PARK SLOPE : One year ago today, 28-year-old Elizabeth Kasulis Padilla was hit by a truck and killed at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Prospect Place as she was riding her bicycle to her new job at the Brooklyn Bar Association.Padilla’s friends and family will meet this morning at the site of her tragedy to honor her and to announce bicycle safety improvements on this stretch of Fifth Avenue. By the end of the summer, the Department of Transportation plans to install new 'Bike Route' signage for cyclists between Carroll and Dean streets.Fifth Avenue has been considered particularly dangerous for cyclists. From 2002 to 2004, there were 22 cyclists hit by drivers on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, according to the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.Stretching from the furthest edge of Bay Ridge to Atlantic Avenue, the six-mile-long route is a popular north-south connector for commuters, said Aaron Naparstek, a founder of Park Slope Neighbors. Naparstek’s group has long campaigned for designated bike lanes, and he takes credit for getting part of Fifth Avenue designated as a bike route two years ago.Fifth Avenue is currently striped for a separate bicycle lane between 23rd Street and Carroll. But the road narrows abruptly at Carroll Street in Park Slope and the bike lane ends without notice, 10 and 11 blocks shy of the east-west bicycle lanes on Bergen and Dean streets.The official City Bike Map issued by the DOT and available online designates these 11 blocks of Fifth Avenue as a "Class 3" cycle route with a shared travel lane for cars and bikes. The street itself has had no signage or lane markings.That will change this summer.As part of a citywide initiative, the city Department of Transportation plans to install signs and shared lane markings on Class 3 routes throughout the city."We are expanding the bicycle network citywide and are now installing signs and roadway markings on class 3 bike routes to offer better guidance and make it clear that motorists need to share the City’s streets with bicyclists," said Chris Gilbride, assistant press secretary at the Department of Transportation."We’re always looking to improve the cycle routes," he added. He said the changes are not in response to any particular incident.The Bike Map shows three other "shared lane" routes in Brooklyn: on Avenue I and along shorter portions of Smith Street in Boerum Hill and DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene."The shared lane marking is brand new to New York City," said advocate Noah Budnick of Transportation Alternatives. He said the Fifth Avenue lane marking is especially important "because it will show cyclists the route to take to connect to the Dean and Bergen street bike lanes. And it will also make motorists aware of cyclists, and reinforce cyclists’ right to the road."Naparstek and Budnick both said Padilla’s death helped to galvanize advocates for bicyclists’ rights. "There are so many cyclists who ride on Fifth Avenue every day," Budnick said. The crash and Elizabeth’s death "motivated organizations like this and residents to call on the city to make bike improvements to make the streets safer."Naparstek said, "None of this stuff would be happening if it weren’t for advocates pushing for streets safe for cyclists."In response to a letter from City Councilmember Bill De Blasio (D-Brooklyn), DOT Borough Commissioner Joseph Palmieri said the DOT would install Bike Route signs and ‘shared lane’ markings along Fifth Avenue by this summer.This morning, after a brief memorial for Padilla, cyclists planned to conduct a group ride to DOT headquarters at 40 Worth St. in Manhattan. They planned to present Commissioner Iris Weinshall with flowers and a letter calling for stronger street design standards to encourage bicycle commuting. Padilla Would Be PleasedPadilla was the volunteer coordinator at the Brooklyn Bar’s Volunteer Lawyers Project for just six months, but she was dedicated to helping others and her enthusiasm made a strong impression on the Brooklyn community.She had previously worked at the Family Center in New York, providing pro bono legal services to indigent people suffering from HIV-AIDS. She also volunteered for Human Rights Watch, taught English as a second language and worked in a soup kitchen run by New York Cares.When the Brooklyn Bar Association held a memorial service in September, Padilla’s new boss described her as "the shepherd and heart of the VLP."The active young woman connected immediately with clients and volunteers, as well as senior mentoring attorneys and judges of the courts, said Jeannie Costello, executive director of the Volunteer Lawyers Project. Fern Finkel, chair of the Volunteer Lawyers Association’s LEAP project, said Padilla was brilliant.A touching letter "To the community in Brooklyn" by Liz’s sister Sara, written on behalf of the Padilla family, describes Liz as "a woman who possessed kindness, strength, and a passion for love and for life that she did not hesitate to share." Sara’s letter concludes:"Elizabeth’s tragic death will never be ‘got over.’ I wish healing, or understanding why she was killed, was as easy as running a marathon, but it is not. It is to her credit that a resolution has been made by key decision makers to make city streets safer for cyclists in Brooklyn. She would expect, and fight for, nothing less. She would recognize this moment to be important and her heart would expand to include those of you she had yet to meet, and yet to befriend."