{"id":310837,"date":"2026-07-31T16:16:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310837\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:16:25","slug":"eyes-on-the-street-it-is-time-for-kent-avenue-to-be-car-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/310837\/","title":{"rendered":"Eyes on the Street: It Is Time For Kent Avenue To Be Car-Free"},"content":{"rendered":"

It Kent have cars.<\/p>\n

The Kent Avenue bike lane \u2014 once a signature project that safely connected Greenpoint to the rest of Brooklyn with a two-way protected route \u2014 has become such a victim of its own success that it is effectively useless.<\/p>\n

On the corner of N. Fourth Street, Streetsblog counted 196 cars, buses and motorcyclists on the roadway, compared to almost 300 cyclists riding in the bike lane. Five years ago, Streetsfilms<\/a> counted only one more bike lane user than car \u2014 making it clear that the biking explosion has fully infiltrated the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve experienced a major boom and we need our infrastructure to keep up with it. And that means a wider bike lane and a safer street for everybody,\u201d Lincoln Restler, the neighborhood\u2019s council member, told Streetsblog.<\/p>\n

Williamsburg has added more housing to the New York housing stock than any other community district and as a result, the neighborhood has exploded with new neighbors, many of whom are cyclists. Still, the Department of Transportation hasn\u2019t significantly changed the bike lane since it was installed in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a backward process,\u201d said Restler (who was quoted in a 2021 Streetsblog<\/a> story demanding that the bike lane get widened). \u201cWhen the city rezones a neighborhood like Williamsburg, they don\u2019t install the traffic-calming measures that will make it safe for everybody moving in here. Instead, they wait for enough crashes to occur that warrant stoplights and stop signs and other traffic calming measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, advocates wrote to DOT requesting a wider bike lane and more pedestrian space in response to the increase in bike usage along the avenue \u2014\u00a0up by 35 percent since 2017 to more than 3,500 daily users, according to DOT data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bike lane was great, but it\u2019s been overwhelmed,\u201d said Jon Orcutt, a former DOT official under Mayors Mike Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio and an author of the letter. \u201cThe bike lane was cutting edge in 2010, but the avenue and usage of bikes in the city has exploded.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\t\t
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Cyclists biking along the strip agreed. \u201cI wish it was bigger,\u201d said Williamsburg resident Renner Colbourn, who said he uses Citi Bike to travel up and down the street multiple times a day. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough space to pull over and park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2024 letter recommended that one of the two parking lanes be repurposed to widen the bike lane. Colbourn agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sucks to compromise for cars,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Streetsblog took a ride along the lane on Monday to see what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ugly?<\/p>\n

\"\"A quieter part of the Kent Avenue bike lane between Quay and N. 15th streets that\u2019s meant to be protected by cars parked in the parking lane, though none were currently parked. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

Heading south, the lane starts with a smooth but worn stretch of protected lane, starting at Kent Avenue and Quay Street, right on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. It\u2019s largely protected by a parking lane \u2014 which was mostly empty when Streetsblog rode by, but was still wide enough to sufficiently protect cyclists \u2014 and a few jersey barriers.<\/p>\n

But as soon as cyclists get to the narrower, busier streets closer to the center of the waterfront residential zone, things get hairy. Brooklyn residents heading towards the parks on the waterfront, the thousands of new apartments in the neighborhood\u2019s high rises, and the many grocery stores and other shops along Kent Avenue are now largely visiting these spots using their bikes or feet \u2014 not cars.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cyclists ride past one of the many parks on Williamsburg\u2019s waterfront, Marsha P. Johnson Park. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

Instead of a wider bike lane and sidewalk, most of the roadway is still reserved for the small number of cars rolling through, or being stored in, the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

When pedestrians or cyclists have to venture across one of the many intersections on the strip \u2014 many of which don\u2019t have crosswalks, stop signs or traffic signals \u2014 no one seems to know where to go or what to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cFolks sometimes don\u2019t look before they cross so that can get a little hectic,\u201d said Patryk Perkowski, a cyclist travelling along the route.<\/p>\n

According to Restler, there are at least three more traffic signals on the way, thanks to DOT. Along the ride, Streetsblog witnessed countless near-misses, pedestrians stopping in the bike lane, cars turning left into cyclists (including a Streetsblog reporter \u2026 at N. Fourth Street), and cyclists crossing Kent Avenue to the west-side bike lane from the east-side streets.<\/p>\n

\"\"The intersection at N. Fourth Street, where bikes often swerve around pedestrians crossing Kent Avenue. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

The biggest change to the bike lane wasn\u2019t in the lane itself, but in the neighborhood, which boomed over the last decade with residential and commercial development.<\/p>\n

Restler says the population boom has impeded the effectiveness of the lane \u2014 but much less new development is in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\"\"One section of the Kent Avene bike lane between S. Second and S. First streets is a construction site, but there is a narrow detour. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

Only a small sign directs cyclists and pedestrians into their respective detour lanes, and it\u2019s easily missed \u2014 with pedestrians sometimes ending up in the bike lane.<\/p>\n

\"\"A pedestrian walking in the temporary bike lane between S. First and S. Second streets. Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

What\u2019s right?<\/p>\n

Once southbound cyclists make it past the bustling center of Williamsburg, they are back to smooth sailing down a kermit-painted lane, protected by parking and a buffer-zone, or only a wide buffer-zone.<\/p>\n

\"\" Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

Past Clymer Street, cyclists make it to a section of the Kent Avenue bike lane that is, essentially, the bike-lane gold standard: a grade-separated lane. <\/p>\n

\"\" Photo: Emily Smith<\/p>\n

This means the lane is at a different level than the roadway. It\u2019s protected from walkers by a buffer-zone \u2014 complete with baby trees \u2014 and protected from drivers by another tree-populated buffer zone and a lane of street parking.<\/p>\n

Streetsblog reached out to DOT to see if it had any plans in store for improving the lane. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are exploring ways to improve the busiest sections where we see the highest volumes of pedestrians and cyclists and will be working with the community on any upgrades,\u201d said agency spokesperson Vincent Barone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It Kent have cars. The Kent Avenue bike lane \u2014 once a signature project that safely connected Greenpoint…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-310837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310837","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=310837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}