Feb. 3, 2023 By Bill Parry
To mark the one-month anniversary of the death of Astoria cyclist Tamara Chuchi Kao, who was struck and killed by the diver of a cement truck at the intersection of 29th Street and 24th Avenue, the neighborhood’s elected officials called on the city to build more bike lanes.
They stood at the southwest corner of the intersection where the 62-year-old woman was killed and demanded that the Department of Transportation build, at minimum, a north-south bike lane and an east-west protected bike lane in Astoria by September.
“This is not a suggestion, this is not a request, this is a demand. Four of my constituents have been killed riding their bikes in just the last two and a half years, and it is insufficient to blame this on reckless driving solely,” said Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. “These are deaths by virtue of reckless policies and insufficient infrastructure– and building a network of protected bike lanes across our neighborhood this year will finally remedy that.”
