Businesses in one of Long Island City's last industrial areas say gentrification has its limits, and planned new bike lanes Placed them Over the edge.
Local business groups argue that bike lanes in the trendy Queens neighborhood are dangerous for truck drivers, not to mention cyclists.
“Not every road can have bike lanes. You can't put a bike lane in the middle of the LIE. It's not safe. And this is kind of like that,” argued Matthieu Dienstag, co-owner of local Le Noble Lumber.
But this city Advertised on a transportation website New York City says about one million New Yorkers ride their bikes on a daily basis, and is moving forward with plans to connect the Pulaski and Kosciusko bridges for cyclists.
The connection would be via Borden, Star and Review avenues, a dangerous part of Blissville notorious for heavy truck traffic.
“It's like they're saying, 'This is our job. We don't care,'” Michael Diamond of J&S Supply, a 75-year-old distributor of insulation and roofing materials, complained to The Washington Post about the city's stance.
J&S Supply is one of dozens of warehouse operations and city Sanitation Department waste management facilities that contribute to the increased truck and forklift traffic in and out of the corridor.
Huge box trucks already cross both lanes to get to and from warehouses, but the chronic problem of double-parking on busy roads makes this tricky maneuver even more difficult.
Local civic groups and neighborhood committees have called for the installation of bike lanes as a solution to safety issues.
Five people have been killed, including two cyclists, and more than 170 injured on local roads in the past five years.
“We need to do everything in our power to make sure no more lives are lost to preventable deaths,” City Council Member Julie Wong told The Washington Post.
“Increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic can only be a positive for businesses as it increases their customer base and employee numbers,” she said. “I look forward to having discussions with individual businesses, the Department of Transportation and the Community Board.”
The plan would cut up to 15 feet from Review Avenue's existing 52-foot roadway to make room for a two-way bike path and buffer zone.
Once parking spaces are allocated on both sides of the road, that will leave just about 22 feet for moving vehicles, which business owners say they cannot give up.
“We're probably going to see more truck accidents than we do now,” Dean Stag argues. “If a truck goes into one of these buildings and then backs out or backs out, it's more likely to be hit by a car afterwards.”
Shop owners said cyclists would also be at risk.
Over the course of an hour on Friday morning, The Post observed four cyclists riding along Review Avenue, including one who chose to ride on the sidewalk rather than the busy road.
“There are a lot of trucks, so this is better because there's no one around,” said Richard Darba of Maspeth, Queens, who bikes to Greenpoint twice a week along the sidewalk of Review Avenue.
Asked if the construction of bike lanes would be beneficial, Durba said it would make no difference to him as car traffic is still too heavy and he feels uneasy about it.
Business leaders, including Diamond and Dean Stagg, expressed frustration when they toured the project with Department of Transport representatives earlier this summer but said they felt ignored.
“They didn't seem very keen to change things,” Diamond said. “That's my impression: 'We don't care. We're the city. This is what we do.'”
Thirty-two business owners have filed a petition with the Department of Transportation, asking that the project be paused rather than stopped before construction begins this fall.
However, civic officials said they have already carried out a detailed study of the project zone from the perspective of both bikes and cargo trucks.
“In areas like Blissville that suffer from excessive speeding, we responded to the community's request and with active input from local residents and businesses, and have developed this project to improve safety for all who use our roads,” Director Vincent Barone told the Post.
“This route will fill a critical gap in our bike lane network and go a long way to supporting the dramatic increase in cyclists in the area in recent years. We look forward to implementing these much-needed safety improvements this autumn.”
