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Another bike lane, another delay.
Mayor Adams's Department of Transportation paid tribute to the long-departed Brooklyn Dodgers in the worst possible way — by failing to install long-planned protected bike lanes near the former home of the Brooklyn Bums in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and telling anyone hoping for the project to wait 'til next year.
The department delayed its plans for protected paths on Brooklyn and Kingston avenues between East New York Avenue and Winthrop Street, and two block-long sections on nearby Rutland Road and Winthrop Street, until sometime next year, officials said. A DOT spokesperson blamed non-specific "capacity constraints" for the delay.
The setback comes after DOT shrank the bike lane project from its original vision, which would have extended the lanes on Brooklyn and Kingston north to Empire Boulevard. The department introduced that design in June 2024, but by June of this year, it had lopped off everything north of East New York Avenue, in response to local opposition. Even so, DOT insisted the city planned to install the curtailed project before the end of 2025.
Lefferts Avenue counted the most crash injuries in the project corridor – yet will remain unsafe until 2026. Map: DOT
The new delay is especially disappointing because these lanes would have been the first protected bike infrastructure installed in this part of Brooklyn since the Eastern Parkway bike path came online in the late 1800s. Local streets in this area clearly need some form of traffic calming. South of East New York Avenue, the streets measure 43.5 feet wide and have few street markings to delineate the two vehicular lanes that supposedly exist on Brooklyn and Kingston.
When DOT first revealed the bike lane project, staffers reported 158 injuries due to crashes in the project area between 2019 and 2023, with children accounting for 1 in 7 cyclist or pedestrian injuries.
DOT's delay caps the ignominious end of Mayor Eric Adams's reign over the embattled agency, where officials proposed projects big and small and then diluted or canceled them altogether. The mayor's meddling in street safety projects eventually led to bribery charges against his top aide. His lack of ambition was especially prominent in Brooklyn, where a number of embarrassing issues happened under his leadership:
A new protected bike lane on Ashland Place omitted a crucial connection, between Hanson Place and Lafayette Avenue, that would have otherwise linked Sunset Park and the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges.
Manhattan's district attorney indicted Adams's longtime friend and political ally Ingrid Lewis-Martin for allegedly taking bribes from local business owners who wanted her to to tank a road diet on McGuinness Boulevard that every elected official in Greenpoint supported.
Adams's DOT ripped out three blocks of the protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue, without any public discussion or exploration of alternatives, after local leaders implored Adams to remove the hardened path.
Adams finished a single bus priority project in the entire borough, the Livingston Street busway, during his four years in office.
Adams shelved a plan to redesign Grand Army Plaza to add more pedestrian space and simplify traffic patterns around the chaotic traffic circle, following years of community outreach.
Adams halted the ongoing construction of a nearly complete bike boulevard on Underhill Avenue, spent months trying to prove residents didn't want the project, and then finally allowed DOT to finish it in the middle of the night.
It's unclear why DOT lacks the capacity to install six blocks of northbound and southbound lanes and one block of eastbound and westbound bike lanes. The agency claims these projects will be installed in the spring of 2026, which leaves the fate of the modest project and many other stalled initiatives in the hands of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and his yet-to-be-named Transportation Commissioner.
A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to what should be a layup of a promise for someone who said he will be laser-focused on street safety. Cycling advocates blasted the delay and called on the next mayor to ensure DOT maintains the capacity to actually do what it says it will do.
"Protected bike lanes on Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues will keep Brooklyn families safe, and these projects should move forward without delay," said Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Ben Furnas. "The next administration has a critical imperative to expand DOT's capacity to take on safety projects all across the city, to save lives and build the streets that New Yorkers deserve."
Dave Colon is a reporter from Long Beach, a barrier island off of the coast of Long Island that you can bike to from the city. It’s a real nice ride. He’s previously been the editor of Brokelyn, a reporter at Gothamist, a freelance reporter and delivered freshly baked bread by bike.
New Council Speaker Julie Menin wants to scrap Adams-era rules that shrunk the program to just 400 approved locations from a pandemic era high of 8,000.
