Skip to Content
Streetsblog New York City home
Streetsblog New York City home
Log In
Bicycling

DOT Reply on Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue Bike Lane

Earlier this week we asked why the Department of Transportation had not followed-through on its promise to fix up the Fifth Avenue bike lane in Brooklyn by end of summer. Ryan Russo, the agency's new Director for Street Management and Safety got back to us with this response:

Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, between Carroll and Dean Streets, is now designated as a Class III bike route. As anticipated in the May 19, 2005 letter, we completed installation of Class III bike route signage along this route in July. The signage consists of standard "Bike Route" signs complemented with a special "Share the Road" message sign. We still intend to install Class 3 lane markings consisting of bicycle logos and chevron arrows.

As you are aware, the Department recently announced a comprehensive, citywide bike safety initiative that includes a commitment to install 200 miles of new bike facilities during the next three years including up to 45 miles of Class III routes. As part of this effort, we anticipate making further upgrades to the signs and markings used to designate future Class III routes. We are currently looking closely at the appropriate designs for these upgrades. In order for the Fifth Avenue route to utilize new Class III markings we have postponed the anticipated installation of the markings for Fifth Avenue until the start of the next markings season in April.

We walk and ride down Fifth Avenue every day but hadn't noticed the new street signs. We'll look for them and try to snap a photograph. We are glad to hear that DOT is looking into improving the signs and markings for Class III bike lanes. But April seems like an awfully long time to wait. Why not install some interim measure between now and then? By April 2007 it will be nearly two years since Elizabeth Padilla was killed riding her bike on the northern end of Fifth Avenue, now identified as one of the more dangerous bike riding spots in the city.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog New York City

Thursday’s Headlines: Tisch Comes Clean Edition

NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch finally commented on her department's crackdown on cyclists. Plus more news.

May 15, 2025

Tisch Rap: NYPD Criminal E-bike Summonses Surge 4,000 Percent

The NYPD wrote twice as many criminal court summonses to e-bike riders in two weeks than it wrote all of last year — an astronomical increase that is a remnant of a repudiated racially biased police practice.

May 15, 2025

Quiet Desperation: NYPD’s Tisch Didn’t Tell DOT About Her Crackdown on Cycling

The NYPD commissioner did not inform her counterpart at the Department of Transportation that police would begin issuing criminal summonses to cyclists.

May 15, 2025

Not the Same Ol’ MTA: Cost of Upgrading Subway Signals is Cut in Half

A new design-build strategy, plus removing old signals fully, is credited for cutting costs in half. Take that, Sean Duffy.

May 15, 2025

Lander, Labor Activists Slam Cuomo After ‘Goliath’ DoorDash Gives $1M

The donation from the the app company is seen as a way of influencing a possible future mayor to side with the tech giant.

May 14, 2025
See all posts