DOT began installing bike lanes and traffic calming on 31st Street on May 12, months after a Queens judge ordered the agency to halt<\/a>, in part because it had failed to document its consultations about the project with other city agencies, including FDNY. Mayor Mamdani then expanded the length of the project to encompass the whole neighborhood, and DOT got its bureaucratic ducks in order.<\/p>\n But a coalition of 31st Street businesses continues to fight the bike lane in court. This week, the group accused DOT of acting in contempt of Judge Cheree Buggs\u2019s December ruling ordering it to halt installation of the first incarnation of the bike lane project, which only ran six blocks from 36th Avenue to Newtown Avenue. <\/p>\n That opposition has been buffeted by firefighters who work in the area, who made a show of force<\/a> at a recent community board meeting. The firefighters from FDNY Battalion 46, Engine 312 rolled up to the meeting in FDNY trucks and uniforms, but left before the public comment section \u2014 leaving it to union reps to express opposition to the project.<\/p>\n NYPD and DOT data identify 31st Street as one of the most dangerous corridors in Queens. As part of the latest attempt to keep the street unsafe, opponents submitted to the court a letter<\/a> from the Uniformed Firefighters Association accusing DOT of not contacting local FDNY firehouses about the 2026 iteration of the project.<\/p>\n But DOT did give two local firehouses the ability to comment on the project in March, according to the city\u2019s court filings<\/a> \u2014 which also forcefully pushed back on the firefighters union\u2019s claims that the redesign will make it harder for FDNY to fight fires. Confusingly, Engine 312 was not among the firehouses DOT consulted about the project.<\/p>\n In its letter, the union also claimed that the protected bike lanes would push fire trucks \u201c19 feet off of the curb and underneath the elevated subway structure, restricting the deployment of tower ladders\u201d \u2014 but the project does the opposite, the city\u2019s response noted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe width of the bicycle lane and adjoining buffer lane was designed specifically to provide sufficient space for emergency vehicles to drive into the bicycle lane to obtain direct curb access, in contrast to the pre-existing configuration, where emergency vehicles would have a row of parked cars between them and building,\u201d wrote city attorney Kevin Rizzo. [Emphasis added.]<\/p>\n In Ray Bradbury\u2019s dystopian 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, firefighters deliberately endanger the public by setting blazes in order to rid the world of certain literature. More than 70 years later, the union claimed in its letter that 31st Street is \u201cunique\u201d because it runs under an elevated subway line \u2014 a point made moot by a similar project under the elevated tracks on White Plains Road in the Bronx, the city argued. That project led to a 10-percent drop in crash injuries and 41-percent drop in injuries to motor vehicle occupants in particular, according to Rizzo and DOT.<\/p>\n \u201cPetitioners set forth no expert testimony or other evidence to support their claims that the redesign of these streets will make the corridor more dangerous,\u201d Rizzo wrote. \u201cIn contrast, DOT, the expert agency in transportation and traffic safety, has found that this plan will enhance safety on a corridor with undisputed safety concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s response this week contrasted with the city\u2019s lackluster defense of the first iteration of the project when Eric Adams was still mayor. For example, the city\u2019s earlier defense under Adams didn\u2019t even bother to mention the successful White Plains Road project.<\/p>\n Buggs based her ruling on both DOT\u2019s failure to certify that it had consulted with FDNY and other city agencies as required by law, and her personal opinion of the project\u2019s \u201crationality.\u201d Essentially, Buggs privileged her own views over how DOT\u2019s expertise. <\/p>\n In seeking to find DOT in contempt of Buggs\u2019s order to nix the first iteration of the project, opponents went out of their way this week to remind the judge of her negative view of \u201cDOT\u2019s treatment of the core safety and operational issues,\u201d quoting extensively from her December ruling. But city attorneys insist they are in the right, since Buggs stopped the project \u201cpending any new, lawfully adopted determination,\u201d i.e. the new project.<\/p>\n The falsehoods parroted by opponents don\u2019t stop there, however. <\/p>\n In his filing, opponents\u2019 attorney Hartley Bernstein also claimed<\/a> that DOT made \u201cno significant changes\u201d to the project. In fact, the agency adjusted the project\u2019s length, added new painted areas and delineators to improve curb access for emergency vehicles and added a new crosswalk, pedestrian signal and school bus boarding zone outside St. Demetrios School at 30th Drive.<\/p>\n Alex Duncan, the Astoria micromobility activist who uses the online moniker Miser, fired back that Bernstein and his ilk are \u201clying.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t use that word lightly, but there\u2019s just\u00a0no way you can make the case that it\u2019s easier to drive a fire truck between parked steel than through an empty bike lane,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very bizarre that we\u2019re still having this fight at all. It really is a battle just against ignorance. There\u2019s no logic on their\u00a0side at all, it\u2019s just culture war grievance.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/fdny-engine-312-astoria.jpg\")
FDNY Engine 312 illegally parked outside last month\u2019s Queens Community Board 1 meeting in Astoria. Photo: David Meyer<\/p>\n
![\"Mamdani\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DOT-and-FDNY-at-hearing-with-bubbles.jpg\")