Manhattanites To DOT: Open Queensboro Bridge Pedestrian Path ‘Without Delay’

The city must finally open the Queensboro Bridge’s south outer roadway to pedestrians and not prioritize driver convenience, Manhattan’s Community Board 6 demanded on Wednesday night.

The move comes after the Department of Transportation again pushed back a project to give cyclists and pedestrians their own lanes on the 1909 span, choosing the needs of motorists first — even as bike ridership soared to all-time highs for months.

“It’s a really dangerous situation and it’s really inappropriate for the DOT to delay,” said Community Board 6 Transportation Committee Vice Chair Barak Friedman at the meeting.

“It is horrible for pedestrians and it’s horrible for cyclists, you know, a high risk for head-on collision with a cyclist going at speed.”

People riding or walking have to share the less-than-10-foot northern shoulder, while motorists get up to nine lanes. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to rectify that imbalance and give people on foot the path on the south side of the bridge more than three years ago.

After many delays under the Adams administration, DOT reps had most recently promised to open the south path to walkers this summer, and even began installing guard rails. But agency heads again punted it to at least the winter due to a snafu with a separate project to rehabilitate the span’s upper deck.

The construction project up top is not inherently tied to the south outer roadway’s opening, but the agency has insisted on keeping the path available for cars during construction to avoid what they say would be a 5-percent increase in traffic on the Manhattan side.

The status quo has been dangerous for the increasing number of people crossing the span in more sustainable modes than cars forced to share one meager lane.

“It’s really bad, I can’t understate how uncomfortable it is to operate on here,” said the transportation committee Chair Jason Froimowitz at the committee meeting Monday.

The board’s resolution [PDF] said opening the path to pedestrians “must take priority over the convenience of drivers,” and that DOT should do so “without further delay, regardless of the status of the upper roadway construction.”

The bridge is second only to the Williamsburg Bridge in bike counts over the East River, with nearly 219,000 crossings in September — roughly 7,300 a day — and it is the only span directly linking Queens and Manhattan.

There have been dozens of reported crashes on the overpass in the years since de Blasio promised a separate path in 2021, many of them seemingly tied to the lack of space, Streetsblog has reported.

The connector has logged record numbers of cyclist crossings for four months straight, advocates with Transportation Alternatives noted, and a Queens organizer with the group said the city must stop appeasing drivers at the expense of safety.

“There’s no excuse for maintaining dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists for the convenience of drivers,” said Laura Shepard. “The city is lagging and people are getting hurt.”

The DOT declined to comment for this story.

Transportation Alternatives plans to rally in support of opening the south outer roadway on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 11 a.m., at the Manhattan end of the bridge at Honey Locust Park on E. 59th Street.