Verrazano Bridge bike path not a new idea, advocates say
A new online petition aimed at getting the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to install a bicycle path on the currently car-only Verrazano Narrows Bridge appears to have been generated by a transportation advocacy group outside of Bay Ridge, the Brooklyn community closest to the span, according to activists there.
But Bay Ridgeites who have worked for years to get a bike path on the bridge said they are pleased to see the new effort and are not concerned about the possibility of someone else stealing their thunder.
“I commend and congratulate anyone interested in getting involved with and resurrecting this cause and I welcome them to the fight,” said Justin Brannan, communications director for Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst).
Brannan said his boss has been involved in the effort to get a bike path for 15 years. “Councilman Vincent Gentile was among a group of elected officials in the late 1990s who tried to persuade the MTA to build a dedicated bike/pedestrian path on the Verrazano. While the community was supportive of the idea, we were met with resistance from the powers that be, who among other things, pointed to the high cost of creating such a passageway,” he told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.