Myrtle Bike ‘Lane’: Are You Kidding Me?
If you have ever ridden your bike down Myrtle in Bushwick, you know you are risking your life. I routinely avoid riding on Myrtle, which is a significant handicap given that it’s a perfect shortcut across Bushwick’s pretty rigid grid. The street is simply too narrow to accommodate two directions of traffic, two lanes of parking, and bicyclists. So when I walked by a city bike map one day in Union Square, I was pleasantly surprised to see Myrtle Avenue, as well as Central and Evergreen, slated to get bike lanes. But then, remembering how narrow Myrtle is, I wondered where the lane would go. Will they remove a lane of parking? How will that work in both directions?
Well, here’s your answer: you get to brave the psycho Brooklyn traffic like you always did, but now you get the pretty bike lane symbol as a decoration. Don’t gaze too long — you might get blindsided by a Civic. If this is the permanent “solution,” I wish they had saved the road paint and man hours for painting crosswalks at Bogart and Flushing…
April 18th, 2008 at 11:47 am
whoa. they should change the pictogram to a depiction of a cyclist smooshed flat on the pavement. they should create a bike lane on the elevated track.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I was just on Myrtle yesterday, driving back from the Forest Hills golf course. I almost killed the SAME biker about 5 times. Myrtle bike lane? whadda joke.
It’s already one of the scariest games of ‘live Frogger’ known to man. Buses, giant delivery trucks, double parking. Throw in a bike with or w/out a bike lane and good luck.
April 18th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
That intersection of Myrtle, DeKalb and Central is already crazy with two 2 lane streets, steel colums for the elevated and all those buses. Throw in a bike lane and is a survival game
April 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
evergreen and central bike lanes are already in place. up to where they meet myrtle at least. but yeah, biking on myrtle is a deathtrap.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
It’s a suicide rap.
April 18th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
i submit that central ave, even with bike lane, is also a death trap!
April 18th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
really? i’ve always felt ok on central. although i will say on both central and evergreen every third car for some reason drives all the way to the left in the bike lane, leaving a strip equal to the bike lane to their right. they will proceed to pull around me and back into the bike lane when they come across me. odd phenomenon.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Driving back from the golf course…? Hey, wait a minute! Is this the same Matt who was tellin’ me that he’s not a yuppie?
I got your number now, pal!
April 19th, 2008 at 9:41 am
We gotta get out while we’re young.