City Rejects Proposal to End Fight Over Bike Lane

Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times A cyclist shared the Prospect Park West bike lane with pedestrians in March.

The group behind a lengthy campaign against a bike lane on Prospect Park West said this week that it had laid the framework for its clash with the city to end.

If an independent expert confirmed the city's claims that the lane had improved safety, the group said, then a lawsuit aimed at eradicating the lane would be dropped.

But if a study showed that traffic and safety conditions had not improved, then the city's Transportation Department would have to remove the lane.

On Friday, the city issued its rejoinder: No thanks.

“The Prospect Park West bike lane has already been subjected to the most thorough analysis and review of any bike lane in history,” Michael A. Cardozo, the city's corporation counsel, said in a statement. “The petitioners simply reject and misrepresent the results of these reviews, and are now seeking to move the goal posts yet again.”

In March 2011, the plaintiffs, a group of well-connected New Yorkers with ties to Iris Weinshall, a former city transportation commissioner, accused the Transportation Department of misleading residents about the benefits of the lane by cherry-picking statistics.

On Wednesday, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed a lower court's ruling that th e statute of limitations had expired for the case to be filed, and the appellate court ordered a new hearing. The court did not weigh in on any arguments concerning the lane itself.

Jim Walden, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the city “has made it clear they'd rather spend your tax money on litigation than safety. Everyone should be disgusted. The fight goes on at D.O.T.'s insistence.”

The tussle over the lane has been seen as emblematic of the broader debate over one of the Bloomberg administration's most notable legacies: the expansion of bike culture throughout the city.

In his statement, Mr. Cardozo reiterated the city's argument that the lane had “dramatically reduced” speeding, curbed sidewalk cycling and “made the road safer for everyone.”