Brooklyn Bridge to Have New Dedicated Bike Lane

By on January 28, 2021 9:21 pm in Bicycles, Brooklyn Bridge, Traffic

The New York Times reports that Mayor de Blasio has said, as part of his State of the City address today, that he wants to convert the inner (left hand) lane on the Manhattan bound side of the Brooklyn Bridge into a dedicated eight foot wide bike path, separated from auto traffic by a barrier. This would accommodate bike traffic in both directions with more leeway than the current bike path that shares the upper esplanade with pedestrians. To your correspondent’s delight, it will remove bike traffic from that esplanade, and so spare pedestrians on the bridge the necessity of a nervous glance ahead and over the shoulder when encountering three abreast coming in the opposite direction or standing for a photo shoot, before encroaching on the too narrow bike path.

The Mayor has proposed a similar bike path, and a pedestrian path, for the Queensboro Bridge.

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  • aeshtron

    Hooray for turning an automobile lane on the Brooklyn Bridge into a bicycle lane!

    OTOH, I’m unsure how safe I’ll feel cycling two feet away from moving vehicles with only an unachored jersey barrier as protection. Ontario Tall Walls provide a higher level of protection than jersey barriers. Anchoring of any barriers would be sensible.

    Today I was operating one of my ugly pollution belching motor vehicles on the Brooklyn Bridge at a rate of speed which I decline to specify. Motor vehicles, with adequate force, are capable of moving and/or jumping barriers.

    Also, many cagers will cry foul at any limitation to their domination of our country. It’s already no longer free to park 150 square foot privately owned pieces of metal in certain areas of NYC and cagers such as Nicole Maliotakis and Steve Cuozzo got their panties in a bunch over that.

    Finally, can we please have tolls on all East River Crossings and oodles of speed/red light cameras?

  • Batty Cat

    The Manhattan-bound lane is a good call. I walk/ride/drive that bridge several times a week. The Brooklyn-bound side is always busier (I don’t get how, but it’s true). It’s been my bike-to-work route for over a decade. This will be an enormous relief.

    Does anyone know a timeline?

  • Andrew Porter
  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Nicole Maliotakis and Steve Cuozzo are cagers? What positions do they play: guard, forward, or center? What are their foul shot percentages?

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    The Manhattan bound traffic is likely less because cars can exit directly onto the FDR Drive without stopping. Brooklyn bound only exits onto streets with traffic signals…

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Sad that they took such a cheap-o approach. A design for a pedestrian/bike path, above the roadway and utilizing the entire width of the bridge, would make much more sense. Even with the bikes gone, the existing walkway will still be nightmare of tourist congestion, post COVID that is.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    OK, I did what I should have done in the first place, go to the Urban Dictionary. To my generation, “cager” meant a basketball player. Now I know it’s a term coined by motorcyclists for anyone who drives a car.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    While that makes perfect sense from the point of view of traffic flow of all kinds, it would seriously alter the appearance of the bridge, which I’m sure is a historical landmark.

  • B.

    They need to get rid of all the little wagons and people selling stuff. What’s that all about anyway?

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    The appearance of the bridge has, at least related to the road & walk ways, changed several times since its inception. Besides, If it wasn’t on the table to possibly make such major changes, why did they bother with the design contest a year or so ago? No, me thinks its just another case of De Blah-blah-zio’s half assed “city planning”…

  • TeddyNYC

    Capitalism I guess.

  • cool

    In a better future, I envision the exit from Brooklyn Bridge dipping below grade, tunneling under Cadman West, and arising to the on-ramp to the BQE. There’s probably a subway or something prohibiting it, but it would really relieve that area of a lot of ‘angry car’ traffic.

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7nPOzGeyaw Arch Stanton

    Yes, in fact, the “innovative” BQE rehabilitation plan proposed by the DOT called for adding the missing ramps between the highway and bridge. They wouldn’t go below grade but nevertheless would be a huge improvement to traffic flow.

  • Clarksy

    Fantastic news! It’s about time more space was made for pedestrians on the Brooklyn Bridge walkway. The current setup with just a narrow corridor for both walkers and cyclists is dangerous. Like it or not, tourists from the world over flock to the bridge and are always going to want to gawk and take photos of the skyline on both sides of the pathway. Now they’ll be able to do that in safety.

  • Andrew Porter

    The walkway was created before the era of super-tourism. Before the pandemic and shutdown, there were immense crowds of tourists and bicyclist, all competing for a very narrow space indeed.