[title]
If you’ve ever tried to cross, bike or even just exist near McGuinness Boulevard without fearing for your wellbeing, you’re not alone. The Greenpoint thoroughfare has long had a reputation as one of Brooklyn’s most nerve-racking streets—and now, finally, that reputation may be headed for retirement.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced this week that the city will move forward with a full safety redesign of McGuinness Boulevard, bringing long-promised protected bike lanes to the entire corridor from Meeker Avenue up to the Pulaski Bridge. In other words, the street that cyclists swap horror stories about is officially getting a glow-up.
The plan revives NYC DOT’s original design, which had been approved, then paused, then watered down for years. Under the new commitment, McGuinness will be rebuilt with parking-protected bike lanes in both directions, one travel lane each way for cars and dedicated parking and loading lanes. This will result in fewer speeding lanes, more breathing room and a street that (hopefully) no longer feels like a highway.
McGuinness is a major cycling link between Brooklyn and Queens that carries more than 4,000 riders a day in summer. It’s also been the site of multiple fatal crashes, including the death of teacher Matthew Jensen in 2021, a tragedy that resulted in years of community organizing and turned the boulevard into a major landmark in the city’s street-safety debate.
Mayor Mamdani framed the redesign as one of his administration’s first major actions, saying that delaying safety projects for political reasons is officially over. DOT Commissioner Mike Flynn echoed that urgency, calling McGuinness a street that should “stitch Greenpoint together, not divide it in half.”
Local elected officials and advocacy groups, from Assemblymember Emily Gallagher to Transportation Alternatives, praised the move as long overdue and unusually decisive for a project that’s spent more time stalled than under construction.
Beyond bike lanes, the redesign includes traffic-calming measures like shorter crossings and safer turns, which DOT says can cut serious injuries and traffic deaths by as much as 30 percent based on similar projects citywide.
For Greenpoint residents, that could mean fewer close calls, calmer commutes and maybe—just maybe—a future where McGuinness Boulevard is known less for danger and more for doing something New York streets don’t always manage: actually getting safer.