Another "county" heard from.
Brooklyn Democratic Party powerhouse and Mayor Adams ally Frank Seddio is appealing a judge's order barring the city from tearing up part of the Bedford Avenue bike lane — on the grounds that taking out protections for cyclists on the three blocks between Willoughby and Flushing avenues is no big deal.
"The bike lane on Bedford Avenue will remain wholly unchanged except for a two-block [sic!] portion," Seddio writes in his court papers, mis-stating the number of blocks involved. "The bike lane will still exist, but merely shift to an alternative location in the road."
This part of his argument mirrors the DOT's own paperwork, which said that the plan "would not remove the existing bicycle lane, but would shift its location within the street."
His paperwork, filed on behalf of Samuel Herskovitz and S. Halpert, also argues that the Adams administration did not violate City Administrative Code Section 19-101.2 when it revealed its plans to remove protections for cyclists without warning local elected officials. Seddio's argument is not that section 19-101.2 doesn't require notification — just that the parties who were not notified need to be the ones who sue instead of Transportation Alternatives and two area residents.
The appeal does also seek to argue the case on the merits, claiming that the bike lane has been dangerous to pedestrians and has not actually made the roadway safer for other users, as the Department of Transportation had previously argued before Mayor Adams demanded the removal of the protections.
Ironically, both the plaintiffs and Seddio cite Streetsblog's reporting: In the five months before the redesign was completed, in October 2024, there were 88 reported crashes and in the five months after, there were 72, an 18-percent drop. During the same period, injuries dropped from 51 to 38, a 25-percent decrease.
But Seddio took issue with the numbers, because they compared the apples of summer to the oranges of winter.
"Clearly, given the dramatic volume differences in bicycle traffic between winter months and summer months, the change in accident [sic!] and injury rates is better explained by seasonal weather patterns than the October 2024 [installation]."
But comparing apples to apples, the roadway is safer with the protected bike lane, whose full stretch is between Dean Street and Flushing Avenues.
From January through May of 2024 — before the bike lane went in — there were 86 reported crashes, injuring 50 people.
From January through May of 2025— after the bike lane was in — there were 69 reported crashes, injuring 37 people, along the exact same stretch. That's a 19-percent drop in crashes and a 26-percent decline in reported injuries.
Seddio is a former Assembly member and former head of the Brooklyn Democratic Party machine. He is now a commissioner on the Board of Elections. It is unclear who Herskovitz and Halpert are; the court papers refer to them only as residents of the area who has suffered "specific harm" that is, nonetheless, not stated.
Seddio remains close with the Brooklyn machine.
Peter Beadle, the lawyer for the plaintiffs who successfully convinced a judge to bar the city from tearing out the bike lane, told Streetsblog that Seddio's bid to remove cycling protections is the real offense here.
"It is unfortunate that rather than letting this matter follow the natural legal course, those seeking to rip out the bike lane are rushing to place peoples' lives in danger without proper study or notice to the full community," he said. "My clients' lives are no less valuable than anyone else's. Ripping out the protected bike lane and forcing them back into the street with no real protection places them at grave risk, and we know many people have died and been seriously hurt on Bedford when the previous unprotected lane was in place. That is unacceptable. The mayor is doing everything he can to rip out this lane as quickly as possible without proper study, exploring reasonable alternatives or even giving the community time to provide feedback. Once again we are late on a friday afternoon rushing to rip out a life saving bike lane because the Mayor does not want to follow the proper process."
