Lawsuit seeks to block Mayor Adams from removing barriers in Bedford Avenue bike lane

Transportation advocates filed a lawsuit Tuesday that aims to stop Mayor Eric Adams from removing protective barriers for cyclists on a highly contested stretch of Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

Since last year, the lane between Willoughby and Flushing Avenues has been protected by parked cars. But after a rush of complaints by local residents, Adams last week announced the transportation department would quickly restore the “unprotected” bike lane design that had previously been in place.

The lawsuit, filed by the group Transportation Alternatives, called for a judge to prevent the city from moving ahead with the change until the case is decided. The work to move the bike lane is scheduled to be completed by the end of the month, according to city officials.

The legal battle is the latest in a yearslong saga between members of South Williamsburg's Hasidic community and cyclists. The unprotected bike lane was first installed on Bedford Avenue under then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2007.

Locals successfully advocated for the removal of a section of the bike lane in South Williamsburg two years later. Complaints about traffic on Bedford Avenue from Bedford-Stuyvesant into South Williamsburg persisted. Last year, the Adams administration cited high crash rates along that stretch when they announced the redesigned lane, which rearranged parking so that cyclists were protected from traffic.

“The Bedford Avenue safety project was put in place after years of danger and death, and it has worked. This is unwarranted, unlawful, reckless, and we are suing,” Transportation Alternatives' Executive Director Ben Furnas wrote in a statement. “It’s illegal for the mayor to unilaterally decide to rip up safety improvements, in contravention of the city’s own safety data. No design is without room for some improvement, but removing this safety project leaves Brooklyn families less safe."

Adams raised concerns over the street design last month after a 3-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl was struck by an e-bike rider in the bike lane. A video of the crash shows the girl was exiting a double-parked car with her father, and walked in between two parked cars into the e-bike rider's path. Adams said he aimed to respond to concerns from the community.

City Hall spokesperson Sophia Askari said the transportation department will convert the bike lane back to its previous design while maintaining “the pedestrian islands/daylighting currently installed at the intersections.”

“At intersections, the bike lane will remain as it is now, running between the curb and the pedestrian islands, which can help slow vehicles, improve visibility, reduce pedestrian crossing times, and protect cyclists,” Askari said in a statement.

The previous design, according to the Transportation Alternatives complaint, “was not safe or effective and safety of all road users has improved since the upgraded design was installed.”

In 2023, transportation department officials presented the protected bike lane design to members of the community, describing conditions on Bedford Avenue as unsafe because of “frequent double-parking in the buffered bike lane,” “high number of bicyclists killed or seriously injured” and a “lack of any protected bike lanes.”

The lawsuit argues the city failed to conduct any necessary traffic or impact analysis on the removal of the protected bike lane and ignored “legitimate concerns” of neighborhood residents who use the lane.

Baruch Herzfeld, a Crown Heights resident who joined the lawsuit, said in an interview that he loves the neighborhood and wants to see a proposal that keeps everyone safe, including cyclists.

“The tension is that [the bike lane] is new and that a lot of people are used to using their cars and they have large families,” Herzfeld said. “And the large families are just learning about the bike lanes, so behaviors have to adjust.”

Herzfeld said he wants the city to impose congestion pricing tolls in South Williamsburg during school hours to prevent children from getting into traffic collisions.

He also suggested that the Hasidic neighborhoods Bedford Avenue runs through, including South Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, should close down streets for pedestrians on Saturdays during Shabbat.