Mayor Adams, Don't Turn Your Back On BK's Bike Boulevard: Advocates

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, NY — Prospect Heights locals say City Hall is rolling back plans to build a permanent bike boulevard on Underhill Avenue, but City Hall says the wheel will keep on spinning.

Concerns about the future of a planned bike boulevard on Underhill Avenue are linked to a petition — that had received 1,873 signatories as of Wednesday — that urges Mayor Eric Adams to commit to the plan.

The Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council confirmed that when its members asked why work had been halted, Adams replied the project was "pending review."

"Mayor Adams confirmed to PHNDC that his office is reviewing the project based on opposition complaints," a spokesperson for the community group said in a news release.

The Mayor's office refuted this assessment in a statement sent to Patch.

"Implementation is ongoing for the Underhill redesign," a spokesperson said.

But Transportation Alternatives and the community group remain concerned a "vocal but limited opposition" may stall a development to boost traffic safety between Pacific Street and Eastern Parkway, which crosses an area long known for dangerous roads.

The bike boulevard has faced pushback from organized locals who say Underhill and Vanderbilt avenues' closures have pushed traffic to surrounding streets, affected local business and strained disabled and older residents.

A PHNDC representative underscored the bike boulevard has significant local support, pointing to a 2021 Transportation department survey that found 86 percent of nearly 1,500 locals queried would like Prospect Heights' Open Streets corridors to permanently prioritize pedestrians and cyclists.

“Our programs on Underhill and Vanderbilt Avenues have proven extraordinarily popular, but they require commitments from neighborhood businesses and a large volunteer effort to operate," said PHNDC Chair Gib Vecconi.

"They can’t continue if the administration curtails them based on limited opposition. There is simply no substitute for the public support of our elected officials.”

If implemented as planned, changes to Underhill Avenue include traffic calming mechanisms like curb extensions, mid-block medians, traffic calming near P.S. 9, bike parking and planters and bike lanes.

Underhill will become a one-way road for vehicular traffic between Bergen Street and Marks Avenue as well as Park and Prospect Places, according to a Transportation department presentation from May.

On the one-way roads, cyclists will have parking-protected bike lanes to travel against traffic. A Streetsblog analysis details what work has already been done on Underhill.

Underhill was initially a partial Open Street, converted to more permanent solutions to mitigate traffic hazards. A pedestrian plaza opened between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street in January.

The year before the Open Street started, Underhill saw 15 injurious crashes on the bike boulevard and pedestrian plaza's stretch.

The stretch saw eight in 2022 and only five this year so far, according to NYC Crash Mapper.

And advocates worry Underhill is just another in a line of projects abandoned by the administration — including McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint.

The Transportation Alternatives and PHNDC petition pleads with Adams to consider these safety benefits and greenlight construction as soon as possible.

“We enthusiastically support NYC DOT's plans for the Underhill Avenue Bike Boulevard, Underhill Plaza and the Vanderbilt Avenue Open Street—public space initiatives that increase safety, and provide economic, environmental and health benefits,” the petition reads.