Smith Street Is Latest to Get Bike Lane Upgrade in Brooklyn

The DOT has unveiled plans to make a cyclist-heavy section of Smith Street in Brooklyn a bit safer, with a bike lane extending from the intersection of Hamilton Avenue to Bergen Street, where Smith narrows. After Bergen Street, there is already a bike lane running to Jay Street (between Bergen and Pacific this includes shared bike lane markings, which remind drivers of cyclists' presence with logos of cyclists painted on the road).

"We’ve seen that the shared lane does get a good response [from drivers]," Preston Johnson at the DOT tells the Brooklyn Paper. "It acts as a reminder." A DOT study found that 449 cyclists used this stretch of Smith Street in one 12-hour period; the street, which many bikers take to connect to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, runs parallel to the southbound Hoyt Street, which already has a bike lane. (That will be extended one block to Wyckoff Street.) Barring any spontaneous breakout of mass hysteria among the locals, the DOT expects to implement the extension in June.

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By John Del Signore in News on March 22, 2010 1:50 PM

Comments [rss]

CYCLEROCK

CLINTON St. works well when I want to reach the Bklyn Bridge and I'm south of it. Its one continuous lane and I found it on the bike map.

In a non related issue, I think that most sport / leisure cyclists do not like how the food delivery bikers ride against traffic, (often coming head to head with other bikers), but somehow all the bikers are lumped together in one group.

neutral observer

Hey, you want to ride your bike without dealing with cars, strollers, pedestrians etc etc? MOVE TO THE FRIGGEN COUNTRY! The cyclists of NYC think they are the only ones who live and work in this town. Stop whining and STFU already.

glen glenn

How neutral of you.

bklynbagel

this is pretty sweet.. though ive never seen a bike on the sidewalk on smith.. unless you're referring to those 4 wheeled things called strollers.

clinton is still the best way to get to the bridges but its nice to know that the livery cabs will be coralled away from the bikes for a minute on smith

scrappymcgee

wow what a shock, cyclist get a bike lane and all post are complaining about other bike lanes

Kevin Walsh

I was on Jerome Avenue the other day near Yankee Stadium, where there's officially a bike lane, but the only way you'd know it was by a battered green sign on a lightpole.

But this is the Bronx we're talking, after all.

www.forgotten-ny.com

satanslaundromat

There's no bike lane on Jerome Ave. According to the city bike map, it's a "recommended route". Similar to, say, Henry St south of Pacific.

Kevin Walsh

Well, if it's a recommended route the city shouldn't split hairs like this and paint in a bike lane.

Bongo23

Arguably the most dangerous stretch of road for a cyclist in the whole of Brooklyn. Soccer mum SUVs on their phones with no functional turn signals, delivery boys riding the wrong way up the hill, iPhone tapping pedestrians striding into the street, delivery trucks obscuring over half ofthe road, and the most confusing road markings ever (check out the asphalt graffiti at Smith and Dean!). Avoid!

NattyB

+ 1 for the perfect description of what you see when you're on your bike in that part of BK.

satanslaundromat

"the street, which many bikers take to connect to the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, runs parallel to the southbound Hoyt Street, which already has a bike lane"

Huh? Smith and Hoyt already have bike lanes in the same places (above Bergen), and are now due to get them in the same places (below Bergen).

eflash

um, yes, they run in opposite directions.

satanslaundromat

um, yes. The Bk Paper article (and this paraphrasing of it) say that Hoyt has a bike lane in the area where Smith is getting one now. That's just not true.

babyhitler

The bike lane on smith street is a motherfucking joke. "shared" lane basically means the same shit as a non shared lane cause cars are always either in it or blocking it , the traffic is super high and no one who rides a bike with any regularity would ever be idiotic enough to use this to get to the brooklyn bridge more than once