NYC plan to create bike lanes along busy Queens corridor is 'recipe for disaster' - critics | 5 July 2025 | Queens residents and business owners are fighting a city plan to plop bike lanes onto 31st Street in Astoria, calling it a "recipe for disaster" that will crush commerce and threaten safety. The city Department of Transportation is proposing to narrow parking lanes from 13 to 8 feet and traffic lanes from 14 feet to 11, and move the parking lanes away from the curb, to make way for bike paths between 36th and Newton avenues. While the proposal has the full-throated support of car-hating, socialist lawmakers like Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán, Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas and state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, merchants told The Post the blueprint would make it nearly impossible for trucks to reach businesses. "It's asphyxiation," he said, adding that his 16 employees' jobs are on the line.