ELMHURST — The fight over bike lanes keeps rolling on.
A day after Mayor Bill de Blasio said he'll move forward with a Queens Boulevard safety plan that includes bike lanes, despite community board objection, Borough President Melinda Katz said she's siding with the board.
She wrote in a statement that she asked the Department of Transportation many times last summer for a borough-wide perspective on bike lanes. They rebuffed the suggestion and told her bike lane requests are "solely community-driven and community-generated," she said.
"The Community Board’s vote this week, however, contradicts the assertion that this plan is driven and generated by the community," she wrote. "At the very least, it indicates failure on the part of the agency to adequately address the Board’s concerns on the proposed plan."
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The proposal for the second phase of Queens Boulevard fixes — stretching from 74th Street to Eliot Avenue — was presented Tuesday to Community Board 4 in Elmhurst by DOT officials.
The plan is similar to the one passed last year, on a stretch of Queens Boulevard through Long Island City, Sunnyside and Woodside, which was installed last summer.
Queens Boulevard is a priority street for the city and the plan is to fix it in three phases, according to officials.
At Tuesday's meeting, local cyclists showed support for the plan while holding signs. Board members agreed that safety changes such as pedestrian islands and other traffic calming measures were necessary for the dangerous street, but were unsure about the addition of bike lanes.
CB4 Chair Lou Walker, citing his position that bike lanes don't belong on Queens Boulevard, put forward a motion to vote on the DOT's safety plan that left out the lanes.
Some board members were confused by the move, while at least one other walked out. Those in favor of the proposal also expressed their disappointment with the board's decision.
The motion later passed by a vote of 31-1, with two abstentions, according to the board's district manager.
On Wednesday, though, de Blasio put out a statement saying he'd move forward with the DOT's original plan regardless.
That move is being questioned by Katz.
“Any action to install bike lanes along this stretch at this time, regardless of merit, would therefore and understandably be perceived as an imposition by the administration, running directly counter to and overriding the Community Board’s explicitly-stated wishes," she wrote.
"Safety is a shared priority, and there must be a better way to involve communities in expanding bike lanes.”
While it didn't pass the board, whose vote is merely advisory, other officials expressed support for the many changes on Queens Boulevard, including the bike lanes.
Councilman Danny Dromm said the board's approval of the plan, even with stipulations, was a "great victory" for the area.
"I am very pleased that the Mayor is moving forward with the plan and that he will also include bike lanes," he added. "Bike lanes are an essential component to providing a safer Queens Boulevard.”
The DOT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
