2nd Street, and 50th and 51st Avenues.

The very busiest path, however, will remain free of bike infrastructure. DOT deemed Queens Boulevard to have traffic volumes too high to allow a bike lane, according to the Queens Chronicle, despite community interest in putting a lane there.

The Department of Transportation is still developing the designs for the new bike lanes, which could be painted lanes, sharrows, or even — in the case of the 39th Street bridge over the Sunnyside rail yards — placed on the sidewalk. “I know that members of the community will push for the most robust designs possible,” said Crotty.

The design options will be constrained by DOT’s commitment to avoid eliminating on-street parking with these bike lane projects. These will not be protected bike routes.

DOT is currently collecting additional traffic data in the neighborhood and should have a proposal before the community board by the fall. If approved, the bike lanes would be built next spring.

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The aftermath of a fatal hit-and-run crash on Sunnyside's Greenpoint Avenue. Photo: William C Lopez/New York Post

A motorist struck and killed a cyclist in Sunnyside Queens last night, then fled the scene, according to the NYPD. The cyclist, a 37-year-old Hispanic man whose name is being withheld until his family can be notified, died at the scene.

Witnesses told the New York Post that the driver was “flying by at an amazing speed” and swerving, almost hitting other pedestrians and vehicles as well.

A police spokesperson said both the motorist and cyclist were traveling eastbound on Greenpoint Avenue near 39th Place at the time of the crash. “It seems like he was sideswiped,” he said. An investigation into the crash is ongoing and no arrests have been made yet.

In April, another cyclist was killed just six blocks away, at the intersection of Borden Avenue and Greenpoint Avenue.

Many cyclists in Queens feel theirs is the forgotten borough. Though it ranks first in size and second in population, Queens ranks third behind Brooklyn and Manhattan in bike lanes. And the existing bike lanes too rarely link up, cyclists say, discouraging bicycle use for commuting to work or for recreation.

"Queens Boulevard is the big ask," said one workshop participant. In recent years, cyclists Asif Rahman and James Langergaard have been killed on the highway-like thoroughfare that connects many Queens neighborhoods.

With the goal of improving bike travel in their borough, Queens residents met with city Department of Transportation officials Saturday for some bottom-up planning. The idea was to get the people who know their streets best to provide initial input for new bike lanes.

Convened by Queens Community Board 2, the meeting was the first of its kind for the city, said Hayes Lord, who directs the DOT’s bicycle program.

CB 2, which includes the western Queens neighborhoods of Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside, is strategically located to improve bicycling for Queens residents. It is home to the Queensborough Bridge, an important route for cyclists commuting to work, and with a burgeoning collection of cultural institution, it is increasingly a destination unto itself. ”We definitely see that there’s a great deal of excitement for cycling in Queens and we want to be able to support that,” Lord told the roughly 50 attendees.

Cyclists gathered in groups around large maps showing existing bike lanes and conferred about traffic trouble spots.

The Queens side of the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn was described as “atrocious,” by Helen Ho, who often bikes that route to commute between her Astoria home and office near Union Square in Manhattan. ”To get to the bike lane on Vernon Boulevard you have to go across some really scary intersections,” she said.

Some participants urged the creation of a continuous east-west route. Jonathan Dunn, a former investment banker, said he regularly uses that thoroughfare for his one-hour, forty-minute recreational jaunt from his Sunnyside home to the Rockaways. “But you have to be very careful along Queens Boulevard,” he said.

“Queens Boulevard is the big ask — the dream,” said Astoria resident Ian Hardouin. “It’s a major thoroughfare and connects to many other neighborhoods.” Hardouin noted that a Queens Boulevard bike lane would be a heavy lift because the boulevard is home to many stores, restaurants and other business that depend on street parking, some of which could be lost by the creation of bike lanes.

Lord had another concern: whether Queens Boulevard bike lanes would be safe. He said DOT would like to look at a possible parallel route.

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