LIC Resident Is Sixth New Yorker Killed while Biking on NYC Streets in 2019

Statement of Transportation Alternatives' Senior Director of Advocacy Tom DeVito in response to a crash in which 53-year-old Long Island City resident Robert Spencer was killed while biking along Borden Avenue, just blocks from his home:

“Borden Avenue connects the southern end of the Long Island City waterfront with the Vernon Boulevard business district and the Pulaski Bridge. The block where this crash occurred is the weak link in an otherwise protected bike lane network along Center Boulevard and 2nd Street.

Not satisfied with the “sharrows” in the New York City Department of Transportation’s current design, residents of a nearby building lobbied their local community board for protected bike lanes along Borden Avenue, but the community board refused to consider their request. The street should be redesigned without delay.

Even so, a piecemeal approach to redesigning known dangerous streets is no way to achieve Vision Zero. That’s why we’re calling on the City Council to take up the bill which would establish a “Vision Zero Street Design Standard,” a protocol designed to ensure that proven safety improvements on our streets are made as a matter of course with every redesign and not held up due to petty politics. The Vision Zero Street Design Standard bill has been debated for over a year and a half and, with 44 co-sponsors, has overwhelming support. There is no reason this shouldn’t be law already.

We’re on pace to see three times as many people killed while biking in 2019 than the total killed in 2018. We shouldn’t wait for people to die to fix our streets. Council Speaker Johnson and Mayor de Blasio must make passing the Vision Zero Street Design Standard legislation a top priority.”