NYC paves infamous bike path bump at foot of Williamsburg Bridge
A small bump on the bike path at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan—notorious for sending cyclists flying over their handlebars—has finally been fixed. On Tuesday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) paved over the hazard on Delancey Street, which had forced riders to slam on their brakes and risk crashes. The effort joins other transit-related improvements Mamdani has overseen during his first week in office, including the restoration of the full “road-diet” plan for McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint, which features expanded protected bike lanes.
Mamdani, who said he’s experienced the hazardous bump himself, laid the last shovelful of gravel to mark the job’s completion, and said that during the early days of his administration has been focused on tackling “low-hanging fruit.”
“We realized that in fact this is something that need not wait for us to have the additional conversations about larger streetscape changes right here and across the city,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This is something that we can do immediately, so that’s what we’ve done.”
Not all cyclists have welcomed the change, however; some daredevils expressed regret at the loss of the bump, which gave them a chance to catch some air while riding fast
“ I love it. I think it’s great fun, I’m a big fan of the bump,” Marcus Hogan, a 27-year-old cyclist from Bushwick, told Gothamist. “ You get some pretty nasty air either coming in and going out. That’s pretty fun.”
Although the bump has been removed, cyclists continue to raise concerns about the narrow passage from the bridge onto Delancey Street, which accommodates only one bike at a time and heightens the risk of collisions.
While the initiative is a minor fix in the bigger picture, newly-appointed DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn told Gothamist that Delancey Street will soon undergo a $70 million renovation. The project will include expanded pedestrian space and a “rational bike route,” providing a continuous cycling connection down to the Bowery.
The project builds on a nearly $21 million federal grant awarded to the city three years ago for Delancey’s redesign, which included reducing the number of vehicle lanes, Gothamist reported.
Though the DOT still plans to carry out the broader redesign, Mamdani said his administration treated the bump as an issue that could be addressed immediately, easing the anxiety of the roughly 8,600 cyclists who cross the bridge daily.
“They are tired of biking across this bridge with anxiety as to what will happen right at the end of it,” Mamdani said. “They’re tired of the drop beneath their feet.”
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