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Plan to Add Bike Lanes to Stapleton Streets Approved by Community Board

By Nicholas Rizzi | February 16, 2017 3:40pm
 Community Board 1 voted to approve plans to narrow roads and add bike lanes to streets in Stapleton at their full board meeting.
Community Board 1 voted to approve plans to narrow roads and add bike lanes to streets in Stapleton at their full board meeting.
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Department of Transportation

STATEN ISLAND — Plans to bring bike lanes and narrower streets to Stapleton to help curb speeding have been approved by the neighborhood's community board.

The board almost unanimously voted to support the Department of Transportation's proposal that would add dedicated bike lanes to sections of Van Duzer Street, Targee Street and St. Paul's Avenue.

Only two members opposed  the plan at their full meeting on Wednesday.

"I think we have a plan that is good for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and, more importantly, the people of Van Duzer Street," said Tom Cocola, Staten Island borough commissioner for the DOT, at the meeting.

The city originally pitched the plan to residents in June, but updated them in November after concerns it would put cyclists at risk. Some worried the roads were too narrow to accommodate dedicated lanes.

Under the new plan, the DOT would add buffers to separate some bike lanes from cars and move them to the left side of the road to avoid conflicts with buses.

Van Duzer Street Corridor Safety Improvements by DNAinfoNewYork on Scribd

The DOT ditched plans to put in dedicated lanes on other stretches and will add shared markings instead.

The plan will also add more full-time parking to the neighborhood, shorten crossing distances at some intersections and reconfigure others to make them safer for pedestrians to cross.

They 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 roads after residents asked for them.