NYC debuts bike lane on Brooklyn Bridge — taking a lane from vehicles and taking bikes off walking path
Cyclists no longer need to weave through throngs of tourists to bike across the Brooklyn Bridge.
City officials on Tuesday debuted a long-awaited bike lane on the 138-year-old East River crossing that replaces one lane of traffic on its Manhattan-bound roadway.
The lane means cyclists will no longer have to share the bridge’s wooden promenade with sightseers.
“Those who have tried to share the boardwalk on the Brooklyn Bridge, where bikes and pedestrians compete for space... it’s a difficult task and it wasn’t safe for anybody,” city Transportation Commissioner Hank Gutman said during a ribbon cutting Tuesday.
“We’re saving the boardwalk for the pedestrians and giving the bike lane to the cyclists,” Gutman said.
The lane isn’t as comfortable to ride as some of the city’s other bridges.
The new two-way path is eight feet wide, and is separated from vehicle traffic by concrete barriers. The Manhattan Bridge bike lane, which is also separated from its pedestrian path, spreads nearly 10 feet at its widest point.
The Brooklyn Bridge’s bike lane is accessible in Brooklyn near the bridge’s access point for pedestrians off Tillary St. and in Manhattan via a new bike lane on Centre St.
When Mayor de Blasio announced the new lane in January, he said a new two-way bike path was also coming to the Queensboro Bridge, which has nine lanes for car traffic while its northern outer roadway jams together a bike lane and pedestrian walkway.
The mayor’s plan would move the pedestrian walkway to the bridge’s southern roadway as part of ongoing construction on the span. Construction on the Queensboro Bridge project is not expected to be finished until after de Blasio leaves office on Jan. 1.
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