Bicycling

Before Riding the New Queens Blvd, Go Down Memory Lane With Streetfilms

By Stephen Miller

4:41 PM EDT on August 27, 2015

A celebratory bike ride this evening will mark the installation of bike lanes on Queens Boulevard — a safety improvement years in the making.

Take a ride down Queens Boulevard in 2009 with this Streetfilm featuring the “bike pool,” organized to encourage safety in numbers for cyclists on the Boulevard of Death.

Things will look quite different on tonight’s ride. Bike lanes have been striped along 1.3 miles of the Queens Boulevard service road in Woodside, and DOT will begin planning for sections farther east later this year and next year.

For all its risks, Queens Boulevard has always provided the most direct route across the borough. That’s one reason the new bike lane — and future segments — are so important.

The push for safe biking on Queens Boulevard got going after 22-year-old Asif Rahman was killed while bicycling on the street in 2008. His mother, Lizi, has led the charge for improvements. In this video she delivers a powerful message at a 2009 press conference urging the city to take action:

Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms will be at tonight’s ride to document the latest progress. The ride begins at 6:30 p.m. where the Queensboro Bridge path touches down on Queens Plaza North at Crescent Street.

Stephen Miller

In spring 2017, Stephen wrote for Streetsblog USA, covering the livable streets movement and transportation policy developments around the nation. From August 2012 to October 2015, he was a reporter for Streetsblog NYC, covering livable streets and transportation issues in the city and the region. After joining Streetsblog, he covered the tail end of the Bloomberg administration and the launch of Citi Bike. Since then, he covered mayoral elections, the de Blasio administration's ongoing Vision Zero campaign, and New York City's ever-evolving street safety and livable streets movements.