By Phoebe Neidl
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

WILLIAMSBURG — Bikers will benefit from an “enhanced� bike path and residents will regain up to 200 parking spaces on the much-disputed roadway of Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, it was announced at a Community Board 1 Transportation Committee meeting Wednesday night.

A street configuration imposed by the Department of Transportation last fall touched off a storm of protests from residents and businesses along Kent Avenue who could no longer park or offload deliveries when a new two-way bike lane was accompanied by the removal of curbside parking along a 20-block stretch of the waterfront street.

Residents went so far as to post their own “Detour� sign as well as to hold press conferences, led by City Council candidate Isaac Abraham, denouncing the new street configuration for making the increasingly residential area unsafe and inconvenient. Bicyclists were not to be outdone, showing up in large numbers at community meetings to defend their own right to safe passage along the city’s streets. And in December, a group of colorfully clad “bicycle clowns� patrolled the Kent Avenue bike lanes to make sure they were being respected by drivers.

As the controversy further commanded the attention of elected officials and the community board, pressure built for the Department of Transportation to go back to the drawing board. When they did, they also found that the lack of parked cars had in fact increased vehicular speeding along the street. “People were treating it like a highway,� said CB1 Transportation Chair Teresa Toro.

As early as this July, a new street plan will go into effect, announced the DOT’s Alan Ma on Wednesday. Kent Avenue will go from a two-way street to a one-way, northbound street for vehicle traffic, while a two-way bike path will be maintained and moved to the west side of the street with a buffer zone and “floating� parking lane between the bike path and moving traffic. The east side of the street will have a loading lane for businesses. The parking lane will potentially provide 200 more parking spaces.

The new plan seems to have addressed the concerns of the stakeholders in Kent Avenue. Leo Moskowitz, a resident of the street who opposed the no-parking restrictions, called the new plan a “win-win� for bikers, businesses and residents.

“We like this plan. From a bike point of view, it’s potentially safer,� said Wiley Norvell, spokesperson for the cycling advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “It’s one of the most innovative bike lanes we’ve seen. We like the complexity. Our streets should be multi-purpose and multi-use.�

Keep on Trucking?

However, other nearby residents were angry about the southbound truck traffic diversion built into the plan. The new route will bring trucks over North 14th Street to Wythe Avenue and down Wythe to North 11th, which is also an increasingly residential area that residents say already suffers from a lot of truck traffic.

“Right now we have a situation on Kent that’s not working. This is the only plan we feel we can go forward with,� said David Woloch of the DOT. “There are costs. There is not a perfect plan that can satisfy everybody, but we think this is the plan that can satisfy the most people right now,� he added.

Rami Metal, community liaison for Councilman David Yassky, said, “We’re pleased that the DOT is accommodating the businesses on Kent Ave, but we’re hopeful to continue working with the DOT on truck traffic on Wythe.�

Norvell also commented that “if there is something that merits vigilance [in the plan], it’s the truck diversion.�

This new plan also includes better access to the Kent Avenue bike lane from the south with lanes along Flushing Avenue and Williamsburg Street West that will connect Bedford Street to Kent.

The new bike path represents a closer approximation to the proposed Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, a 14-mile stretch of protected bicycle path that will connect Greenpoint to Sunset Park. The Kent Avenue bike lane holds the footprint to a portion of the Greenway, which is why the lane is so important to bicycle advocates. “What’s going on now is a placeholder for that vision,� says Norvell.

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