CTY bike lanes

Looks like their is not much room for bikers and drivers to navigate at the corner of Bay Street and Slosson Terrace. August 23, 2016.

(Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A Staten Islander told Mayor Bill de Blasio that cyclists don't feel safe using bike lanes here because people drive with "malice in their hearts."

"Joe on Staten Island" called into WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show" to talk about bike lanes in the borough during de Blasio's weekly Ask The Mayor appearance.

"I wanted to talk about your new initiative to put more bike lanes on Staten Island, which I'm 100 percent for. I was reading in the Ad-vance, which is of course the way we pronounce it, that there's a lot of detractors," Joe told de Blasio. "One of the things that somebody said is that you never see anybody in the bike lanes on Staten Island and I have to say that's absolutely true. It's because, mainly, people on Staten Island drive with, I think, malice in their hearts."

Joe may have been referring to a Thursday commentary from the Advance's Tom Wrobleski about plans for more bike lanes in the borough under de Blasio's "Vision Zero" effort to completely eliminate traffic fatalities.

"I'm all for Vision Zero, I know a lot of people I talk to there are not, they feel it's a money-grab, but I'm wondering what you can do to go further on Staten Island so that bikers feel that they can come out," Joe continued. "We see people running red lights, people speeding, passing you in the oncoming traffic lane -- it's an everyday occurrence on Staten Island and I just wanted to know if you knew about that or you knew about how bad traffic was or if you have any plans to enforce more traffic rules on Staten Island."

'IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME'?

Staten Island has 78 miles of bicycle lanes, according to the Department of Transportation. Forty one of those miles are protected bike lanes.

That's just under 7 percent of 1,125 bike lane miles across the five boroughs.

"I think what we find with bike lanes in most places -- I can't speak to every community and every bike lane -- but what we found in general is a little bit of a 'if you build it, they will come' reality," de Blasio told Joe.

The city plans to add more bike lanes this year on the North Shore as part of two traffic projects.

This summer, the city plans to improve bike connections to the Staten Island Ferry St. George Terminal. Those upgrades are estimated to cost approximately $300,000.

To address complaints of speeding along Van Duzer Street, St. Paul's Avenue, Targee Street and Richmond Road, the city will narrow driving lanes, add parking and install bike lanes. Construction on that project, estimated to cost approximately $450,000, will begin sometime this spring.

"The more bike lanes are created and people see them and feel they're safe, the more people choose to take advantage of of them," de Blasio said. "And they do have a positive traffic calming effect as well."

'IT'S ABOUT SAVING LIVES'

De Blasio also pointed out that the NYPD has dramatically increased enforcement against dangerous drivers who speed, run red lights or fail to yield to pedestrians. He added that cyclists have to obey the same traffic laws as motorists.

"We're doing a lot more checkpoints to get at folks who are driving under the influence," de Blasio said. "And I announced earlier in the week that there will be more such blitzes in the coming weeks. It's not about revenue at all. It is about saving lives."

Traffic fatalities decreased on Staten Island last year, but are still up since de Blasio launched Vision Zero in 2014.

De Blasio said the city will continue to enforce traffic rules to save lives.

"For everyone who cries foul about revenue, I have a very simple answer: I'd love to get no revenue. I'd love there to be no reason for NYPD to pull people over for speeding. I'd love there to be no one who goes through a speed camera and gets a penalty," he said. "But then that's about people correcting their own behavior. Because if you're speeding then you're putting other people's lives in danger, it's as simple as that."

Last month, another Staten Islander called into the same radio show to confront the de Blasio about the borough's terrible traffic.