Alan Gerson

Alan Gerson Wants Greater “Review” of DOT Bike Safety Plans

In 2006, Alan Gerson helmeted-up and rallied for a protected bike lane on Houston St.

By Aaron Naparstek

11:16 AM EST on December 8, 2008

In 2006, Alan Gerson helmeted-up and rallied for a protected bike lane on Houston St.

On a day when you’d hope City Council members would be focused on the Bikes in Buildings bill, Manhattan City Councilman Alan Gerson is planning to introduce a new piece of legislation aimed at giving someone — presumably City Council — greater opportunity to “review” DOT bike infrastructure plans before they are implemented.

Details are sketchy at this point. All we’ve got is the sub-title of his proposed law so it’s probably unfair to jump to conclusions, but let’s go ahead and do just that. I think we can pretty well assume that Gerson is looking to set up a process that gives City Council members greater control over DOT’s bike network build-out, particularly, critical bike safety projects like the ones that have been popping up in his district recently.

By Council Member Gerson:
..Title
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to review of bicycle lanes.
Transportation Committee

We’ll be putting in a call to Gerson’s office. If you live in Lower Manhattan, you can too.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.