Bicycle Safety

The streets of Long Island City are getting a total rebuild, and as part of the project four major intersections along Jackson Avenue and Vernon Boulevard will get redesigned for greater safety.

Sharrows are the dregs of bike infrastructure -- the scraps cities hand out when they can't muster the will to implement exclusive space for bicycling. They may help with wayfinding, but do sharrows improve the safety of cycling at all? New research presented at the Transportation Review Board Annual Meeting suggests they don't.

DOT watered down and delayed an already half-hearted plan to make Riverside Drive safer for walking in deference to opposition from Manhattan Community Board 9.

If you want to increase cycling safety in your city, drop the helmet law and focus on getting more people-- particularly women -- on bikes, with street designs that offer separation from vehicle traffic.

In February, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a pilot program to add side guards, which prevent people from being dragged beneath the rear wheels of large vehicles, to 240 trucks in the city fleet. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which is managing the rollout, said today that it is two-thirds done with the project, and expects to have the job done by the end of the year. Still, there's a long way to go before all city-owned trucks have this lifesaving add-on.

Assembly Member Francisco Moya, who opposes a road diet and protected bike lane on 111th Street in Corona, has decided to let the public know about a town hall meeting he is hosting about the project on Monday -- after Streetsblog asked about the lack of public notice.

Rockaway Freeway, one of the few east-west routes across the Queens peninsula, isn't a safe place to walk or bike. A local coalition has been trying to change that by repurposing street space, but their efforts are running up against the red tape of city bureaucracy and a car-centric community board.

A new two-way bikeway is under construction to provide a connection between the Williamsburg Bridge and the East River Greenway.

The redesign of Queens Boulevard, long one of New York's most notorious death traps, is underway.