Trottenberg: DOT Will Redesign Ninth Street With Protected Bike Lanes

DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg says the city is moving quickly to implement protected bike lanes, concrete pedestrian islands, and other safety improvements on Ninth Street in Park Slope, where Dorothy Bruns ran over and killed Joshua Lew and Abigail Blumenstein earlier this week.

Trottenberg announced the redesign this afternoon in testimony to the City Council transportation committee. DOT wants to show a plan to Community Board 6 within weeks and implement it “as soon as the weather permits,” she said.

“I have directed my planning and engineering experts to analyze and redesign the Ninth Street corridor, including protected bike lanes and other pedestrian safety treatments,” Trottenberg told council members. “We will have a more detailed plan to unveil in the next few weeks.”

A 2007 redesign added buffered bike lanes to Ninth Street, but it remains wide and prone to speeding.  In 2016, a hit-and-run driver killed 41-year-old Bahtiyor Khamdanov at the same intersection where Lew and Blumenstein were killed. That year, a driver also critically injured a cyclist at the intersection of Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue.

Those collisions occurred a mere 500 feet from the Park Slope YMCA, where Mayor de Blasio exercises almost daily. On Tuesday, after news of Monday’s crash had spread, more than 100 demonstrators greeted the mayor on his way into the gym, demanding immediate action to redesign the street.

“We’ve been asking for this street to be fixed for years, and it hasn’t been fixed,” rally organizer Doug Gordon told the crowd.

Two days later, DOT has made a firm commitment to redesign the street.