Bike Hoboken

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle has an article on Brooklyn’s growing network of bike lanes. Ridership is up and fatalities are down.

“Drivers are getting more used to [bikers],” says Ted Timbers, spokesman for the DOT. “Bikers are more prevalent. When a driver goes to make a turn, and there is a bike lane, more often they are expecting to see a biker there.”

According to the DOT, there is a 46 percent decline in biking fatalities in the city over the last decade, at the same time as bike commuting has grown by an estimated 77 percent in the past eight years. “The idea is to create an interconnected bike network where lanes connect North, South, East, West, and people can get to schools, parks — places they want to go — and be in bike lanes for the entire trip,” says Timbers.

“I do think I’m seeing more respect for the bike lane,” concurred Milton Puryear, director of planning for the 14-mile Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which is planned to run from Greenpoint to Bay Ridge. “There is an increasing sensitivity and awareness from drivers, who historically reacted with annoyance to bike riders rather than seeing them as co-commuters,” he added.

Puryear thinks the increased visibility of the lanes, through city measures such as painting them bright colors, is helping to increase drivers’ acknowledgement of bikers’ rightful claim on the road.