Tolls With Benefits: New Protected Bike Lanes In Queens Are The Fruit Of Congestion Pricing

The Mamdani administration is taking advantage of a reduction in motor vehicle traffic in western Queens by adding a crucial new protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks — and you can thank congestion pricing.

This fall, the Department of Transportation will begin work to connect the Queens Boulevard protected bike lane to the 44th Drive protected bike lane by creating a new safe route along the Thomson Avenue bridge and the slice of 44th Drive that doesn’t currently have a protected bike lane.

The project, which was presented to Queens Community Board 2 earlier this month, has a few different pieces:

• On Thomson Avenue between Van Dam Street and Skillman Avenue, DOT is cutting six motor vehicle lanes to four, by expanding the south sidewalk to a painted extension and the north side of the street to an eight-foot wide two-way protected bike lane.
• Where Thomson Avenue becomes a bridge between Skillman Avenue and 44th Drive, the city is cutting one travel lane in each direction to put a fifteen-foot wide two-way protected bike lane on the eastern side of the road.
• On 44th Drive from Thomson Avenue to 23rd Street, the city will cut four motor vehicle lanes down to two and add a parking-protected bike lane on both sides of the street.
• DOT is also going to create a safer connection from Queens Boulevard to Thomson Avenue by adding bike lanes and pedestrian space to a concrete median currently full of illegally parked cars between Van Dam Street and 32nd Place.

DOT’s plan brings about 1.5 miles of protected bike lanes to the neighborhood, but what the proposal lacks in sheer mileage it makes up for in connective power, since the bike lanes will connect the Queens Boulevard protected bike lane to the 44th Drive protected bike lane, which itself connects to the 11th Street protected bike lane and the Vernon Boulevard protected bike lane.

In the presentation to the CB2 Transportation Committee, a DOT presenter also noted that the agency will widen the sidewalk between Van Dam and Skillman near LaGuardia College and a building that houses city offices — two “big pedestrian generators.”

The Thomson Avenue bridge bike lane will also bring benefits for pedestrians. In its presentation on on the project, DOT noted that some cyclists use the sidewalk on the bridge rather than brave six lanes of fast moving traffic on a truck route, which means the bike lane will ensure that pedestrians, cyclists and motorists all have dedicated space on the bridge.

The roadway changes are coming in response to a drop in the number of cars and trucks on Thomson and Skillman avenues since congestion pricing began in January 2025. Westbound motor vehicle traffic on the streets fell 20 percent during the morning rush hour from 2024 to 2026, and eastbound motor vehicle traffic fell 4 percent in the same time period

The congestion pricing-induced traffic drop “makes finding space on the roadway a little easier,” the DOT presenter said.

Street safety advocates applauded the move, and urged the Mamdani administration to find other places where congestion pricing has cleared enough space on the road to redesign streets.

“Transportation Alternatives has long called for a street redesign to finally put people first on Thomson Avenue, and we’re glad DOT is moving this project forward, to make it easier and safer to walk and bike in western Queens,” said the group’s Executive Director Ben Furnas. “Even outside of Manhattan, congestion pricing has created opportunities like this one, where there are fewer cars on the road. DOT should proactively find other streets where public space might be reclaimed for people, and act with haste to redesign them.”

The addition of space for pedestrians and cyclists has long been a quest of supporters of congestion pricing. Before the toll went into effect, many boosters called on then-Mayor Eric Adams to seize the coming “space dividend,” but he declined.