The 66th Precinct Is One Of The Most Dangerous Places To Ride A Bicycle In The City

A bicyclist sits on the ground following a crash on Ocean Parkway, near Cortelyou Road, last year. Photo by Je Suis
A bicyclist sits on the ground following a crash on Ocean Parkway, near Cortelyou Road, last year. Photo by Je Suis

The 66th Precinct, which includes Kensington, is one of the most dangerous places to ride a bicycle in the entire city, according to numbers recently crunched by the Auto Insurance Center (an online resource for car insurance consumers).

The New York Business Journal reported on the findings from the Auto Insurance Center, which used data compiled through the city’s OpenData portal — and our area does not come out looking good.

The news outlet reports:

Brooklyn is the scene of the majority of bike collisions. While the average number of injured cyclists per 100 collisions citywide is 1.9, the number is 7.7 in Brooklyn’s 88th police precinct, which is in the Clinton Hill/Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. The second most dangerous was the 66th precinct, with 5.1 cyclist injuries per 100 collisions in an area that includes Boro Park (Midwood and Kensington) in Brooklyn. Third was the 9th precinct in Manhattan, which encompasses the East Village neighborhood and a slice of Greenwich Village, bounded by the area stretching from East Houston Street to East 14th Street and from Broadway to the East River in Manhattan, with 4.9 injuries per 100 collisions.

According to the most recent statistics from the city, there were 24 bicyclist injuries reported in June in the 66th Precinct, including at:

  • Beverley Road and Church Avenue
  • Church Avenue and E. 2nd Street
  • Church Avenue and E.7th Street
  • Church Avenue and E. 8th Street
  • Cortelyou Road and E. 3rd Street
  • Cortelyou Road and E. 8th Street
  • 16th Avenue and 50th Street
  • 16th Avenue and 54th Street
  • 18th Avenue and 51st Street
  • 20th Avenue and 60th Street
  • 23rd Avenue and Dahill Road
  • 39th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway
  • 56th Street and 9th Avenue
  • 59th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway
  • Avenue I and Coney Island Avenue
  • Avenue P and McDonald Avenue
  • Bay Parkway and McDonald Avenue

Police noted a variety of contributing factors to the collisions, including driver inattention/distraction, failure to yield, and unsafe lane changing.

What do you think needs to be done to make the 66th Precinct safer for bicyclists? Do you bike in the area? If so, what has your experience been like around here?