A proposed bike land installation is ruffling feathers again in North Brooklyn. As part of a $5.8 million renovation of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the city is planning to install two bike lines, each with a nine-foot buffer. The result: Two fewer lanes to accommodate the many trucks that use the Brooklyn-Queens connector on a daily basis. The proposed change comes on the heels of a new bike lane installation on Greenpoint Avenue that local industrialists blame for big back-ups. “They’ve really made Greenpoint Avenue a mess,” said Paul Pullo of Metroenergy. The bike lobby insists more buffered lanes are necessary in the area: “Those narrow sidewalks [on Greenpoint Avenue] currently make it pretty hazardous for two cyclists, let alone two pedestrians, to comfortably pass one another,” said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. “Separating bike and pedestrian traffic would do a lot to improve safety.” And so it goes.
It’s Trucks vs. Bikes on Greenpoint Avenue [Brooklyn Paper]