A Queens decide pumped the brakes Friday on the metropolis’s plans to carve a motorcycle lane by an industrial stretch of Lengthy Island Metropolis — ruling that claims it was being pushed by illegally may need some benefit.
The Division of Transportation was hit with a brief restraining order after enterprise house owners alongside Assessment Avenue accused town company of steering forward with out conducting a security research.
“Not each street is suitable for a motorcycle lane, only for security causes. I perceive that individuals need to go from level A to level B, and what they suppose is probably the most direct, but it surely won’t be the most secure method,” Matthew Dienstag, co-owner of the native LeNoble Lumber, advised The Put up.
“We have been all the time simply asking DOT to think about options, and actually they gave us, in my regard, lip service. That they had their thoughts made up.”
Dienstag led the authorized cost to cease the bike lane this month after 32 enterprise house owners alongside the strip penned a petition asking the DOT to pause — not cease — the challenge earlier than building was slated to start this fall.
The lawsuit alleges that town by no means carried out both security or environmental research for the proposed route, which might join the Pulaski and Kosciuszko bridges by means of Borden, Starr and Assessment avenues — a harmful sector of Blissville notorious for its big-truck congestion.
After deciding on the route, the DOT met with the handfuls of native companies within the industrial nook to listen to their ideas — earlier than in the end ignoring their pleas, Dienstag alleged.
The group raised issues {that a} bike path on the closely trafficked hall would pose a security subject.
The route is plagued with fixed truck and forklift visitors, with huge field vehicles swerving throughout each lanes to enter and exit their warehouses — a tough maneuver made much more tough by the persistent double-parking downside on the overcrowded streets.
In ignoring their issues, the DOT acted “arbitrarily, capriciously, and illegally, and so they abused their discretion,” the lawsuit alleges.
“Let’s take a look at the options earlier than you simply run head first right into a plan that considerably impacts companies in our thoughts, in addition to in a visitors guide that we engaged to check this route. It decreases security, it doesn’t improve security,” stated Dienstag.
The DOT, nonetheless, beforehand advised The Put up it had carried out an in depth research of the challenge zone from each a motorcycle and freight truck perspective.
“This challenge addresses crucial security wants for everybody by narrowing lanes on an unsafe hall and defending cyclists on a extremely traveled route between Brooklyn and Western Queens. Our proposals make the most of widespread design parts discovered on streets throughout town and we are going to defend our work in court docket,” DOT spokesperson Vincent Barone advised The Put up.
The trail was requested by the area people board, civic associations and Councilwoman Julie Gained to create a secure passageway for cyclists.
The momentary restraining order isn’t the tip of the bike path simply but — the DOT may have an opportunity to defend its plan at a listening to subsequent month.