Protected bike lane coming to Adams Street near Brooklyn Bridge to curb illegal parking
Illegal parking in the existing painted bike lane. All images courtesy of NYC DOT
A planned protected bike lane linking Downtown Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Bridge aims to close a gap in the borough’s cycling network while curbing a hotspot for illegal parking. Detailed by the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) earlier this month in a presentation to Brooklyn Community Board 2, the project would install a two-way protected bike lane along Adams Street and Boerum Place, extending existing protections that currently end at Adams and Johnson Streets and creating a continuous connection to the Brooklyn Bridge. The redesign would also deter illegal parking in the existing painted bike lane, where cyclists are regularly forced into traffic to get around vehicles.
The project will be built in two phases: a protected bike lane north of Atlantic Avenue this fall following roadway resurfacing, while a smaller southern segment is planned for 2027 after two nearby residential construction projects are completed, Hayes Lord, a senior transportation manager in DOT’s Cycling & Micromobility Unit, told Brooklyn CB2.
On Adams Street between Fulton and Johnson Streets, the DOT will extend the existing Brooklyn Bridge path south to Atlantic Avenue along the east side of the landscaped median. It will also add a 10-foot-wide, two-way protected bike lane along the median, maintaining two travel lanes, with no loss of legal parking while restricting illegal parking.
The two-way protected bike lane would continue along Boerum Place from Fulton to Schermerhorn Streets. One northbound travel lane would be removed, but the number of legal parking spots would remain unchanged.
At Schermerhorn Street, the two-way protected bike lane would transition to the western curb, improving cyclist alignment for the connection south to the planned Dean and Bergen Streets bike boulevards and promoting safer interactions between cyclists and turning vehicles at Atlantic Street.
Two parking spaces will be lost for daylighting and improved sightlines, and the consolidation of the southbound travel lane is required to accommodate the new roadway design.
The two-way protected bike lane would continue along the west curb on Boerum Place between Atlantic Avenue and Bergen Street, requiring the removal of 24 parking spaces. The agency said 12 of those spaces have already been removed for construction. The segment is scheduled to be installed in 2027.
Overall, the project would improve cycling access to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges by connecting directly to Dean and Bergen Streets and providing a second route to Jay Street. Consolidating cyclists into a two-way protected lane would improve safety for all roadway users, while jersey barriers would prevent double parking.
Council Member Lincoln Restler told Streetsblog he has been urging the DOT to advance a project like this for the past four years. Cycling over the Brooklyn Bridge has nearly tripled since a protected bike lane was installed on the crossing in 2021, according to Gothamist.
The segment of Adams Street set for redesign sits in front of the Kings County Courthouse, where dozens of vehicles are often illegally parked in the bike lane as drivers come and go from the building.
Restler’s office conducted a 2025 study that found an average of 500 illegally parked cars daily in Downtown Brooklyn, with the stretch of Adams Street ranking highest.
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