It was a "no brainer" to install a bike lane on dangerous Queens Blvd. despite community board opposition, Mayor de Blasio said Friday.
"It was called the Boulevard of Death for years, and there's a reason — because it was absolutely handled the wrong way. It was constructed the wrong way," de Blasio said on the Brian Lehrer show, referring to the nickname the street got because of the high numbers of pedestrians killed there.
"A protected bike lane along Queens Blvd. is a no brainer. We have to make it the Boulevard of Life. We are not going to go backwards."
The boulevard is set for a major revamp under de Blasio's Vision Zero push to cut traffic deaths, but the neighborhood's Community Board 4 voted for a plan that stripped the bike lane out of the design.
The city will build it anyway, de Blasio announced this week. The community board vote is advisory, not legally binding.
"I do care deeply what community boards think, and we listen. I'm concerned about how that meeting was handled. I'm not sure the members of the board were given fair opportunities to weigh the issues at hand," de Blasio said in the radio appearance.
At the session Tuesday night, the board's chair put up a proposal that didn't include the bike lane, which was then overwhelmingly approved.
The mayor said the bike lane is too important to be left out.
"Community boards have an advisory role to play. They get their input. We try and listen to it carefully. But when it comes to safety, the most important thing is the safety of our people," de Blasio said. "We have lost people, we have lost bicyclists on Queens Blvd. We're not going to allow it to happen anymore. And everyone's got to slow down."
Projects under the Vision Zero initiative have generated controversy in neighborhoods around the city, with some residents opposing them even as street safety advocates complain the city is too timid in bowing to such resistance.
"Part of the conflict here is that this is a culture change. This is drivers understanding that things are changing in this city. They have got to change their ways and their habits," de Blasio said. "Most New Yorkers and most drivers have embraced Vision Zero with a lot of enthusiasm and understand that it's about protecting seniors and children. But some folks keep resisting."