Nor has any agency of government cracked down on drivers with excessive speed-camera violations; the driver of the car that flipped, a Mazda, has been nabbed by cameras 20 times for speeding and twice for running red lights in less than a year and a half, yet has faced no recriminations because the $50 tickets have been paid.<\/p>\n
And the Mamdani administration has chosen not to restore the bike lane between Willoughby and Flushing avenues as candidate Zohran Mamdani promised during his campaign. Without the protection of parked cars, cyclists are often laid waste in crashes such as this or the one that claimed the life of cyclist Jose Alzorriz<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Mamdani administration\u2019s inaction on Bedford is a particularly odd choice, given that after the bike lane between Atlantic and Flushing avenues was completed in late 2024, the Department of Transportation said that total injuries on the stretch had dropped by \u201cmore than 12 percent\u201d and \u201cby more than 38 percent for pedestrians.\u201d Notably, total injuries in the stretch between DeKalb and Flushing were down 47 percent, the agency said.<\/p>\n Since removing the protected portion of the bike lane between Willoughby and Flushing avenues, safety has declined. As city statistics reveal, in the seven months when there was<\/a> a full, uninterrupted protected bike lane on Bedford from just north of Atlantic Avenue to Flushing Avenue, there were 31 reported crashes, injuring nine cyclists. But in the seven months after the protection was removed on the northernmost three blocks, there were 34 reported crashes on the stretch, injuring 13 cyclists \u2014 an 85-percent increase in cyclist injuries, albeit a small sample size.<\/p>\n Still, advocates for safety are furious at what the video depicts.<\/p>\n \u201cThis crash is a wake-up call because double-parked cars on Bedford Avenue create dangerous conditions that put everyone at risk,\u201d said Baruch Herzfeld, who, with his son, had unsuccessfully sued the city<\/a> to prevent the removal of the lane. \u201cThe mayor promised during the campaign that he would fix this, and six months later nothing has changed. I\u2019m furious because this could literally be fixed overnight with paint: restore the protected bike lane that the Adams DOT removed and stop treating this \u2018bike lane\u2019 like a parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n The crash also comes as Williamsburg\u2019s Hasidic community has emphasized personal responsibility of pedestrians to avoid being struck by the neighborhood\u2019s notorious drivers. A new public service campaign has popped up at corners, urging young children to find an adult to \u201ccross\u201d them \u2014 meaning that children are being told wait for an adult and have that adult accompany the child across the street.<\/p>\n The neighborhood and its media outlets have consistently blamed children and their parents when they are struck or almost struck by drivers, but has also blamed cyclists and the protected bike lane when children are struck or almost struck by cyclists.<\/p>\n It is as if Williamsburg community leaders see children who jump into the roadway as perpetrators of their own demise if they jump in front of car drivers, but can see those same children as victims if they jump into the portion of the roadway set aside for cyclists.<\/p>\n For example, after a child on a scooter was struck by a car driver after scootering into the roadway, Williamsburg News reported<\/a>, \u201cParents are asked to teach their kids the importance of safety while riding a bike or scooter especially while crossing the street.\u201d (The<\/a> outlet<\/a> often<\/a> tweets<\/a> this<\/a> advice<\/a>.)<\/p>\n But after a cyclist grazed a child who had crossed the protected bike lane, Williamsburg News didn\u2019t mention the child\u2019s act or his parent\u2019s apathy, but blamed \u201cthe dangerous bike lane.\u201d<\/a> (The<\/a> outlet<\/a> tweets<\/a> this<\/a> often<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Such coverage was instrumental in convincing the Adams administration to remove part of the just-installed bike lane in order to appease community leaders in Williamsburg<\/a>, where voting is typically by bloc.<\/p>\n During the same election campaign, then-Assembly Member Mamdani pledged to complete and restore projects<\/a> either canceled or undone by the corrupt mayor<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need a politics where the decision is not determined by the last person who calls you, and just how much money they have,\u201d he told reporters, speaking more generally about the shortcomings of the then-mayor. \u201cWorking people can and must be safe. \u2026 And we will make decisions with safety as the imperative.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOT did not initally respond to a request for comment on the Bedford crash. The NYPD initially said it had no information on the injuries from Sunday\u2019s crash or whether anyone was ticketed, but later said that the 30-year-old Mazda driver and her 9-year-old passenger were taken to an area hospital with minor injuries. The driver of the car that nudged the Mazda fled on foot, cops said.<\/p>\n Update: After initial publication of this story, DOT spokesman VIN Barone said: \u201cSince taking office, the Mamdani administration has been guided by a simple promise: our streets should be\u00a0safe and accessible for every New Yorker. Whether you\u2019re driving, walking or biking, you deserve to get where you\u2019re going with ease and without fear. We are proud to have restarted many street safety projects that were paused, cancelled or curtailed by the previous administration, and we will have more projects to announce in the weeks and months to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It happened at night, but it was a real wake-up call. A car driver who was already maneuvering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-259697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/williamsburg-cross-me-sign.jpg\")
The Yiddish text on these posters and sidewalk stickers reads, \u201cDon\u2019t run down the street. Wait calmly for an adult. \u2018Please help me cross.’\u201d Photo: Emily Lipstein<\/p>\n