Javier De León just had a flat tire on his bicycle on the way to his girlfriend’s house. Javier says that this is not the first time this has happened because the Sunset Park bike lanes are neglected.
“I almost broke my hand because I entered a hole and I did not realize it and I crashed my bike … there are holes in the ‘bike Line’, and very bad because I can crash there,” said De León.
And the fact is that despite the fact that the city created exclusive routes for bicycles, some are in poor condition. And others, like the one on Fourth Avenue, are blocked by a construction of the ‘subway’. But also because restaurants and cars don’t respect them, as Daniel Perez, who repairs between 20 and 40 bicycle tires a day, explains to us.
“We have a bicycle line as you can see it, but unfortunately it is not respected … Not so much because it is in bad condition but because there is too much glass. Look at a clear example. There is glass everywhere,” said Pérez.
And is that some complain that not only is the asphalt in poor condition in neighborhoods like Sunset Park, but that in avenues like the third there is not even an exclusive space for bicycles despite the deaths that have existed in past years.
Citibike.
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“Third Avenue is a very dangerous corridor, we have asked the mayor, our councilor, our congressman to take emergency action, to take action,” said Rodrigo Camarena, pre-candidate for Sunset Park councilor.
In fact, while this Tuesday the mayor got on a citibike bike, in Sunset Park they already collected more than 1,200 signatures from neighbors because they think that the city did not take enough into account the community to plan where and how to place them. In places like Fifth Avenue, where clearly riding a bike is dangerous.
“Adding a citi bike station increases congestion and the problem on this avenue, for me the investment of these stations has to come with investments in public infrastructure,” added Camarena.
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