Brooklyn Paper |
September 16, 2006
Brooklyn bikers will get nine-and-a-half miles of new bike paths — less than five percent of the total of new lanes citywide — in a city initiative designed to reduce a bloodbath of carrelated cyclist deaths.The Department of Transportation announced this week that it would install 200 miles of new bike lanes in the city — but the announcement came on the wheels of a report showing that an astonishing 225 bike-riders have died in crashes with cars over the past 10 years.Despite the high death toll, Transportation Alternatives hailed the report as "the most thorough analysis of...injuries and fatalities ever undertaken in the United States," the group said in a statement.Even though Brooklyn isn't getting its fair share of lanes, the car-condemning group cheered the news.But another bike-advocacy group, Time's Up, complained that only five of the 200 miles of new paths would be physically separated from roadways.And the group, which installs a white-painted "ghost" bike at the site of fatal crashes, called on the NYPD to strictly enforce the current laws against stopping, standing or parking in bike lanes."We have put up eight ghost bikes this year," said Wendy Brawer, a Time's Up volunteer. "We look forward to the day when that number is zero."The Brooklyn lanes will criss-cross Prospect Heights, Bushwick and Fort Greene and include better signage and color-coded pavement.They'll be fully in place by the end of 2007.
Submitted by admin on December 18, 2007 - 16:57.
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