Cyclists who are sick of the broken pavement along the historic Ocean Parkway bike path better put some new suspensions on their rides: The Parks Department says the path, which leads to Coney Island, with its attractions and beaches, won't get smoothed out for almost three years.
A spokesperson for Council Member Mark Treyger's office told Streetsblog that, according to a schedule shared by the Parks Department, the physical construction of the bike path won't start until Spring 2021 — and won't finish until a year after that.
That means that riders won't experience any relief until a whopping three years after Treyger's and Borough President Eric Adams's February announcement that they had allocated money to fix the rocky road.
Built in 1894, the Ocean Parkway bike lane is a historical marvel, but it has fallen into such disrepair that riders and neighborhood residents feel like they're rumbling along the path's original, century-old pavement..
Consensu this morning on a #bikenyc FB group is that the Ocean Parkway bike path is terrible. Completely cracked up and too many interactions with turning drivers not paying attention. This is America's oldest bike path and is showing its age. How do we push for an update?
— Andy (@Shenanigans_ATL) August 12, 2019
The entire stretch of the Ocean Parkway bike path, from Kensington to Coney Island, needs to seriously be given some TLC. Further down by Avenue W/X there is some badly broken concrete that’s a huge danger.
— Jonathan Sperling (@JonSperling) August 28, 2019
According to the project listing on Parks Department's website, the rehabilitation and redesign of the bike path hasn't gotten out of the design stage — first step of fixing the path. The project will replace broken concrete, broken benches and damaged trees along a seven-block stretch between Avenue R and Avenue X.
"We're trying to find out how we can speed up the process, because this is a space that's used frequently, and local residents depend on this bikeway path," a spokesperson for Treyger told Streetsblog.
"There are the equivalent of deep dangerous potholes along the entire stretch of the Ocean Parkway bike path," Marco Conner of Transportation Alternatives told Streetsblog. "We need to not only make biking safe but also to encourage it. If the City is serious about its Green Wave plan to make cycling safe it will invest a modest part of the $242 million spent every single year on road repaving for motor vehicles on repairing this vital biking corridor on a much shorter timeline."
As of press time, the Parks Department did not respond to a request for comment.
