In mid-September, the New York City Department of Transportation announced that it would replace the 26 dangerous two-inch high metal bumps on the bridge's Manhattan side with expansion joint covers that are flusher with the path's surface. The DOT is now working on the south path on the bridge's main span. The north path should be next. According to the DOT, bridge path improvements will be finished by the end of November.In December 2002, the Department of Transportation opened the new Williamsburg Bridge path to bicyclists and pedestrians; replacing the old path's eighty-three stairs, it was heralded as a boon for bicycling and walking New Yorkers. Since the path opened, biking and walking across the bridge increased by 45 percent. Now, over 3,000 people bike and walk across the bridge each day. But the path was crisscrossed with 26 obtrusive metal bumps covering the bridge's expansion joints.These impediments on the busy path have inflicted a steady stream of broken bones, cuts and abrasions on all types of bridge users. Bridge users and advocates had been asking the DOT to remove the bumps since shortly after the bridge path opened.Transportation Alternatives, New York City's advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit as alternatives to automobile use, worked with other urban associations to lobby the DOT to make changes to the joint covers. In a January 2005 report called "A Bridge to Scar," TA revealed that the metal bumps caused one out of three respondents to avoid crossing the Williamsburg Bridge. Additionally, the bumps damaged three out of four respondents' bikes and personal property.For more info on the new Williamsburg Bridge joint covers, visit www.transalt.org.