By COLE SINANIAN | news@queensledger.com

It looks like Astoria’s proposed 31st St bike lane still has a future after all. 

Construction of the controversial protected bike lane along the notoriously dangerous and congested stretch of 31st St. between Newtown and 36th avenues stopped in December after local business owners sued. But at Community Board 1’s full board hearing last Tuesday, Astoria City councilmember and bike lane-supporter Tiffany Cabán confirmed that the killed project could still materialize. 

“This would have been one of the quickest, easiest bike lane constructions, because it really was just a paint job,” Cabán said. “So, we’re working on it. The mayor is with us that he wants this to come to a quick resolution.” 

The project would have placed a protected bike lane on both sides of 31st Street, between the sidewalk and the elevated train columns. Supported by Cabán, as well as State Senator Kristen Gonzalez and State Assemblymember Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, the proposed bike lane was back in headlines January 7 after Mayor Mamdani announced that his administration would direct the Department of Transportation (DOT) to restart the redesign process.  

Judge Cheree Buggs had ordered the city to halt the bike lane’s construction on December 5th after 19 local business owners filed a lawsuit against the DOT. In the lawsuit, they argued that the bike lanes would not keep bikers safer and would impede emergency vehicles’ access to buildings along 31st St. Judge Buggs sided with the businesses owners on the grounds that the DOT had not followed proper outreach procedure, and ordered the DOT to halt construction. 

During her address at Tuesday’s meeting, councilmember Cabán reiterated her support for the bike lane and argued that although at times inconvenient, it would be worth it if  lives were saved. 

“The 31st St. corridor is one of the top ten most dangerous corridors in Queens,” Cabán said. ”There are going to be changes in behavior that in the moment seem inconvenient, but if we save one baby, if we save one person’s life, I think it’s worthwhile, and we can make some adjustments,” Cabán said. 

According to a recent DOT study, 2 people have been killed and 190 have been injured along the 31st St corridor since 2020. 

At Tuesday’s meeting, multiple members of the public drew attention to the general congestion in the area brought by cyclists, trucks, motorists, first responders and parked cars all vying for limited space on a narrow street. 

In her testimony, resident and treasurer of the Dutch Kills Civic Association Gloria Moloney condemned elected officials for continuing to discuss the bike lane after the judge stopped construction, and questioned how much safer a bike lane could make an already dangerously congested street. 

‘I wish we could put the bike lanes to bed,” she said. “31st Ave, I can’t say enough, it’s a complete disaster. It adds so much more traffic to every street in that neighborhood. The people that are living there are going through hell.”