A cyclist was seriously injured Monday night by a speeding hit-and-run driver who rear-ended the bike rider — and apparently hit at least one other car — on a notorious stretch of Greenpoint Avenue in Long Island City that safety advocates have long complained about.
And the entire assault was caught on another cyclist's GoPro camera (viewer discretion strongly advised, especially if you watch with the sound on):
Last week's video highlighted the dangerous design of NYC bike lanes. Today a cyclist in a bike lane (yes, that's a bike lane) sandwiched between two driving lanes was rear-ended by a van. #VisionZero appropriately describes the street lighting. @StreetsblogNYC @TransAlt @NYC_DOT pic.twitter.com/L1XvWf7YY6
— Jessica (@Thund3r_H4wk) November 12, 2019
The man who captured the videotape said responding officers did review the footage, though it is hard to make out the model of the car in question.
The crash occurred on a dangerous stretch of Greenpoint Avenue just south of the Long Island Expressway. Cyclists have long complained about the northbound stretch of Greenpoint between the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge and the LIE because drivers often speed on the narrow roadway, which widens near Calvary Cemetery to accommodate two lanes of cars — with a painted bike lane in between them.
The design allows one lane of drivers to continue straight into Sunnyside while the other lane turns right to get on the highway. But cyclists are often getting squeezed or bullied. Just last year, there were 19 reported crashes, injuring one cyclist and one pedestrian. (In 2015, there were 12 crashes, so this problem isn't getting better — it's getting worse.)
Cyclists report plenty of near-misses. Everyone knows it, but nothing is done:
Indeed, it's a horrible murder strip (quite literally), and @NYC_DOT knows it. I expect to get killed there every single time I ride home from Brooklyn. It's harrowing, drivers there are 'speed drunk' from crossing Greenpoint Ave bridge at >60mph.
— Radlerkönigin (@radlerkoenigin) November 12, 2019
why is the bike lane on greenpoint avenue between the bridge and hunters point so damn crazy and dangerous? #bikenyc
— kitty😸americana (@kittyamericana) September 1, 2019
Bike riders today can use the decent lanes on the Greenpoint Ave Bridge, but the avenue connections on both sides are harrowing truck-filled industrial ways, with an LIE interchange dumping huge 🚘 traffic onto the route on the Queens side
— Bike New York (@bikenewyork) August 28, 2019
The city DOT presented plans in 2015 to fix dangerous conditions on the Brooklyn side of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge [PDF] and the bridge itself [PDF], but nothing was said about the intersection of the LIE. The DOT did address the conditions in question in a May, 2015, presentation [PDF, page 24], but came up with a design that was not ultimately implemented.
