STAPLETON — The city's plans to curb speeding and improve safety on Stapleton's roads have been tweaked after concerns they would put cyclists at risk.
The Department of Transportation updated its scheme to add dedicated bike lanes on sections of Van Duzer Street, Targee Street and St. Paul's Avenue after concern that they would put cyclists too close to cars and make some sections of the streets dangerously narrow.
"Overall it looked like a more thorough, better thought out presentation," said Priscilla Marco, president of the Van Duzer Street Civic Association, after the group was shown the revised plans by the DOT Tuesday.
Under the updated proposal, the city would add buffers to some bike lanes to separate them from motor vehicles and move them from the right side of the road to the left to avoid conflicts with buses.
But it ditched its original plan to put in dedicated lanes on other stretches after some residents worried the roads were too narrow. The DOT will add shared markings to them instead.
The new plans also call for the city to look into adding "speed cushions" — bumps that don't affect buses, trucks and emergency vehicles but slow passenger cars — to several roads after residents asked for them.
Van Duzer Street Corridor Safety Improvements by DNAinfoNewYork on Scribd
The plans will add more full-time parking spaces to the neighborhood and shorten crossing distances at some intersections.
The city will also reconfigure some intersections to make them safer for pedestrians to cross and easier for cars to see them.
In the summer, the city announced plans to add bike lanes and make roads narrower to improve safety for bicyclists and pedestrian in the neighborhood.
But some residents at a June 7 meeting of the Van Duzer Civic Association felt the plans would put cyclists in more danger by placing them too close to cars on windy roads and double parking during school dismissal.
Since the meeting, Marco said workers from the DOT made extra visits to streets with civic association members and changed the plans to accommodate their concerns.
She added that many of the residents at Tuesday's meeting were more receptive to the new plans and that she would support them too.
