ABOUT
You can make real, tangible changes to how streets and sidewalks function in Queens. The Queens Activist Committee chooses local campaigns and fights for changes on-the-ground in their neighborhoods, like bike lanes and new pedestrian plazas.
These are the campaigns the Queens Activist Committee chose for this year. Come to the next meeting to get involved in making these campaigns a success:
WHEN & WHERE
We meet on the first Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m.
Location: 72-24 Broadway, 11372, top floor
During COVID we will be virtually meeting on Google Meet instead. Join us here.
Our Active Campaigns
Zero Deaths on Queens Boulevard
Queens Boulevard, the notorious “Boulevard of Death,” has undergone a multi-phase comprehensive redesign as the result of a decade of advocacy work by Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee volunteers and allies in our sister organization Families for Safe Streets. The goal is get the committee to commit to the most politically difficult portion yet - the final phase proposed by the city to make Forest Hills’ portion of Queens Boulevard safe.
#FixNorthernBlvd - The New Boulevard of Death
Northern Boulevard is a key transportation artery linking many different neighborhoods in Western and Eastern Queens all the way out into Long Island. It currently acts as a residential highway rather than a Main Street for the community. Queens communities are coming together to find ways to start prioritizing bus speed and bike safety, and stop the death of children and other road users on Northern Boulevard.
Exclusive Walkway & Bikeway on the Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge South Outer Walkway petition calls for separate pedestrian and bike lanes on the dangerously overcrowded Queensboro Bridge. With physical distancing protocol in effect, now more than ever, we need to create space for pedestrians, cyclists and all other users of the bridge to maintain space and secure safe passage across the bridge.
Recent Victories
Safer 111th Street
Working with Mujeres en Movimiento and the Queens Museum, Transportation Alternatives built support for safe space for the Corona community to bike to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The safety treatment had the additional benefit of creating a safer street to cross for families who walk to the park to enjoy its many community amenities.
Astoria Needs a Bridge-to-Bridge Two-Way Protected Bike Lane
Through a multi-year organizing campaign, advocates secured the support of elected officials and over 2000 petition supporters for protected bike lanes connecting the Queensboro and Triboro bridges. As part of the city’s COVID response, in addition to the vast community support, the city implemented Crescent Street protected bike lanes for the community.
Make Skillman & 43rd Ave Protected Bike Lanes
Skillman and 43rd avenues in Sunnyside serve as major feeders to the Queensboro Bridge for cyclists commuting to the city from Jackson Heights, Corona and Central Queens. Within a week, a cyclist was killed and another seriously injured by car traffic as they commuted back home on 43rd Avenue. Transportation Alternatives and community advocates worked with city government officials on a quick response to create safe, protected bike lanes to prevent further harm. The end result is a safer street for all road users and a key connector to the Queens Boulevard protected bike lanes.
OUR HISTORY AND LEADERSHIP
Jim Burke, Volunteer Chair, TA Queens Activist Committee
Steve Scofield, Social Ride Coordinator, TA Queens Activist Committee
Juan Restrepo, TA Queens Organizer
The Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee believes that no one should die or be injured simply for commuting through Queens while riding a bike or walking down the street. We organize Queens residents to fight for street redesigns including protected bike lanes, safer crosswalks, and other important elements to make our streets safer for everyone. Our engagement efforts include social rides, community events, and campaigns for better infrastructure.
Formed in the early 1990s and re-formed in 2007, the Queens Committee has helped to dramatically alter the street landscape of Western and Central Queens over the last decade. Recently, Queens Committee members led the fight to fill in the “missing link” to Queens Boulevard and helped secure the Mayor’s commitment to install protected bike lanes on Skillman and 43rd Avenues in Sunnyside and Woodside. This hard-fought campaign involved petitioning, canvassing, op-eds, marches, business outreach, turn out to community meetings and town halls and the formation of Queens’ first-ever People Protected Bike Lane.
The Queens Committee’s biggest success story is #bikeQNS’s crown jewel: the 10 miles of protected bike lanes running through the heart of our borough on Queens Boulevard. The “Zero on Queens Boulevard” campaign began in 2008 after the death of Asif Raman while biking. His mother, Lizi, and his family joined members of the Queens Committee to call on the city to fix this “Boulevard of Death” in 2008. Ten years and two mayors later, ten miles of the dangerous road have been redesigned, not only providing safe direct biking infrastructure, but also delivering dramatically improved safety for pedestrians and drivers as well. Since the redesign began in 2014, there have been zero pedestrian or cycling fatalities on Queens Boulevard. This transformation from the “Boulevard of Death” to the “Boulevard of Life” is an inspiration for the entire city and is now used as a template for how to fix broken, deadly streets around the country.
Another transformative and hard-fought campaign was the 111th Street redesign near Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. This four-year effort involved partnering with essential coalition partners like Mujeres en Movimentos, Make the Road NY, the Queens Museum, and Council Member Julissa Ferreras. The end result is one of the most successful bike lane projects in Queens, that’s used every day by hundreds of Corona residents, families and children to easily and safely access the park.
Additional past successes include the protected bike lane over the Pulaski Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Queens, protected bike lanes near Astoria Park, pedestrian plazas in Corona and Jackson Heights, greenway bike lanes at Queens Plaza North, and protected bike lanes on the LIC waterfront on Vernon Boulevard.