Mayor Adams has delayed a redesign of Brooklyn's deadly Third Avenue for more than a year despite past statements saying the corridor "at the top of our list" for safety fixes — and now that two people are dead, his administration could face a legal challenge over its inaction, according to experts.
Last week, a speeding driver blew through a red light and killed two men crossing the dangerous strip, according to cops, a horrific double-fatality that advocates called "preventable," as Adams has slow-walked a proposal for better pedestrian safety on the strip since last year.
Adams recognized the need for safety upgrades years before he came into City Hall in public comments as Brooklyn borough president in 2018 and 2019.
"If someone wants to ride down Third Avenue, that is extremely intimidating, that must be at the top of our list," then-Borough President Adams said at a 2018 Bike-to-Work Day ride in the area with advocates, video of which remains on Facebook. "Nothing can be more chilling than coming under the Hamilton Avenue. That was really frightening, the noise, the sound, the overhead, no real directional signal."
Adams again called on the city under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio to do something about the "challenging" Third Avenue corridor one year later, after the death of 30-year-old cyclist Em Samolewicz there, part of a rash of bike fatalities in 2019.
"The crash that claimed the life of a cyclist this morning ... is a horrific reminder of what is at stake in this street safety crisis facing our borough and our city," Adams said at the time. "Third Avenue in Sunset Park is a particularly challenging corridor, as there is little infrastructure to accommodate cyclists, leaving them vulnerable."
As mayor, however, Adams has put the brakes on a potentially life-saving road redesign on Third Avenue, placating local business interests opposed to the changes. Then last Friday, that hit-and-run driver killed two pedestrians, 80-year-old Kex Un Chen and 59-year-old Faqui Lin. Dozens of more injuries have happened in recent months.
Watch the video from 2018 below:
A lethal liability for Hizzoner?
The mayor and city transportation officials have for years known about the dangers of Third Avenue — but delaying the redesign to make it safer could open the city up to a lawsuit, according to an attorney who recently sued the administration over its plans to rip out a protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue.
"The key issue is that they had a plan ready to go and then it was pulled back," said Peter Beadle. "But for the mayor’s intervention, these injuries may not be happening."
The city can be held liable for harms caused by motorists on streets where officials have failed to install traffic-calming measures despite being aware of reckless driving there, New York State's highest court determined in 2017.
That Court of Appeals ruling came out of a trial stemming from a 2004 crash when a speeding driver struck and critically injured 12-year-old Anthony Turturro who was riding his bike on Gerritsen Avenue.
Advocates recently invoked that case again when they threatened to sue the Adams administration if anyone is killed or injured on the stretch of Bedford Avenue where the mayor plans to rip up three blocks of protected bike lanes to curry favor anti-cyclist leadership of the local Hasidic community.
Deadly inaction
Over the past seven years, 80 people have been killed or seriously injured along just a two-mile stretch of Third Avenue, averaging a life-altering crash every month, according to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.
The Department of Transportation in late 2023 proposed an overhaul of Third Avenue, between Prospect Avenue and 62nd Street, which would have cut one traffic lane in each direction and install a curbside parking-protected bike lane along with painted pedestrian islands.
The detailed presentation includes crash statistics showing how hostile Third Avenue has been to human life, and that residents, school representatives, and elected officials have been begging for improvements.
The slides also makes the case for road diets by noting that safety increased on nearby Fourth Avenue, which also used to have six lanes, but where DOT installed a near-identical design in 2012. Pedestrian injuries dropped by 29 percent in Sunset Park, and by a whopping 61 percent on the northern stretch in Park Slope, according to agency data.
A citywide and decade-spanning review of other lane removals has shown they reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on average by around 30 percent, according to agency data.
The Sunset Park revamp got the backing of CB 7 in early 2024, and was supposed to be installed later that year.
Soon after, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce CEO Randy Peers came to the community board's next monthly meeting to dress down the civic volunteers, charging that were pushing for a "radical" change without consulting local businesses enough.
Last year passed without any work, and this spring, DOT officials told CB 7 not to expect any work for the rest of the year – in other words the remainder of Adams's current term.
A separate city project recently installed a two-way path on the west side of Third Avenue, from Hamilton Avenue to 29th Street by expanding the sidewalk, but without removing a lane of traffic.
Adams's empty campaign promises
The mayor's inaction is a far cry from 2018 Adams, when he got a first-hand look at the dangerous road under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway near the Hamilton Avenue offshoot of Third Avenue, as part of a Bike to Work Day ride from Prospect Park to to Borough Hall with advocates and local lawmakers.
One attendee of that ride said that Adams routinely held bike-focused events around Earth Day, and often showed up in support safe street causes, including at vigils for victims of traffic violence while he was borough president, a largely ceremonial office with little power. As a candidate for mayor in 2021, he pledge to "reallocate 25 percent of the city’s streetscape by 2025 from car-centric uses." Instead, he's stymied his DOT at the behest of special interests and donors while failing to provide it the necessary funding to substantially build ut the city's bike, bus and pedestrian networks.
"It’s a deeply disappointing turn of events for Mayor Adams and his administration to have backed away from so many things that he seemed to care about ... when he actually had the power as mayor to do some of these things," said Eric McClure, executive director of StreetsPAC.
It has become part of the playbook for Adams, who is running to stay at City Hall on an independent ballot line against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa, along with fellow candidates former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Jim Walden.
During his 2021 run for office, Adams pledged to roll out so-called bike "superhighways," which never materialized. He also vowed to exceed the annual mandates for new miles of protected bike and bus lanes under the Streets Plan, but has repeatedly fallen short of the legal benchmarks.
A City Hall spokesperson claimed DOT officials were simply incorporating more feedback into their plans.
"Prior to making any major changes to a corridor, we receive comprehensive input from community members and local businesses to ensure every voice is heard," said Sophia Askari in a statement. "The Department of Transportation is currently integrating public feedback into project planning to determine next steps."
