Video shows cars, trucks driving in protected bike lane in Queens

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - School buses turn a service road into a parking lot during the morning drop-off on a busy stretch of Queens Boulevard at Jacobus Street. That prompts motorists to go rogue and drive in the protected bike lane with no local law enforcement around.

Christina Furlong is a parent and an advocate with Make Queens Safer. She showed a video of vehicles in the bike lane to Fox 5.

"These middle school children, they walk to school by themselves—there's no adults around to protect them," she said.

The protected bike lane was installed as part of Mayor Bill de Blasio's Vision Zero initiative for safer streets. Queens Boulevard has earned the moniker "Boulevard of Death" because of its layout and high volume make it widely unsafe for pedestrians.

Some have wondered if the implementation of bike lanes has done more harm than good. 

"Protected bike lanes have been a key element of Vision Zero efforts to make our streets safer, with lower traffic fatalities five years running," the Department of Transportation said in a statement. "When DOT pursues such projects, we also perform a full analysis of potential traffic and parking—finding that as a rule, the addition of a bike lane neither creates more congestion nor dramatically increases travel times for other vehicles."

Parents just want motorist to be more aware.

"My ultimate concern is if NYPD doesn't start enforcing these traffic violations, we're going to have more injuries and deaths because drivers feel a sense of entitlement," Furlong said, "just not thinking about a safety plan that was put in here to keep people safe."