A vocal group of residents for years tried to quash a plan to add a protected bike lane in Brooklyn’s Gerritsen Beach neighborhood. But less than a year and a half after the lane was installed, city Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said it’s helped save lives and should be emulated across the borough.
The Department of Transportation in the fall of 2018 completed a mile-long redesign of Gerritsen Ave. south of Avenue X, which included a two-way protected bike lane, new areas for bus stops and expanded crosswalks. The project did not take away any parking spots in the area — but residents at town hall meetings for the project were outraged by the change.
Trottenberg pointed to car crash data to defend the project’s success. No one has been killed by a motorist on the street since the changes went in, while three people were killed by drivers in the three years before construction began.
“It warms our hearts that we haven’t seen another fatality on this street since this redesign went in,” Trottenberg told the Daily News. “There are too many fatalities, too many injuries, too many heartbroken neighborhoods.”
Trottenberg said she hopes to use Gerritsen Ave. as an example to change the minds of other communities that may be opposed to incoming street redesigns.
Several residents who use the street told The News that it’s a net positive — but still thought it was imperfect.
“It’s good for bikes, good for runners, good for strollers,” said Rosa Hamer, 53, who’s lived in Gerritsen Beach for a decade. “But now there’s cars double-parked everywhere and the street is not as wide to get around them. If I were a driver I would go mad.”
Charles McNally, 85, who’s lived just outside of Gerritsen Beach for 10 years, said the neighborhood has mostly adjusted to the changes and that he doesn’t hear complaints about the project like he used to.
“It’s harder to make a U-turn, and it’s much narrower so everybody slows down,” said McNally. “But every time a delivery truck parks here it’s been a nightmare. No one is stopping them and giving them tickets.”
Trottenberg said drivers slowing down is a good thing, especially given the street’s history of dangerous drivers. She said the 2016 death of Sean Ryan, a 17-year-old cyclist who was killed by a drunk driver doing 80 miles per hour on Gerritsen Ave., spurred her team to move fast to make the street safer.