UPDATE: Cyclist is Killed in Queens — The Sixth This Year

A cyclist was struck and killed on Borden Avenue in Long Island City on Thursday morning — on a stretch of roadway where locals demanded more protection for bicyclists and pedestrians.

An NYPD spokesman said cyclist Robert Spencer, 53, was traveling westbound on Borden Avenue at around 7:51 a.m. when he was struck by the 51-year-old driver of a Chevy Cruze, who was heading southbound on Second Street in the industrial part of the booming neighborhood. The driver of the Cruze remained on the scene.

Spencer was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where he died.

“There are no charges at this time,” the spokesman said, “but the investigation is ongoing.”

Though the area is industrial, it is next to a new park and is quickly becoming a residential area. There is a protected bike lane on Second Street, but not on Borden, which is wide and dangerous. As such, residents of a building one block from the death site wrote to the city and their Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer demanding a two-way protected bike lane on Borden from Vernon Boulevard to the waterfront park and other safety measures “such as speed bumps, raised pedestrian crossings, etc.”

Van Bramer, who helped get the park built, supported the local effort.

“In response to constituent concerns, I wrote a letter to the DOT on March 4, raising issues about this location and informing the DOT that I believe the residents’ requests for traffic calming measures, including a protected bike lane on Borden, are reasonable and should be pursued,” he told Streetsblog.

Spencer is the sixth cyclist to be killed so far this year. On Feb. 28, cyclist Aurilla Lawrence was killed by a hit-and-run driver who has not been caught.

In all of 2018, 10 cyclists were killed.

To put all the carnage in perspective, in 2018, there were 4,854 reported crashes in the 108th Precinct, or roughly 13 per day. Those crashes resulted in reported injuries to 84 cyclists, 169 pedestrians and 998 motorists, with one pedestrian and two motorists dying. Many other injuries were not reported.

In the wake of the crash, Transportation Alternatives’ Senior Director of Advocacy Tom DeVito issued a statement:

Borden Avenue connects the southern end of the Long Island City waterfront with the Vernon Boulevard business district and the Pulaski Bridge. The block where this crash occurred is the weak link in an otherwise protected bike lane network along Center Boulevard and 2nd Street.

Not satisfied with the “sharrows” in the New York City Department of Transportation’s current design, residents of a nearby building lobbied their local community board for protected bike lanes along Borden Avenue, but the community board refused to consider their request. The street should be redesigned without delay.

Even so, a piecemeal approach to redesigning known dangerous streets is no way to achieve Vision Zero. That’s why we’re calling on the City Council to take up the bill which would establish a “Vision Zero Street Design Standard,” a protocol designed to ensure that proven safety improvements on our streets are made as a matter of course with every redesign and not held up due to petty politics. The Vision Zero Design Standard bill has been debated for over a year and a half and, with 44 co-sponsors, has overwhelming support. There is no reason this shouldn’t be law already.

We’re on pace to see three times as many people killed while biking in 2019 than the total killed in 2018. We shouldn’t wait for people to die to fix our streets. Council Speaker Johnson and Mayor de Blasio must make passing the Vision Zero Street Design Standard legislation a top priority.

The Department of Transportation said in a statement that it has added “enhanced” crosswalks and painted curb extensions at Fifth Street from Borden Avenue to 46th Avenue, and also converted a portion of Fifth Street to a one-way street.

“With regards to this recent tragedy, DOT will look into potential safety enhancements at Borden Ave and Second Street, as we do following any fatality,” said spokeswoman Alana Morales.

The agency says it has bigger plans for a major street reconstruction in the Long Island City/Hunters Point area, though it is unclear when that will happen.

Story was updated at 5:10 p.m. to add a quote from the Department of Transportation.