City Councilmember Julie Won slams delayed transformation of Queensboro Bridge pathway
NEW YORK - Since Sam Toufani moved to Long Island City from Australia two years ago, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge has been his link to Manhattan. But he says getting across without a car isn't so easy.
"It's a little scary," he said.
Pedestrians and cyclists share a pathway that's often crowded. He says it's made worse by speeding motorbikes.
Locals have been fighting for years for a safer way to cross without a car. That's why the city announced plans to transform the bridge's south outer roadway into exclusive space for pedestrians by 2022. That deadline has since been pushed back four times, now to the middle of 2024.
"Year after year, we're seeing the Department of Transportation drag their feet," District 25 City Councilmember Julie Won said.
She says the pathway is too narrow to meet federal guidelines.
"We've had multiple pedestrian injuries," she said. "I am a 5-foot-4, 130-pound woman, and the bike lane and the pedestrian pathway each are about the size of my shoulders."
Some drivers oppose the redesign, worrying it could worsen traffic on an already-clogged bridge.
Council member Won says most of her constituents don't have cars.
"Right now, we have a city where a majority are working class," she said. "Their life is being put at risk for the convenience of people in vehicles."
In a statement, the Department of Transportation said in part, "DOT remains committed to expanding cycling and pedestrian space" but that the project can't begin until repairs finish on the upper deck of a bridge that's more than a century old.
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