BUSHWICK — The wheels are turning.
Cyclists could see four new bike lanes traversing the neighborhood as early as this summer if the community board gives them the green light, according to the city's Department of Transportation.
Painted lanes, which won't effect existing parking spots, are planned for Irving and Knickerbocker avenues that run across Bushwick southeast and northwest, and for Jefferson Avenue and Hancock streets that run northeast and southwest.
Bushwick currently has just two bike lanes that cross the neighborhood on Central and Evergreen avenues.
The neighborhood will see more bike lines in the future at later stages, but the four coming this summer will be the simplest projects pieces the project, DOT transportation officials told the community at a Wednesday meeting.
The announcement comes after months of community outreach and data collection that began in the summer of 2014, according ot the DOT.
Some community members at Wednesday's meeting wondered why busier streets like Flushing Avenue on the Bushwick/Williamsburg border, or Bushwick Avenue weren't being considered for bike lanes.
"We don't have anything planned for Flushing at the moment," Craig Baerwald. "This is a backbone for this network and in the future we'll look to look beyond."
But the DOT, did have plans for bike lanes on Flushing Avenue. It said it would paint bike lines along the congested street in the summer of 2014. That street still has no bike lanes. The DOT didn't respond to a request for comment about the Flushing Avenue lanes.
Caroline Somponaro an advocate with Transportation Alternatives said that while more heavily trafficked streets in North Brooklyn like Flushing Avenue need bike lanes, networks of lanes along smaller streets, make riding a bike a "more safe and realistic option for getting around a neighborhood."
"That's a real positive addition for neighborhood transportation."
