NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – There’s a push to build a car-free bridge from Queens to Manhattan as more people avoid public transportation and turn to biking because of the coronavirus.
A group of transportation experts led by Samuel I. Schwartz released renderings this week of the Queens Ribbon, which would connect Long Island City, Roosevelt Island and Midtown Manhattan.
“Covid-19 has drawn tremendous attention to walking and biking as increasingly safe modes of transportation,” Schwartz told the New York Times. “We know there will be future epidemics, superstorms, blackouts and transit strikes.”
The $100 million bridge would be the first new bridge into Manhattan in decades. City and state officials plan to review the proposal, but it faces major obstacles amid a budget crisis caused by the outbreak and subsequent lockdown.
In recent weeks, officials have said they expect more cars to pack city streets as people avoid the subway and buses because of the coronavirus. They’ve urged residents to take alternation transportation options like bikes if possible.
The city was already seeing a surge in cycling, with weekday bike trips over the East River crossings rising from 12,206 trips in 2008 to 21,033 trips in 2018, according to the New York Times.
"Even before the coronavirus outbreak, cycling over the East River bridges exploded by 132% over the last decade, yet bikers and pedestrians have been squeezed into tight spaces that inhibited growth and compromised safety for both group," reads a press release from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, T.Y. Lin International and Sam Schwartz Engineering.
The city has already added more than 40 miles of “Open Streets” for pedestrians so people can better social distance. It plans to add dozens more in the coming months, along with hundreds more miles of protected bike lanes.