Public Advocate Bill de Blasio on the topic of bike lanes & safe streets:
The need for safer streets for bikers, walkers, and drivers is one I feel in my core. For that reason, I fully support bike lanes and I want to see them continue to expand around the city. They are clearly making many NYC streets safer. But I think we need to take an approach different from the Mayor's.
While more and more communities and riders want bike lanes, the City still hasn't come around to proactively engaging those who are concerned by them. We need to increase our outreach and bring more residents and small businesses in to the discussion early so we can fine-tune designs and parking rules from the get-go. Just going to community boards is not enough. Proactive outreach seems to be the Bloomberg Administration's last resort. I think we need to make it uniform practice, and put it at the front end of every project.
