Protected Bicycle Lanes (Photo: DOT)
May 26, 2021 By Ryan Songalia
More than half of the candidates running for the District 20 council seat in Flushing will participate in a community bike ride through northern Queens Saturday—in an event organized by Transportation Alternatives and local groups.
The four-mile bike ride will begin at 10 a.m. at the Velodrome in Kissena Park in Fresh Meadows before concluding at the Flushing Public Library on Main Street. The public is invited to attend.
Among the candidates confirmed to ride are Anthony Miranda, Ellen Young, John Choe and Hailing Chen. Sandra Ung, who won’t be riding, will join the event at the beginning for a discussion about local transportation issues.
Juan Restrepo, operations coordinator for Transportation Alternatives, who is organizing the event along with Kissena Synergy and Guardians of Flushing Bay, hopes that the candidates will get a firsthand look at the “dangerous street conditions” bike riders face in the district.
He believes that the experience will prompt them to champion the cause of improving bike infrastructure, such as advocating for protected bike lanes.
The city, bicycle advocates say, has been slow in adding protected bike lanes across the 5 boroughs, with 28.6 miles of lanes added in 2020, taking the total of on-street lanes to about 170 miles.
“We want downtown Flushing and the surrounding areas to have safe protected bike lanes, access to waterfront properties for recreational reasons, good greenways connecting the various parks in the area,” said Restrepo.
The bike ride is modeled after one held in March for District 26 candidates, who rode from Queensbridge Park, through Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside, and then back.
About 30 to 50 people are expected to participate in Saturday’s ride, Restrepo said.
The candidates are running to replace the term-limited Peter Koo in a district that is comprised of downtown Flushing, Queensboro Hill and Murray Hill.
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4 Comments
There are too many cars in downtown Flushing (i.e., Main Street, Roosevelt Ave & Northern Blvd.) More bike lanes on those streets will result in an increase in car – bike accidents. Kissena Park is a better and safer place to ride a bike.
They need to enforce the bike lanes in the first place before just building more. Cars/Trucks just park on them with no regard for cyclists and this needs attention. Traffic police just go driving next to the violators and do nothing here in Flushing and I’m sure it’s the same everywhere else in the city. Make it so that cyclists can take pictures of the violators and report them with DOT or something of the sort. Make it clear how and where to complain about violations.
As a driver and a walker, I’m sick and tired of having to avoid bicyclists when I cross the street or when I’m driving and they are zig zagging in the street, going from lane to lane cutting in front of cars. I’ve even seen some cut in front of school buses and trucks and then people cry when they die blaming the drivers. If you want to ride your bike all over the place, move upstate.
Share the road with cars is not safe. I see motor bikes on sidewalks and in bike lanes going though red lights.