Make Lafayette Safer Tonight

The inexorable march toward a safer New York continues tonight, Tuesday, June 19th at 6 pm in Fort Greene.  Via Transportation Alternatives and Make Lafayette Safer:

…the New York City Department of Transportation will present plans to install an enhanced shared bicycle route along this popular street. Over the past year, the community organization Make Lafayette Avenue Safer built overwhelming community support for a safe bicycle route and reduced speeding along this busy street. Now they need your voice in the room to make this vision for a safe Lafayette Avenue a reality.

The Department of Transportation’s plan calls for sharrows, more bicycling signage and traffic lights timed for 20 mph speeds. These improvements are a good start, but the installation of an actual bike lane is a must for this street. We encourage you to speak in support of these first steps at the meeting, but also to ask the Department of Transportation to do more by creating a dedicated bike lane in the future.

DOT’s proposal, which does not include an on-street bike lane, is a compromise from many advocates’ initial hopes, but a step in the right direction.  Make Lafayette Safer is calling for additional enhancements to make sure it’s done right:

Make Lafayette Safer still wants additional safety measures, including color enhancements for centrally located sharrowed bike markings, and an adequate repeating of the symbols so drivers are always aware of the priority for bikes in the lane.

Community Board 2 will meet at St. Francis College’s Callahan Center at 180 Remsen Street.  I hope you can make it!