Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration is moving to flip two busy Brooklyn corridors from car cut-throughs to bike-priority streets, with plans to turn long stretches of Bergen Street and Dean Street into bike boulevards. The overhaul would reconfigure roughly 10 miles of roadway to favor cyclists, pedestrians and local traffic, with work rolling out in phases. The first installations are slated for 2027, and public outreach is set to begin this year. Families who already ride a Bergen Street school "bike bus" say the redesign could make those hectic morning trips feel a lot calmer.
What the City Is Proposing
As reported by amNewYork, the Mamdani administration wants to remake Bergen and Dean as low-traffic, traffic-calmed bike boulevards. The idea is to steer through-traffic over to larger streets while still preserving access for residents, deliveries and other local trips. DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn, in remarks quoted by the outlet, framed it as part of a bigger safety push, saying, "streets that are the envy of the world are safe for people of all ages and abilities."
DOT's Safety Case
NYC DOT is leaning on its own data to sell the plan. Protected bike facilities are associated with a 29.2% drop in pedestrian deaths and serious injuries, according to department evaluations. Broader safety treatments, including parking-protected bike lanes, have been linked to an 18.1% reduction in deaths and serious injuries for all road users, the agency has said. The department also notes that better infrastructure tends to boost ridership, which can make streets calmer and more predictable for everyone, per NYC DOT.
Local Riders and Advocates
Parents and community groups, including the Bergen Bike Bus that rolls weekly from Rockaway Avenue to Court Street, have been pushing for safer east-west routes so kids can bike to school without feeling like they are dicing with traffic. The organizing has been backed by advocates such as Transportation Alternatives, which is campaigning for the Bergen and Dean bike boulevards and for stronger east-west bike connections in Central Brooklyn.
Timeline and Outreach
City officials told amNewYork that planning is still "very early" and that DOT will kick off public outreach before unveiling designs later this year. The project is expected to be built in phases, with an initial phase slated for installation in 2027, then follow-up phases arriving as funding and community feedback line up.
What To Watch For
Design changes for bike boulevards typically involve traffic calming, curb extensions, bollards that slow turning vehicles and targeted curb tweaks so trucks and residents can still get where they need to go. Those tools were recommended in community planning documents for the Atlantic Avenue corridor. Taken together with DOT's current-projects listings and the Atlantic Avenue mixed-use plan, the paperwork shows Bergen has long been marked as a priority east-west bike corridor, so this latest move is more culmination than curveball. The same documents offer a preview of the design playbook DOT is likely to pull from.
If the schedule holds, the bike boulevards would stitch together quieter east-west routes across several Brooklyn neighborhoods and give families and commuters safer, more direct biking options. DOT is expected to bring draft designs to community meetings later this year as the project shifts from concept to concrete.
