A new school is set to open this fall<\/a> and a park on Box Street will open later this year<\/a>; both will draw even more foot traffic.<\/p>\n The bike lane will extend from West Street to Manhattan Avenue. DOT also plans to build a raised east-bound bike lane for a block on Box Street. The reconstruction includes sidewalk extensions at the corners of Dupont, Franklin and Box Streets, along with a new pedestrian island in the middle of Manhattan Avenue.<\/p>\n Locals were also unimpressed by the plan for still leaving too much room for the movement and storage of dangerous personal motor vehicles.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t need a 12-foot street for cars to drive down,\u201d said resident Paola Sanchez at the community meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s insane. That\u2019s going to encourage speeding.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposed bike lane is only a foot wider than the eight feet \u201cabsolute minimum\u201d for a two-way path, per guidelines<\/a> from the National Association of City Transportation Officials. DOT has rolled out bike lanes nearly twice that width, such as the 16-foot two-way protected lane on 31st Avenue in Astoria<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is going to be part of a giant Brooklyn-Queens superhighway for transit for mostly pedestrians and bikes,\u201d said Wendi Carlock. \u201cThis is going to be setting a template for all others to be modeled after.\u00a0This can\u2019t be the model.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposed greenway is intended to fill a key gap in north Brooklyn\u2019s waterfront. It will connect to the Pulaski Bridge, where bike counters have logged more than a million rides<\/a> both last year and the year prior. Other parts of the waterfront route, like Kent and Flushing<\/a> Avenues, are already routinely over-crowded.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s so much development in this particular area, lot of usage throughout the Brooklyn waterfront greenway,\u201d said Hunter Armstrong, executive director at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative.<\/p>\n Narrow bike and pedestrian infrastructure can be dangerous, as became clear when an illegal e-moto rider and his passenger mowed down and killed a 60-year-old<\/a> getting off a bus along the busy Flushing Avenue greenway by the Brooklyn Navy Yard in October.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, another crash happened on the same section of the narrow two-way lanes on Flushing Avenue, just a few blocks away, when a scooter rider and a person on an e-bike collided. <\/p>\n The heavily used path also narrows by about half in the warmer months when DOT neglects to trim<\/a> the bushes lining its side. <\/p>\n The city has long struggled to maintain<\/a> and expand<\/a> its network of greenways, which are both vital transportation<\/a> and recreational infrastructure.<\/p>\n The city began working on the project back in the early-to-mid 2010s, but construction won\u2019t start until 2028 and last until 2030, DOT officials said. The revamp belongs to a larger capital project that will install new sewers and water mains, and is managed by the delay-prone<\/a> Department of Design and Construction<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city should work on a temporary redesign with less money and redraft the permanent build-out before dropping seven figures on the overhaul, members of the CB 1 committee said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis plan looks like it was designed before Hurricane Sandy \u2013 and it was,\u201d said Transportation Committee member Bronwyn Breitner. \u201cThat\u2019s not appropriate for anywhere in New York City anymore, and it\u2019s certainly not appropriate for this location which has transformed 180 degrees from what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n An agency rep acknowledged to the civic panel that its capital work is playing \u201ccatch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI share the frustration that these capital projects take so long, and our design standards outpace them at a very rapid clip, and we\u2019re always trying to play catch-up on these major investments,\u201d said Michael Pedron, a DOT assistant director for cycling and micromobility.<\/p>\n \u201cCapital projects everywhere take a really long time in New York City,\u201d Pedron added. \u201cThat\u2019s also a reason why we have such a robust in-house program, is that we do so many changes without capital projects, because they take such a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n After the meeting, DOT said in a statement that it will review \u201cthe feedback shared.\u201d<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Emily Lipstein<\/p>\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Commercial-cross-section.png\")
DOT\u2019s plans for Commercial Street don\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lipstein-Flushing-greenway-crash-3-31-26.jpg\")
A scooter rider and someone on an e-bike crashed on the narrow Flushing Avenue greenway in the Navy Yard.<\/p>\n