To Bike Lane or Not To Bike Lane: A ride down Merrick Blvd.

To Bike Lane Or Not To Bike Lane: A Ride Down Merrick Blvd.

Equisha Glenn

October 21, 2013

Merrick Blvd., Queens

            In the far eastern parts of Queens, taking public transportation is quite the task. Most of the residents do not live near train stations and rely heavily on buses to take them to the main transit hub – Jamaica Center. I also happen to be a resident of this part of Queens, living in Rosedale near the border of Valley Stream (Long Island), and I am very familiar with this travel process.

For the past several years I have been attending the City College of New York (CCNY), located in Harlem, and to reach the campus via public transportation would take me approximately 2 ½ hours from my doorstep. The trip required me to take a bus and two trains and was further complicated by inclement weather and late night train schedules, which created inconvenient detours and increased my travel time. I was so fed up with the long commute that I decided to buy a car! Recently, there have been many people in favor of adding bikes lanes and bike services (such as Citi Bike) as a sustainable transportation option for day-to-day commutes. However, I have noticed that Queens doesn’t have a lot of designated bike lanes although I think a lot of the existing roads have the potential to support bike lane additions, especially Merrick Blvd.

To get a sense of whether or not Merrick Blvd. would be suitable for bike lane additions I travelled along the route (via car of course!), which extends from the Belt Parkway to Hillside Avenue. During early morning hours (8am – 10am), I observed road conditions, the volume of people taking buses, vehicle traffic, and the amount of people who actually rode their bikes on this route.

                                          Merrick Blvd. 4.3 miles long

The roads along the route are in good condition. Because I live in this area I know that Merrick Blvd. is repaved relatively often and the ride along the route was mostly “smooth” with not many potholes. The roads are very wide and the sidewalks are also wide along a majority of the route.  

                                                   Merrick Blvd. view from inside my car

Merrick Blvd is a major conduit for travel, which is crowded with buses and automobile traffic during rush hours. Otherwise, the streets are not very busy. Many other major streets that run through this part of Queens connect to Merrick Blvd, and many people ride buses along those routes primarily to reach Jamaica Center. Unfortunately for some, the buses were too crowded to pick passengers up at times and people would have to wait for the next bus hoping to get on.

                                                      Bus traveling from Jamaica Center

Regarding safety, the roads are in good condition, as mentioned earlier, but without bike lanes present people have to ride in the lanes amongst the other vehicle traffic. I only observed 2 people brave enough to ride their bikes along this route, and neither rider wore a helmet. The riders were dangerously close to vehicles. I wondered if people were reluctant to ride bikes on Merrick because it is so dangerous. However, I actually asked some people would they ride their bikes if there were designated bikes lanes. Interestingly, people were actually more concerned about their bikes being stolen versus getting hit by a vehicle! I was very surprised that several people responded this way and this poses some other questions that can be explored perhaps in another forum.

In summary, I think it would be worth exploring the option of adding bike lanes (I can’t believe I’m saying this although I drive). There are a lot of business, stores, places of worship, service facilities (ex. doctor’s offices), and shops along this route. For the most part, people would be able to travel to these locations faster since bus service can be can be time consuming, especially on weekends. In regard to my observations during rush hours, there is the potential for people to ride their bikes to Jamaica Center. Many people seem to live close enough to ride their bikes to buses and Jamaica Center and this could help relieve overcrowded buses and reduce vehicle traffic. I actually would consider this option if were available.