If You Were Thinking of Sitting Out Tonight’s Clinton Ave Bikeway Meeting…

…you may want to reconsider.

DOT will present a plan for a two-way protected bike lane on Clinton Avenue between Flushing Avenue and Gates Avenue, which would create shorter pedestrian crossings and serve as a useful spur in the bike network for people heading to/from the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. The southbound traffic lane would be removed to create space for the bikeway.

There are currently no north-south protected bike lanes in this part of town. If you want a safer, less stressful connection between North Brooklyn and Fort Greene/Clinton Hill/Prospect Heights/Crown Heights, or between the Manhattan Bridge and the neighborhoods east of Clinton Avenue, this is an important meeting to attend. It starts at 6:00 — here’s where to go.

Opponents have been busy circulating flyers like this one around the neighborhood, in an attempt to incite terror at the thought that one quarter of one street will be dedicated space for cycling:

So there you have it — reserving three quarters of Clinton Avenue for the movement and storage of motor vehicles is simply not enough. Clinton Hill is saturated with bike lanes already and has absolutely no car lanes to spare. Biking in general traffic where you can get doored and thrown under the wheels of a passing truck is great — parents with kids do it gladly!

Keep in mind that curb-to-curb, Clinton Avenue is the same width as Kent Avenue in North Williamsburg, which basically has the same design that DOT is proposing here. Pickups, deliveries, emergency access, large apartment buildings — all function fine on Kent Avenue. People on Kent Avenue — including kids — also have the freedom to get around like this.