Williamsburg’s Bedford Ave. bike lane was granted a last-minute reprieve Tuesday, as an appellate choose dominated on an emergency restraining order simply hours earlier than metropolis work crews have been set to start eradicating the controversial piece of biking infrastructure.
Lourdes Ventura, an Affiliate Justice within the Kings County Appellate Division, dominated that the Adams Administration couldn’t go forward with its plans to take away the protected bike lane from the central Brooklyn thoroughfare Tuesday night, after Williamsburg resident Baruch Herzfeld and advocacy group Transportation Alternate options appealed final week’s lower-court ruling that the removing work might proceed.
Town is enjoined from any removing work till a scheduled July 23 listening to, at which attorneys for the Adams administration shall be anticipated to make their case for his or her plans to maneuver bicycle visitors adjoining to motorized vehicle visitors alongside Bedford Ave.
“The bulldozers might be ready to destroy the Bedford Ave. safety improvements, but the Adams administration is going to have to spend their night preparing their legal case, not ripping out a critical safety project and central Brooklyn’s only protected bike lane,” Ben Furnas, head of Transportation Alternate options, stated in an announcement.
A Metropolis Corridor spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The newest twist within the destiny of the Bedford Bike Lane got here as Transportation Division work crews had already posted “no parking” indicators alongside the route forward of deliberate roadwork to start eradicating the lane Tuesday night time.
The protected lane — through which bicyclists journey between the sidewalk and a row of parked automobiles — was first put in in October 2024.
Previous to that, bicycle visitors on Bedford Ave. traveled in a painted lane alongside automobile and truck visitors.
In pushing for a reversal, the Adams administration has cited opposition from some Williamsburg neighborhood leaders who say fast paced bikes and e-bikes within the protected lane pose a hazard to pedestrians and to kids exiting faculty buses mid-block. A video montage launched by the mayor’s workplace reveals a number of kids getting hit by e-bikes as they run towards the sidewalk from between parked automobiles.
The DOT testified final month that the set up of the protected bike lane had pushed accidents on that part of Bedford Ave. down by 47%. However the company additionally acknowledged that Hatzalah, the non-public ambulance service that always responds to accidents within the Haredi communities of Williamsburg, doesn’t all the time report its calls to town.
