Our Neighborhood Deserves Answers: Help Us Challenge DOT’s McDonald
Avenue Bike Lane Proposal
My name is Troy Martin. I live on
McDonald Avenue in Windsor Terrace. My child was struck by an e-bike on the way
to school after a 53-foot truck turning onto Caton Avenue blocked the
intersection, allowing the e-bike rider to run the red light. This was not an
abstract traffic concern for my family. It was a frightening, personal
experience that made me painfully aware of the dangers of living along this
busy truck route.
We are asking our neighbors to help fund
a legal challenge to the NYC Department of Transportation’s proposed protected
bike lane on McDonald Avenue. We believe this project raises serious questions
about how DOT evaluates traffic, safety, and the impact of major roadway
changes on the surrounding community. Before construction moves forward, we
believe those questions deserve independent legal scrutiny.
We want to be clear about something from
the start: we are not anti-bike-lane. We support bike lanes and safer
streets. Our concern is whether McDonald Avenue is the right location for this
project, whether DOT has adequately evaluated the consequences, and whether the
agency has followed the required procedures.
A roadway network cannot be planned one street at a time
Our biggest concern is that DOT appears
to be treating the McDonald Avenue bike lane proposal separately from the
larger transportation network it will affect.
In 2023, the City Council passed Local
Law 171, requiring DOT to redesign New York City’s truck route network. The law
called for a review that included safety, congestion, existing freight
patterns, and other factors. DOT published its redesign report in November 2025
and implemented the revised network in October 2026. Read DOT’s report.
Yet we have not seen a clear explanation
of how the McDonald Avenue bike lane proposal was evaluated alongside that
truck-route redesign.
Consider the corridor running from the
Prospect Expressway and 10th Avenue through McDonald Avenue, Caton Avenue, and
toward Linden Boulevard. These streets are part of a connected transportation
network carrying cars, trucks, buses, and emergency vehicles. Changes to one
part of the corridor can affect the others.
How can DOT make a permanent change to
McDonald Avenue without clearly showing how that change fits into the broader
network?
Caton Avenue should be a warning, not an afterthought
In 2015, Caton Avenue was redesigned from
two traffic lanes in each direction to one in each direction, with additional
space for left turns and other safety improvements. Since then, residents and
community boards have continued to raise concerns about congestion, truck
traffic, and pedestrian safety in the area.
DOT’s own 2025 truck-route redesign
report identifies Caton Avenue, between Fort Hamilton Parkway and Bedford
Avenue, as a Truck Priority Safety Corridor. The report also identifies Caton
as a corridor requiring more in-depth analysis, outreach, and coordination. See the DOT report.
That raises an important question: What
has DOT learned from the experience on Caton Avenue, and how has that
experience informed the McDonald Avenue proposal?
We have not seen a public analysis that
adequately answers that question. Nor have we seen a clear explanation of how
the truck-route redesign and the McDonald Avenue project were evaluated
together.
We are not claiming that the two streets
are identical or that the same outcome is inevitable. We are asking DOT to
demonstrate that it has examined the relevant lessons and considered the
effects of the proposed change across the entire corridor.
What about the next decade of BQE construction?
There is another major issue that
deserves attention: the planned reconstruction of the BQE’s triple-cantilever
section in Brooklyn Heights.
The City’s current plans anticipate major
rehabilitation beginning in 2030 and continuing through the following decade. Read the City’s BQE Central project information.
Beginning in 2022, DOT used this part of
our neighborhood as a truck detour associated with BQE work. We are concerned
about what could happen when a much larger, long-term reconstruction begins.
Where is the analysis showing how the
proposed McDonald Avenue configuration will perform under those future
conditions? Have the potential effects on Caton Avenue, Church Avenue, and
Linden Boulevard been considered together?
A roadway decision that will affect our
neighborhood for years should not be evaluated solely on a snapshot of current
traffic. It should account for major, foreseeable changes to the transportation
network.
Questions about the traffic data
We are also concerned about the traffic
data used to support the feasibility of the McDonald Avenue proposal.
The DOT presentation we reviewed appears
to rely on traffic data from July 2026. See DOT’s project presentation. July is a
particularly important condition to examine because schools are out and many
residents are on vacation. We believe DOT should clearly explain the source,
date, and relevance of the data and demonstrate how well it represents typical
traffic conditions during the school year.
How can residents evaluate the
proposed changes without a clear explanation of the data and assumptions used
to support them?
Why are we raising money for a lawsuit?
We have consulted attorney Hartley
Bernstein about potential legal options. Mr. Bernstein has brought multiple
legal challenges involving DOT bike-lane projects and
has been able to stop or delay bike lanes in Manhattan and Queens. Mr. Bernstein’s successes in delaying bike lane
installations could give us exactly what we need now. We understand that
courts have generally recognized DOT’s broad authority over city streets, and
that success in these cases is not guaranteed. One reason we are interested in
his experience is that his successful Astoria Boulevard challenge involved procedural issues—an approach that makes
the question of DOT’s process particularly relevant to our concerns.
If the attorney determines that there are
sufficient grounds, we also want to explore seeking temporary relief to prevent
construction from moving forward while the case is considered.
No lawsuit can guarantee a particular
result. But we believe our community deserves the opportunity to have these
questions examined independently before a permanent change is made to our
neighborhood streets.
Please help us reach our $17,000 goal
We are seeking pledges toward a $17,000
legal fund to cover the cost of retaining an attorney. We currently have
almost $8,000 pledged, so we still have a significant gap to close.
The timing matters. The full Community
Board 7 is scheduled to vote on the proposal on Wednesday, October 21, and DOT
has indicated that it expects installation to begin shortly afterward. A
Community Board vote against the proposal would not, by itself, prevent the
City from proceeding.
Our goal is to raise enough money to
retain counsel to assess our legal options promptly and, if appropriate, pursue
a challenge and seek temporary relief before construction moves forward.
Under our fundraising terms, pledged
funds will be collected only if the full $17,000 goal is reached. If we do not
reach that goal, pledges will not be collected.
We know that taking on a city agency is
daunting, and we cannot promise a particular outcome. But we believe the
questions surrounding this project are serious enough to warrant independent
legal review.
We are a small community. We cannot
match the resources of a city agency, but together we can fund a serious
examination of whether the process behind this decision deserves to be
challenged.
This effort is about more than one bike
lane. It is about asking our city agencies to show their work, consider the
full consequences of their decisions, and listen meaningfully to the
communities those decisions affect.
We want safer streets. We want
responsible transportation planning. And we want a process in which residents
can understand how decisions are made and have confidence that important
questions have been answered.
If you share these concerns, please
consider making a pledge to help fund this legal effort. Your contribution can
help us obtain independent legal review and seek answers before a permanent
change is made to our neighborhood streets.
Please join us in asking DOT to show
us the data, explain its analysis, and demonstrate that it has considered the
whole transportation network—not just one segment of one street.
Pledge and share here: fundrazr.com/42npqa
Thank you for standing with your
neighbors.
Troy Martin
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