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Q&A
Council Member Restler discusses safety concerns with Bedford Avenue bike lane
1:33:44
·
3 min
Council Member Lincoln Restler engages in a Q&A session with DOT officials regarding safety concerns about the Bedford Avenue bike lane. He highlights recent incidents involving children being struck by cyclists and requests updates on potential safety improvements.
- DOT officials mention plans to install measures like rumble strips and increased signage to slow down cyclists and increase awareness.
- Restler suggests considering temporary measures during school bus pick-up and drop-off times, which DOT expresses concerns about due to potential inconsistency.
- The council member emphasizes the urgency of addressing the safety issues, referencing a recent video of a child being struck.
Lincoln Restler
1:33:44
Great.
1:33:44
Sorry.
1:33:45
That's that is my name.
1:33:46
Thank you.
1:33:47
Council member Stevens.
1:33:48
I appreciate it.
1:33:50
Commissioner and team, good to see you all.
1:33:52
A few questions I just wanted to ask about.
1:33:54
First is Bedford Avenue bike lane.
1:33:58
It's a project that primarily in council member Osei's district, one that I've supported.
1:34:03
We've continued to have a series of incidents of young children getting struck in the bike lane.
1:34:09
And your team has graciously come out with me to visit the bike lane and make tweaks and adjustments over the last several months.
1:34:18
But we had another scary incident this weekend where a four or five year old, six year old kid was struck by a cyclist.
1:34:24
And wanted to just see if there's any further safety improvements that the DOT team is considering for how we can try to meet the needs of that specific community.
1:34:36
These are large families.
1:34:38
We don't have protected bike lanes in that community, so there's been some learning curve.
1:34:42
I think we all know that when protected bike lanes are installed, it makes streets safer for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, but we clearly need to do more in this community to make a difference.
1:34:54
Do you have any suggestions or we've offered some some recommendations to DOT, any updates on ways that we can try to make that stretch of Bedford Avenue safer for everybody?
Ydanis Rodriguez
1:35:05
The state of the commissioner who oversee all operation including the planning division led by Eric Beaton to answer the question.
Margaret Forgione
1:35:11
Thank you for the question council member.
1:35:13
We have been looking carefully at Bedford Avenue.
1:35:15
We've been out there a bunch of times.
1:35:18
We are looking to inform you and others about some measures that we're going to be installing to improve the safety there, in particular make sure that cyclists are very much aware of people crossing and cyclists are proceeding at a very slow speed.
1:35:34
So that can include more sorts of like rumble strips that kind of wake up and slow down cyclists as well as an increase in signage.
1:35:43
So those are some of the main things we're planning right now.
1:35:46
And if you have others, I'm happy to hear from you as well about what your measures, your recommended measures are.
Lincoln Restler
1:35:51
Yeah.
1:35:51
Look, I think that, you know, we gave all of that feedback from the beginning, and I think DOT incorporated a number of those designs into the original implementation or installation of the bike lane.
1:36:04
Know, folks, some folks in the community have suggested that during the period of time when the youngest children are picked up and dropped off by school buses, could there be temporary reprieve where we have school buses pulling in more fully to the curb or discontinuing this bicycle lane for that period of time each day to accommodate the school buses?
1:36:25
Is that something that DOT is considering?
Margaret Forgione
1:36:28
I don't think we would favor the inconsistency of a bike lane where a cyclist can arrive at any given time and it may be open or it may be closed.
1:36:36
I think that would create a lot of additional issues.
Lincoln Restler
1:36:39
Okay.
1:36:40
We look forward to continuing to work together on that.
1:36:42
I think that the current conditions are need to be addressed.
1:36:48
And so we want to continue to work together to try and improve safety there.
1:36:53
I continue to support the bike lane.
1:36:55
I want this to work, but I think we need more proactive partnership from DOT, you know, as we unfortunately continue to have have safety issues.
1:37:04
I did you all see the video from this past weekend of the kid being struck?
Margaret Forgione
1:37:07
Yes.
Lincoln Restler
1:37:07
Okay.
1:37:08
So you understand just how pressing an issue this is.
1:37:12
Yes.
Margaret Forgione
1:37:14
We're working on a council member.
Lincoln Restler
1:37:15
Okay.