Brooklyn Cyclist Killed Riding Home After A Grocery Run
Brooklyn resident Adam Uster was killed while riding his bicycle home after grocery shopping at Wegmans in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
“The last thing I said to him was, ‘Be safe,’” said Annie Goldner, Ulster’s mother.
Ulster, 39, a husband, father of two, and cycling advocate was riding southbound when the driver of a flatbed truck struck him at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and Lexington Avenue just before noon on Monday according to the New York City Police Department.
“This fatality occurred in Community Board 3 in Brooklyn, which has no protected bike lanes. Franklin Avenue has only a paint-only, unprotected bike lane,” according to Transportation Alternatives.
Severely injured but conscious, “he was even able to say his daughters’ names” as “his wife and paramedics arrived at the scene” according to Streetsblog.
Ulster was rushed to New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital for surgery but he did not survive.
The driver of the flatbed truck remained at the scene but he was not arrested. As of Wednesday, the NYPD is still investigating the 13th cyclist death in the City for 2023 — a sixfold increase over 2022 according to city data.
“Traffic violence has killed 13 people riding bikes so far in 2023—by far the most by this point in any year under Vision Zero, and more than triple the average since 2014,” according to Transportation Alternatives.
Across social media, calls for city leaders to do more continues to grow.
“Franklin Avenue has a deadly PAINT bike lane. Paint is not infrastructure!,” tweeted one person.
“If someone could be on his way home from getting groceries, be crushed to death, and no one is found to be at fault, then something is wrong with how we design our streets. City officials and planners should be held responsible,” stated another commenter.
“We are devastated to learn that Adam Uster—a longtime biker, community member, and TA member—was killed by a truck driver in Brooklyn. Adam is the thirteenth bike rider to be killed in 2023, by far the deadliest year for bike riders under Vision Zero. We demand immediate action from our leaders to keep New Yorkers safe—the City must build essential biking infrastructure and Albany must pass Sammy’s Law, to give New York City control of its own speed limits,” stated Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Danny Harris.
Action to reduce traffic speed in areas like Bedford-Stuyvesant are limited because the NYS senate controls traffic laws. Sammy’s Law, NYS Senate Bill S2422, would allow “cities with populations in excess of one million people by easing restrictions so cities can establish speed limits below twenty-five miles per hour.”
Until speed limits are lowered, traffic safety enforced, and tangible cycling infrastructure is installed cyclists continue to be especially vulnerable commuters.
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