Protected bike lanes and built-out sidewalks are coming to Cypress Avenue to provide a safe connection to Highland Park on the Brooklyn-Queens border, where traffic going to and from the Jackie Robinson Parkway currently reigns.
The Department of Transportation plans to set up a two-way cycle path protected from traffic by jersey barriers along with new sidewalks between Cooper Avenue and Cypress Hills Street, according to a design presented to the local community board in June. The upgrades mean people on foot or bike won't need to dodge traffic coming off and on the Jackie Robinson Parkway to get to the park and nearby cemeteries, said one local advocate.
"This is like a win-win," said Bree Mobley, a volunteer organizer with Ridgewood Riders, a cycling group that has pushed for the upgrades for years. "Let’s make it happen, let’s get park access in the neighborhood."
Cypress Avenue is a steep, wide and busy thoroughfare sandwiched between cemeteries and full of heavy traffic from the nearby highway. Those dangerous conditions make it hard for people to get to Highland Park from Ridgewood and Bushwick, even though it's only a mile away, Mobley said.
"It’s not for the faint of heart," the safe streets advocate said. "People are zooming by you, 30-40 miles per hour. They don’t care, they’re just trying to get to the highway and get there as fast as they can."
The intersection of Cypress and Cooper avenues in particular is a well-known danger zone with a history of crashes.
Ridgewood Rides and advocates with Transportation Alternatives have gathered nearly 1,000 online signatures in support of safer access to the park.
They are crowing about a non story that they dropped the ball on 2 months ago. And they’re too dumb to notice that the map DOT provided is wrong. Also enjoyed the comment by Transportation Alternatives ally H2O that they think they’re going to get both a bus stop and Citibike station there.
And that map from the proposal is completely incorrect. There is NO protected bike lane along the Jackie. It's a shared sidewalk for cyclists and pedestrians. Internal park paths should not be portrayed as protected bike lanes as there are no vehicles to mix with.
There's also no sidewalk north of the Jackie, the cemeteries are not required to install them. So DOT is installing one, but most people who walk to Highland approach from the other way.Vermont Place sidewalk improvements would be welcome, but there still are like 4 on/off ramps for peds to cross to get to the reservoir entrance where these jerks want to divert the bus.
As for the H20 ally who posted this comment that got the traffic light wrong (de facto stewards in the area?), his name is Peter Frishauf, an Upper West Side millionaire donor to transportation alternatives and streetspac who practically ordered the DOT to reimagine a street with planters, paint and rocks that usurped parking spaces and mocked and 84-year-old woman who got arrested for protesting against it.
— Streetsblog New York (@StreetsblogNYC) October 16, 2023
One more thing
The department of transportation alternatives own data shows protected bike lanes don't really protect anyone. Especially cyclists.
