Police were investigating after thumbtacks were found in a bike lane in Queens this week, an NYPD spokesman said.
The tacks, with the points facing up, were discovered in the protected bike lane on 43rd Avenue in Sunnyside by a father who was biking with his two children Wednesday morning.
“I had a tire blowout on my bike and on one of the wheels in the bike cart I had my two children in,” he wrote in a neighborhood group on Facebook.
On the same path the next day, he “saw thumbtacks scattered for the 4 blocks I traveled,” he wrote.
“This represents a new low and a violent and dangerous turn by those opposed to the bike lanes,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who shared the man’s post on Twitter.
The lanes on 43rd and Skillman avenues were approved by Mayor Bill de Blasio in July, even though they were opposed by the local community board.
Advocates for the lanes say they are needed to protect cyclists on the busy streets. Opponents, including a coalition of community groups Queens Streets For All, say the new lanes removed necessary parking spots, make it more difficult for emergency responses and create a dangerous situation for pedestrians.
Queens Streets For All has called on the Department of Transportation to undo the redesign.
But Van Bramer said on Twitter that the lanes “are not going away.”
“I support them,” he wrote. “And while people may disagree, the increasingly desperate campaign against them is now riling up the worst elements of our community and inspiring criminal vigilantism.”
Queens Streets For All said in a statement that no one associated with the group was responsible for the thumbtacks.
“We condemn such a criminal act, which could result (in) destruction of property, injury and death,” the group wrote.
