It’s a sight all too familiar for New York City cyclists: drivers blocking bike lanes.
In November 2016, the city’s 311 complaint hotline added a category (it’s under “illegal parking”) allowing cyclists to complain about such offenses. Localize.city, a website that provides insights for every New York City address, found there were eight hot spots for bike lane complaints over the past 12 months.
Localize.city’s data science team analyzed 311 complaints from Sept. 4, 2017 to Sept. 4, 2018. To qualify as a hot spot, an area must have had at least 25 complaints within an 82-foot radius.
Cyclists filed 4,230 complaints about blocked bike lanes over the past year. It represented 1.4 percent of all parking complaints.
“This is a relatively new 311 category, and some cyclists may not even be aware that they can file such complaints. Many are likely unable to call, text or email when they are pedaling,” said Localize.city data scientist Michal Eisenberg. “But there are still some areas with a critical mass of complaints where cyclists are feeling especially frustrated when drivers block their lanes, potentially causing them to swerve into dangerous traffic.”
Here are the hot spots:
- Long Island City
Vernon Boulevard and 44th Drive: 72
+ Vernon Boulevard and 45th Road: 40
Total: 112
- Bay Ridge
Around 220 and 221 72nd Street: 94
- Downtown Brooklyn
Smith Street and Fulton Street: 38
- Downtown Brooklyn
Jay Street and Chapel Street: 36
- Astoria
Vernon Boulevard, between 34th and 35th avenues: 31
- Battery Park City
Between 65 to 69 West Street: 30
- Crown Heights
900 Bergen Street: 30
- Prospect-Lefferts Gardens
Around 115 and 122 Lincoln Road: 28
