Grand Army Plaza Sepavo

Bike lane haters are still smarting after being forced to chug a gallon of Haterade after a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Prospect Park West bike lane. But as they appeal the decision, the DOT has handed them a small victory by omitting the construction of a two-way bike lane on East and West Plaza Streets at Grand Army Plaza. "If we had not done what we've been doing with the bike lanes, they probably would have moved ahead," Louise Hainline of Neighbors That Don't Use Bike Lanes Neighbors For Better Bike Lanes tells the Daily News.

Though other improvements, such as new pedestrian islands, a new traffic signal, flower beds and a new bicycle route through the south end of the plaza have all been completed, the two-way lane, which had been discussed last spring, was not constructed. What remains is the single lane that loops around GAP counterclockwise. "This gateway is now just as inviting, safe and accessible as Prospect Park itself and this process is a great example of how the City is working with communities to make our streets as safe and inviting as they can be," DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan says in a release.

The good news for cyclists, according to Streetsblog editor Ben Fried, is that at that planning meeting in April, the DOT noted that the two-way bike lane "has been set aside until an unspecified date in the future," so even though it was left behind in this latest set of improvements, it hasn't been tabled altogether.

"There are a lot of people in the neighborhood who want to see the full bike connection happen, and I don't think the idea is going to disappear," Fried says. He also notes, "It feels similar to what happened to First and Second Avenue. They pushed back the construction timeline in that case, but ultimately followed through."