Community Corner

Close Call Involving Cyclist Revives Bike Lane Debate

Incident at Lafayette and Vanderbilt avenues Tuesday brings up questions of safety.

According to bystanders, the accident in Fort Greene on Tuesday evening involved a car travelling at a high rate of speed northbound on Vanderbilt Avenue narrowly missing a bicyclist at Lafayette and outside Queens of All Saints church.

Luckily, no injuries were reported. However, the close call revived a debate over the lack of a dedicated bike lane on two of Fort Greene-Clinton Hill's busiest thoroughfares for cyclists.

"Everyone who regularly rides down Lafayette knows that it's one of the most dangerous streets out there," said Jon Pastor, general manager of on Lafayette and S. Elliott Place in Fort Greene.

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Earlier this year, Community Board 2 recommended against , noting that a dedicated bike lane was already in place on Willoughby Avenue—two blocks to the north of the site of Tuesday's near-miss collision.

"The board's position was that we don't need a bike lane of every single street," said a source with knowledge of the reasoning behind the board's decision.

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Caroline Samponaro, director of bicycle advocacy at Transportation Alternatives, said a revived petition drive to install a bike lane on Lafayette wasn't in the works. However, the city Department of Transportation, which originally called for the right-of-way to be installed, left open the possibility of reopening the issue.

For some bicyclists, the lack of a dedicated lane on either Vanderbilt or Lafayette meant that a serious accident like the one befalling 30-year-old Mathieu Lefevre last week on Morgan Avenue and Meserole Street in Bushwick was only a matter of luck, or perhaps time.

Lefevre, a member of Brooklyn art collective 3rd Ward originally from Alberta, Canada, was killed just after midnight on Oct. 19 when a truck turning right onto Meserole Street stuck him. Though the driver failed to stop at the scene, he was cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation by police.

"It's sh@# what happened to him," said Bespoke employee Matt Flammer, who lives in Bushwick. "The driver probably thought he hit a traffic cone or something when it was really someone's head."


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