Community Board 7 Approves DOT’s 4th Avenue Bike Lane Plan

SUNSET PARK – Brooklyn Community Board 7 approved the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) proposal to install four miles of protected bike lanes along 4th Avenue on Wednesday—a week after Community Board 6 also gave the go-ahead on the project following an amendment to the timeline.

CB7 voted 30 to 5 in favor of DOT’s project, StreetsBlog reports. Bike lanes, protected by lanes of parked cars, will be installed along 4th Avenue from 65th Street in Sunset Park to Atlantic Avenue in Boerum Hill.

The project will be implemented in segments, with the installation of bike lanes using low-cost materials between 38th and 65th Streets scheduled for Spring 2018. Full construction will take place between 8th and 64th Streets starting in Fall 2018.

In 2019, temporary, in-house materials will be used for the section between 8th Street to Atlantic Avenue. The temporary materials will be used in this part of the project until permanent materials are installed in 2021, as according to the original schedule.

DOT committed to the interim improvements on the northern end of 4th Avenue after the CB6 Transportation/Public Safety Committee and Council Member Brad Lander urged the agency to speed up the process for the Park Slope/Boerum Hill portion of the project.

Along with the protected bike lanes, DOT’s 4th Avenue proposal includes new pedestrian refuge islands, maintaining left turn bays, maintaining high visibility crosswalks, retaining the existing number of car lanes and including a rush-hour lane in CB7 (from Prospect Expressway to 38th Street), adding loading zones and potentially expanding metered parking (to reduce double parking on blocks with most active commercial uses/frequent double parking/transit connections), planting trees, and adding wayfinding signs, benches, and public art along the avenue.

Along the Sunset Park portion of the project, four parking spots per block (approximately 225 spaces in total) will be lost to accommodate the pedestrian refuge islands.

Click here to see NYC DOT’s 4th Avenue Proposal.