CB 5 Cmtes. Like Ridgewood, Glendale Plan
With some minor tweaks, the first phase of a bike route network for Community Board 5 received favor from the board’s Transportation and Public Transit Committees during their meeting Tuesday night, Jan. 28 in Glendale.
Committee members agreed to send a resolution to the full board at its February meeting recommending approval of a plan to create two perpendicular bike routes later this year. One route would link bike routes at the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge in East Williamsburg and the Brooklyn-Queens Greensway in Glendale, primarily traveling along Woodward and Onderdonk avenues in Ridgewood.
The other planned route would run in perpendicular directions along Himrod and Harman streets from Metropolitan Avenue in Ridgewood through Bushwick and link up to bike routes along Central and Evergreen avenues in Bushwick.
The second route was initially proposed to travel through Maspeth and Middle Village along Eliot Avenue, but the Department of City Planning (DCP) scrapped those plans after committee members voiced concerns about it during a meeting with representatives of the DCP and the city Department of Transportation (DOT) last November.
As previously reported, the committees were concerned about the safety of bicyclists traveling along a narrow, two-lane segment of Eliot Avenue between Mount Olivet Crescent and 67th Street that is sandwiched between Mount Olivet and All Faiths cemeteries.
Kristina Schmidt of the DCP stated at Tuesday’s meeting the proposed bike route on Eliot Avenue would be scrapped for the time being so the first phase can move forward. Meanwhile, the DCP would consider adding Metropolitan Avenue from the Brooklyn/Queens border to 80th Street in Middle Village as a possible alternate bike route to be established in the second phase.
Inbar Kirhani of the DOT added that further study would nonetheless continue to look at adding all or part of Eliot Avenue to the bike route network in the second phase.
Pending the approval of the full community board, the DOT will begin installing “sharrows” along the first phase bike routes this summer. The markings-which depict a bicycle and two directional chevrons-will be painted on the asphalt along the length of the route to advise both bicyclists and drivers to share the road.
Representatives of the DCP and DOT are expected to present preliminary plans for the second phase of the bike route network between this fall and early next year, it was noted.
Vincent Arcuri, Board 5 chairperson, stated the full board will vote on a resolution to recommend approval of the Phase 1 plan at its meeting on Wednesday night, Feb. 12, at Christ the King Regional High School in Middle Village.
Details about other items discussed at Tuesday’s meeting will be in next week’s issue.
