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Activists from Monday morning's guerrilla bike lane striping on Bedford Avenue say two individuals were indeed given summonses for criminal mischief, contrary to media reports published today. Police haven't yet answered inquiries from Streetsblog, but organizers of the action confirmed that two were charged.

"The police took the names of two people, but they didn't haul anyone in. Then the cops showed up later at the bike activists' individual houses and gave them their summonses," says organizer Hayden Cummings.

The action brought together Hasidim and secular cyclists. One of those given a summons is a prominent member of the Hasidic community who volunteers to teach kids how to ride bikes, says Cummings.

A Critical Mass bike demonstration planned for Sunday won't sit well with some Hasids, says one bike advocate.

"People are going to get upset, I think," says Baruch Herzfeld, who owns a bike business under the Williamsburg Bridge. "It's better to find common ground, resolution instead of confrontation."

For your viewing pleasure this morning, YouTube footage of yesterday's early a.m. direct action on Bedford Avenue in South Williamsburg. It's hard to say for sure, but it looks like the Hasidic bike lane painters chose to stay off-camera. After the jump, a look at the results in broad daylight, courtesy of a tipster.

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The guerrilla re-striping of a portion of the Bedford Avenue bike lane at 4:00 a.m. this morning was the work of both secular Williamsburg residents and members of the Hasidic community, according to Baruch Herzfeld, a local bike-shop operator and cycling advocate with ties to both communities. 

Views of the bike lane within the Hasidic community are hardly monolithic, Herzfeld told Streetsblog. "Scores of people in the Hasidic community are actually pissed about this bike lane being eradicated at the behest of traditionalists," he said. "These members of the community may not want to 'come out' as bike warriors just yet, but they're promising continuous action until the bike lane returns."

DOT removed 14 blocks of the bike lane last Tuesday, infuriating cyclists on both the north and south sides of the Williamsburg Bridge.

This morning's display of unity between cyclists from inside and outside the Hasidic community drew officers from the NYPD and members of a neighborhood security patrol. Several people were given summonses, but no one was arrested, according to Herzfeld, who operates a bike clubhouse at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge that is frequented by secular and Hasidic customers.

Herzfeld was not present at the re-striping, but says he received text messages early this morning from those who received summonses. At one point during the confrontation between bike advocates and the neighborhood watch, a female activist was pushed off her bike by a member of the patrol, he reports, adding that the neighborhood watch also held two bike lane advocates by force until the NYPD could arrive to issue summonses. Requests for confirmation from NYPD have not been returned. 

Herzfeld, who is an observant Orthodox Jew, but not Hasidic, says he's heartened by the group's move, and says the action is a sign of things to come.

"The combined efforts of bike advocates and progressive Hasids to reinstate one of the borough's safest and greenest transportation arteries has huge implications for South Williamsburg," he said.

Looks like some New Yorkers who bike on Bedford Avenue decided not to sit idly by after the city removed 14 blocks of bike lane in South Williamsburg. Multiple sources informed Streetsblog this morning that DIY, unofficial bike lane striping has appeared along the stretch of Bedford Avenue that was sandblasted last week. We don't know who is responsible for this act of civil disobedience and guerrilla safety enhancement, but apparently, their efforts have run afoul of the law.

According to sources cited by Ben Muessig at Gothamist, the bike lane stripers were apprehended by NYPD this morning, with an assist from the neighborhood watch in South Williamsburg's Hasidic community:

According to tipsters, the neighborhood's volunteer community watch group responded to reports at around 4 am that two men were using spraypaint to recreate a section of the bike lane, which the Department of Transportation controversially removed from a 14-block stretch of Bedford Avenue last week. Police arrived at the corner of Bedford Avenue and Rutledge Street and arrested two suspects, sources said.

Streetsblog has requests in with NYPD and the 90th Precinct to confirm the arrests. In the meantime, if you have more information or pictures of the unofficial bike lane, send to tips@streetsblog.org.

The removal of the Bedford Avenue bike lane in South Williamsburg this morning proceeded without any public input. Although the thermoplast has already been stripped away, the cause of safer streets will be better off if New Yorkers who ride this bike lane speak out strongly in response. It's important, if you can make it, to enter your opinion into the public record at tonight's meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 1.

CB1 transportation committee chair Teresa Toro tells us that there should be a full house at tonight's meeting, with a big crowd expected to protest a new waterfront development planned for South Williamsburg. So come early and bring snacks and some water. You may have to wait a while to speak, but hang in there, because the people who'll be up in arms about the "Rose Plaza" development are by and large the same constituents who complained so loudly about the Bedford Avenue lane. Call me naive, but I think something productive might come out of everyone getting together in the same place.

You must sign in by 6:15 to speak at the public session tonight, and getting there by 6:00 or sooner is highly recommended. Head to the Swinging 60s Senior Center at 211 Ainslie Street, by the corner of Manhattan Avenue.

As reported by Gothamist, DOT is removing a 14-block stretch of the Bedford Avenue bike lane between Flushing Avenue and Division Street in Hasidic Williamsburg. Workers were seen erasing the lane this morning, taking away a safer cycling connection to central Williamsburg that had been in place since 2007. The northbound bike lane now ends abruptly at Flushing, with space that once belonged to bikes already converted to left-turn lanes and the like: Official reasons for the removal are hazy. DOT spokesperson Seth Solomonow sent the following statement by way of explanation:

A small portion of this lane is being removed as part of ongoing bike network adjustments in the area, which have included the recent addition of a barrier-protected connector lane on nearby Williamsburg Street and the completion of a unique, two-way protected lane on parallel Kent Avenue. We will continue to work with any community on ways we can make changes to our streets without compromising safety.

It's hard to see how any bike lane, let alone a popular and useful route like Bedford Avenue, can be removed without compromising safety. "This is a really heavily used segment of the Brooklyn bike network," said Transportation Alternatives' Wiley Norvell. "Calling it redundant is a bit like saying it's redundant to have sidewalks on the street. It's a necessary part of the transportation system. Cyclists are still going to use Bedford Avenue in large numbers, and they deserve a safe route." Read more...

Clarence Eckerson sends these shots of DOT street safety improvements taken on a recent ride near the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Above is the newly traffic-calmed intersection of Joralemon and Hicks -- part of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project -- which now sports two sidewalk extensions. (According to the Post, a third corner was slated for a curb extension, but DOT changed plans after residents said they were worried about how fire trucks would negotiate the turn.) Says Clarence: "I am sure the speed reductions will be dramatic, the equivalent of a chicane."

Heading towards Queens, the city's stock of bi-directional, protected bike paths is on the rise. Williamsburg Street West now connects Kent Avenue to Flushing Avenue, allowing cyclists to ride contraflow to Kent safely and legally. This is also a segment along the future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

More pics after the jump.

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The NYPD's 94th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is working hard to build on its reputation for being New York City's most infamous bike thieves. Too much demand for bike parking in the neighborhood? "I know what to do," says the 94's commanding officer Dennis M. Fulton. "Bust out the circular saw!"

This time Greenpoint resident Ben Running caught the whole thing on video tape. Running says the confiscated bicycles seemed to be in use:

They didn’t look like beat up bikes that had locked up there forever — they looked like they were being used,” said Ben Running, a Greenpoint resident and cyclist who filmed police removing the bikes from a street sign near the corner of North Eighth Street. “Bikes shouldn’t be removed without some kind of notice.

We've got another dispatch from the ongoing bike lane drama that is Kent Avenue. At Wednesday night's information session hosted by Brooklyn CB1, the DOT team gave a short presentation [PDF] outlining their plan to address truck traffic changes caused by converting Kent to one-way flow. Then the public was invited to comment.

According to sources who attended the meeting, most of the 60 or so people who showed up were worried that the new pattern will send more trucks down their streets, especially North 11th Street -- an existing truck route -- and Wythe Street, which runs parallel to Kent and is not a truck route. While some stretches of the discussion were civil, a few opponents were not above browbeating tactics, shouting down testimony from bike lane supporters, we're told.

A couple of things to keep in mind. The traffic changes are happening in three phases. So far only the first has been completed. Once the whole thing is finished and truckers have had some time to learn the new traffic patterns, the straightest shot heading south goes nowhere near Wythe or North 11th. DOT intends to promote this route, which takes trucks down McGuinness Boulevard instead, and work with the local police precincts to keep truckers off streets where they're not supposed to drive.

As for the notion that the project makes streets less safe (some opponents went so far as to say the new traffic patterns will endanger children), it's hard to take seriously. This is not just a one-way conversion: The crossing distances will be shorter and the roadway narrower on Kent Avenue, which motorists used to treat as a little stretch of autobahn in Brooklyn. Now that traffic will be calmer.

The bike lane was always intended to be a precursor to the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. The new design now occupies the greenway footprint, so opposing the bike lane is tantamount to opposing the greenway. An area undergoing as much residential development as North Brooklyn sorely needs this new space for pedestrians and cyclists. Walking to the waterfront will feel much safer and more appealing, and biking to the Williamsburg Bridge won't just be limited to a few brave souls. CB1 embraced those improvements when it approved the greenway plan last April [PDF]; the same benefits should feel much more tangible once the Kent Avenue bike lane is completed next month.

If you care about safe biking in Williamsburg and Greenpoint and you'd like to see the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway eventually reach completion, you'll want to show up at tonight's Brooklyn CB1 transportation meeting. The Kent Avenue bike lane is item number one on the agenda.

DOT representatives will be presenting their plan to address traffic changes caused by the new one-way vehicular flow on Kent. The new design establishes the greenway footprint and re-establishes on-street parking and loading zones. No new truck routes have been created, though southbound truck traffic will travel differently than before. Plenty can be done to mitigate the truck traffic changes, but there's a lot of hearsay and misinformation floating around. You can be sure that some North Williamsburg residents living close to those designated truck routes will be there tonight, and they'll be loud. A show of support for safe cycling would give a big boost to this important link in the city's bike network.

The meeting gets started at 6:30 (sorry about the late notice) at 807 Manhattan Avenue -- the entrance is on Calyer Street.