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By Lauren Gill<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Paper<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Legalize it!<\/p>\n
The city will finally sanction a popular but illicit route for cyclists trying to get across Court Street from Amity to Dean streets under a proposed overhaul of the Cobble Hill intersection, and easy riders are stoked — they say they’ve been blowing that joint for years anyway, and it’s time The Man let them bring their habit out in the open so they can do it safely.<\/p>\n
“People are already doing it,” said Cobble Hill bike activist Bahij Chancey at a Community Board 6 meeting on Dec. 15, where Department of Transportation bigwigs unveiled the plan. “I don’t think it will increase the number of people doing it, I just think it means the people who are doing it will be safe.” <\/p>\n
The two streets both abut Court Street on opposite sides but are offset by about 45 feet. Traffic on the hairy thoroughfare is one-way and Red Hook-bound, so travelers coming to the end of Amity Street can’t make a left-hand, Carroll Gardens-bound turn over Dean street without getting on the wrong side of the Fuzz — although many riders do it anyhow. <\/p>\n
Now officials want to okay the underground movement, painting markings across Court Street and installing signs that read “no left turn except bicycles” at Amity Street.<\/p>\n
But one local totally harshed the bikers’ mellow, saying it was half-baked to encourage more free-wheeling commuters to do something that is supposed to be against the law.<\/p>\n
“You’re allowing cyclists to do something that is technically illegal and you can ticket a motorist for it,” said board member Jerry Armer. <\/p>\n
A transportation honcho said the department is making a rare exception for safety’s sake.<\/p>\n
“It’s not something we like to do all of the time,” said Ted Wright, the department’s director of, err, greenways. “What we’re doing is trying to provide a safer way for some of these people who making that crossing.”<\/p>\n
The signs are just one part of the plan — agency officials also want to stick a two-block bike lane on Amity Street from Henry to Court streets to fill gaps in the pedaling-path network, and install another crosswalk over Court Street, outside the Starbucks at Dean Street.<\/p>\n
The changes won’t bogart any vehicle lanes, though they could nix one parking space, the reps said. Workers will just narrow the current one-way travel lane on Amity Street a little and paint the cycling lane markings next to it, maintaining parking lanes on either side. <\/p>\n
Five pedestrians, five cyclists, and six vehicle occupants were injured in crashes along on the two block stretch of Amity Street between 2010 and 2014, according to bummer city data.<\/p>\n
The committee members decided to hold off voting on the proposal until they rap with more Cobble Hill residents at next month’s meeting.<\/p>\n
— with Colin Mixson<\/p>\n
Reach reporter Lauren Gill at lgill@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260–2511. Follow her on Twitter @laurenk_gill<\/p>\n
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