Death, taxes and delays opening the Queensboro Bridge pedestrian path.
Pedestrians and cyclists won't get separate paths on the busy span until at least the winter, the Department of Transportation said — the latest delay to the conversion of the south outer roadway to foot traffic, which officials most recently promised would happen this summer.
DOT has blamed delays on an ongoing larger rehabilitation project of the bridge's upper deck, which it has long cited as justification for keeping the south outer roadway reserved for drivers. Without it, there would be a small increase in car congestion, the agency has said.
A historic number of micro-mobility riders and pedestrians are traversing the Queensboro Bridge, creating conflicts between users on the sole lane on the 10-lane bridge not devoted to auto travel. DOT had said it could give pedestrians their own lane, but once again insists that the road work must wrap up first.
First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione basically threw her own agency's promises under the bus at a town hall at Queens Borough Hall on Wednesday night.
"We can’t close multiple lanes up above and just say, ‘To heck with it,’ and have a gridlock situation, we would not do that," she said. "So we kept the south outer roadway open to move traffic during the course of this contract."
Council Member Julie Won, who represents the Queens side of the bridge, slammed the agency for putting cars first by moving the project onto the back burner once more — nearly four years after then-Mayor Bill de Blasio first promised the upgrade, and more than seven years after his DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg suggested it could be in the works.
"DOT once again is choosing ... drivers over pedestrians," Won said in a statement. "There’s an urgent need for more space [on the] QBB, and this delay will continue to endanger the nearly 10,000 pedestrians and cyclists who use the narrow shared path every day. DOT must commit to opening the South Outer Roadway without further delays."
During the last round of delays, Won slammed DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez for his "garbage" bike-pad lane.
One of the roadway panels for the upper deck replacement got damaged on its way to the bridge, setting back that overhaul, according to DOT spokesman Will Livingston. The south path's opening to pedestrians must now wait to "align" with the resulting new construction schedule, he said.
That means seven of the span's nine car lanes will remain open to lessen driver wait times for at least another few months.
Bike counts on the 115-year-old bridge hit record highs every month since February of this year, with upwards of 200,000 monthly crossings at peak season — more than 6,400 per day. Of the four East River crossings, all of which have separated bike and pedestrian paths, only the Williamsburg Bridge saw more daily trips.
The Queensboro is also popular with runners training for the upcoming New York City Marathon, which crosses over the span, according Jason Froimowitz, who chairs the Transportation Committee of Manhattan Community Board 6.
Unsurprisingly, people keep crashing into each other on Queensboro Bridge's super-narrow shared path.
"It’s insane how long that this has been discussed and hasn’t moved forward considering how dangerous that it is," Froimowitz said. "It’s a known hazard. ... I would expect the running traffic to only increase as we get closer to the marathon."
Mayor de Blasio promised to open the south outer roadway during his State of the City address in January 2021, but under the Adams administration, DOT kept delaying, delaying, delaying, and delaying, even after Rodriguez conducted a walkthrough of the existing path with Won in 2022.
Now, cyclists and pedestrians will miss out on another warm-weather period to enjoy a safe crossing between Queens and Manhattan, said Laura Shepard, a Queens activist for Transportation Alternatives.
"It’s extremely disappointing, this is a very busy time of year for cycling, but it will also be especially dangerous as it gets darker earlier. It can be very scary on the crowded north outer roadway," Shepard said.
