Queens residents and business owners are fighting a city plan to plop bike lanes onto 31st Street in Astoria, calling it a \u201crecipe for disaster\u201d that will crush commerce and threaten safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The city Department of Transportation is proposing to narrow parking lanes from 13 to 8 feet and traffic lanes from 14 feet to 11, and move the parking lanes away from the curb, to make way for bike paths between 36th and Newton avenues.<\/p>\n
While the proposal has the full-throated support of car-hating, socialist lawmakers like Councilwoman Tiffany Cab\u00e1n, Assemblywoman Jessica Gonz\u00e1lez-Rojas and state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, merchants told The Post the blueprint would make it nearly impossible for trucks to reach businesses.<\/p>\n
Pilates Designs, a pilates equipment manufacturer on 31st Street since 1984, would be forced to shutter its doors if the plan goes through, said Panos Adamopoulos, who owns the business with his wife Sylvia Fuster. Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be forced to shut down because we will not be able to load and unload the materials and products,\u201d said Panos Adamopoulos, who owns Pilates Designs, a pilates equipment manufacturer on 31st Street since 1984, with his wife Sylvia Fuster. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s asphyxiation,\u201d he said, adding that his 16 employees\u2019 jobs are on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even if a driver finds a parking space \u2013 not easy with steel columns of the overhead N\/W subway line in the way \u2014 they\u2019d have to cross an eight-foot bike lane and a three-foot buffer zone to get to the sidewalk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
King Souvlaki, a food truck operating at 31st Street and 31st Avenue since 1979, would be forced to hit the road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would be no other space on that intersection for us,\u201d said owner Lampros Tsampas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people have said, \u2018You can just park in the floating parking area and serve into the bike lane,\u2019 but that\u2019s not safe at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The DOT is proposing to narrow parking lanes and traffic lanes, move the parking lanes away from the curb and add bike paths on 31st Street between 36th and Newton avenues. DOT<\/p>\n
The DOT said the redesign aims to improve safety, as 126 vehicle occupants, 33 pedestrians and 24 bikers were injured \u2014 and two vehicle occupants killed \u2014 along the mile-long stretch between 2020 and 2024 \u2014 making it \u201cone of the most dangerous streets in Queens,\u201d according to a department spokesperson.<\/p>\n
Astoria native Joseph Mirabella said the new road configuration would be a nightmare for his 90-year-old amputee grandmother.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting her in and out of the car and her wheelchair and having her cross these bike lanes is a huge safety concern,\u201d said Mirabella, 25.\u00a0 \u201cThe DOT is calling this a safety and accessibility improvement plan \u2013 and that\u2019s preposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n
The redesign would force out King Souvlaki, a food truck operating on 31st Street since 1979, said owner Lampros Tsampas Helayne Seidman<\/p>\n
The proposed bicycle lanes would also interfere with the current pick-up and drop-off zones for pre-school- to high school-aged students enrolled in St. Demetrios School near 31st Street and 30th Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The school was among 50 businesses and institutions that signed onto a June 3 letter to DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodr\u00edguez begging him to reconsider the scheme \u2014 which could be implemented as soon as this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple instances of children being struck by heedless bicycle traffic have been documented across the city . . . until this problem is adequately addressed citywide, we cannot be expected to absorb the consequences,\u201d reads one section of the seven-page letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Astoria residents decried the new road configuration as a \u201crecipe for disaster.\u201d\u00a0 DOT<\/p>\n