A recent e-bike accident in Williamsburg has intensified tensions in the City Council primary and raised safety concerns about bike lanes in Crown Heights. Amid mixed survey results, residents fear the city isn’t fully addressing the community’s needs and safety priorities.
By Anash.org reporter
A recent e-bike accident in South Williamsburg has sparked a political firestorm ahead of the City Council Democratic primary, highlighting safety concerns that could ripple into the already contentious bike lane debate in Crown Heights.
The incident involved a 3-year-old girl who was struck after darting from behind a double-parked car into a protected bike lane on Bedford Avenue – a corridor already controversial in the Chassidic-heavy neighborhood.
Candidate Sabrina Gates sharply criticized incumbent Lincoln Restler, saying, “Bedford Avenue was dangerous even before the bike lane. Lincoln Restler has been on the wrong side of this issue. It’s time to move the bike lane before another child is hurt.”
Mayor Eric Adams publicly contradicted Restler, tweeting, “Let’s be clear: @LincolnRestler never called for modifying or removing the protected bike lane on Bedford Ave. When the people speak, we listen — with or without their councilman’s support.”
Despite Restler’s claims of pushing for safety improvements, the accident has reignited fears over bike lane safety in dense frum neighborhoods.
This controversy could heavily impact the ongoing debate over proposed protected two-way bike lanes in Crown Heights on Kingston and Brooklyn Avenues, from Empire Boulevard to Winthrop Street. The plan includes converting these streets to single lanes and removing over 50 parking spots, drawing strong community pushback.
A survey promoted by the Jewish Future Alliance found 90% opposition among respondents, mostly local families concerned about parking loss, traffic, and safety. Meanwhile, Community Board 9’s own survey suggested broader support but included many responses from outside the district and unverified participants, making its results unreliable. When considering only actual CB9 residents, 55% oppose the plan.
With safety concerns heightened by the Williamsburg incident, Crown Heights residents are increasingly wary of DOT’s bike lane proposal, raising questions about whether the city is truly addressing community needs in these dense neighborhoods.
As of now, CB9 has not announced a final decision regarding the bike lane proposal. Community meetings and feedback sessions have been ongoing, with residents encouraged to participate and voice their opinions. For the latest updates and to provide input, residents can visit the CB9 Board News page.
VIDEO
Feb, 25, 2025: CB 9 Board Member Benny Rosenberger swooped in to save the day and prevented the NYC DOT from getting the OK to create “protected bike lanes” in CB 9. Mr. Rosenberger made an amended motion to remove the protected bike lanes and replace them with shared bike lanes. Without the amendment, CB9 would have voted for protected bike lanes.
You can see the CB 9 Transportation Chair plotz as he listens to CB 9 Board Member Benny Rosenberger destroy NYC DOT’s plot for protected bike lanes in CB 9.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyoyEpqdoGQ&t=6255s –
1 hr, 44 min, 16 sec mark
Comment by:
Jay Sorid
“Double-parked” means there were two rows of parked cars. “Double-parking” is illegal. (The fact that it is tolerated in connection with alternate-side parking does not mean it is legal; it is just tolerated temporarily so that the street sweepers can pass through.)
The bike lane being there does not mean that the row of cars next to the bike lane was “double parked”: they were legally parked.
So there must have then been a car illegally “double-parked” in the street, one lane even farther from the curb than the row of legally-parked cars lined up next to the bike lane.
So the little girl was standing pretty far out in the street, behind an illegally-double-parked car.
So is it that the girl darted toward the curb b/c she was out in traffic and needed to go to the safety of the curb, and was hit by a speeding bike on her way to the curb?
If so, did anyone fault the bike-rider? My understanding is that pedestrians have the right of way, even when jaywalking, etc., crossing on a red light, etc.
If the police force were big enough to really enforce all the traffic laws more vigorously, bikes would eventally drive more responsibly.
To build so many bike lanes is premature, with no enforcement of driving laws for bikes.
Allocate more resources to punishing bikes going too fast or doing other forms of aggressive, dangerous riding! THEN we can talk about making more bike lanes, “protected” or not.
Jaywalking is legal in NYC.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/nyregion/jaywalking-legal-law-nyc.html
Double parking is necessary to drop off passengers.
Here is the NYC DOT Bike Lane Proposal was DISAPPROVED – https://www.nyc.gov/assets/brooklyncb9/downloads/pdf/2024/brooklyn-ave-kingston-ave-empire-blvd-winthrop-st-jun2024.pdf
(See page 19 for summary)
Here is the official Brooklyn CB 9 Board Resolution Disapproving NYC DOT Bike Lane Proposal –
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/brooklyncb9/downloads/pdf/2025/CB9ResolutionDOTKingstonBrooklynSchoolSafetyBikeLaneProject.pdf
Keep in mind many board members will follow the suggestion of the Board Chair (Fred Baptiste), who himself was pushing for the NYC DOT’s protected bike lanes. NYC DOT chose Brooklyn and Kingston because that’s where the bike lanes are North of Eastern Parkway. https://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/nyc-bike-map-2024.pdf
Besides being dangerous blind spots, the protected bike lanes would have REMOVED one of the two traffic lanes on Brooklyn Ave, starting on Empire, south, or down to Rutland. This would have unfortunately increased traffic and effect emergency response times.
Brooklyn & Kingston Ave North of the Middle of Empire Blvd is under jurisdiction of District 35 City Councilmember Crystal Hudson.
Brooklyn & Kingston Ave South of the Middle Of Empire Blvd is under jurisdiction of District 40, City Councilmember Rita Joseph.
If it wasn’t for CB 9 Board Member Benny Rosenberger’s amendment, the community would be at risk of experiencing the same problems WIlliamsburg is experiencing now, with increased pedestrian accidents, not to mention increased traffic times resulting from the removal of one of Brooklyn Ave’s two traffic lanes ( South of Empire down to Rutland).
Comment by:
Jay Sorid