NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The Queensboro Bridge could lose another car lane to make room for bikes and pedestrians, as advocates and lawmakers decry dangerous conditions on the path shared by those walking and cycling.
It’s currently a tight tap-dance on the bridge’s shared bike-pedestrian path, which is tough for cyclists and nerve-wracking for pedestrians.
“You have to have good brakes,” one cyclist said.
“Very dangerous,” said one walker who had a scare with a speeding cyclist. “They almost hit – touched my bag and my bag flew.”
Now lawmakers want to give pedestrians their own space on the bridge.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer joined cycling advocates in backing a plan to turn the current bike/pedestrian path on the northern outer roadway into a bike lane, while transforming the southern outer roadway currently used by cars into a pedestrian walkway.
Drivers aren’t happy and predict even more traffic. They say one problem will just be replaced by another.
“We’re crowded already, so imagine if they shut down a lane,” one driver said.
“It’s gonna kill us,” said another driver. “It’s already tough to get in the city. We can’t park anywhere. We can’t do anything.”
But bicyclists say something needs to be done.
“It’s way too narrow. We need the other roadway,” a cyclist said. “Pedestrians on one side, bikes on the other. It’s not fair that the cars have like eight lanes for people who shouldn’t be driving into the central business district.”
Bike traffic on the bridge is up 35 percent in recent years, while car traffic is down despite the bridge being the busiest of the East River crossings.
The movement seems to be getting somewhere: The DOT says it will consider separate bike and pedestrian paths.
But for now, the priority is upper roadway work that will take another three years.