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Read the press release here.

New Bike Lanes Proposed for Long Island City and Sunnyside

 The purple lines show new bikes lanes proposed by the DOT.
The purple lines show new bikes lanes proposed by the DOT.
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NYC DOT

SUNNYSIDE — Western Queens is about to get a lot more bike-friendly.

The Department of Transportation is planning to add a number of new bike lanes in Sunnyside and Long Island City — but won't remove any precious parking spaces from either neighborhood.

The website Streetsblog reports that the lanes will be by the end of the year — a signficant increase in the number of lanes in the area.

The move comes just months before the Citi Bike share program is set to roll out Long Island City, the first spot in Queens to receive the popular service.

Advocates are also pushing for Sunnyside, Woodside and Astoria to get access to the program.

According to the plans, buffered bike lanes will be added to the 39th Street Bridge between Northern Boulevard and Skillman Avenue, and along 49th Avenue from the Pulaski Bridge to 21st Street.

A series of dedicated bike lanes and shared bikes lanes will also be added to several major connectors, including 47th Avenue, Skillman Avenue and 39th Street in Sunnyside and 11th Street in Hunters Point.

The new lanes will provide safer east-west connections to the East River Ferry and Sunnyside, and north-south connections to the Pulaski Bridge, the Queensboro and further north to Astoria, according to the DOT's plans.

In a separate plan, the city has also proposed modifying the bike lanes on Vernon Boulevard near the Long Island City waterfront, creating a two-way protected bike lane that would run along the west side of the street.