A group of students in Far Rockaway want to make a section of the Rockaway Freeway safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and they need your help to do it. Youngsters from the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance after-school program have posted a petition asking Mayor Bill de Blasio to improve public paths for people walking and biking along the Rockaway Freeway (which connects the eastern end and western ends of the Rockaway peninsula). Read on to see how you can support their cause!

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Currently, people who try to navigate the freeway without a car have to choose between hazardous sidewalks or stripped buffers in the middle of the road itself. Neither options are preferable as cars speed by at a perilously close range, endangering the safety of pedestrians and bikers.

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To help make the area safer, the students recommended the striped buffers be converted into formal walking and biking paths.  In their petition, the kids also note that Rockaway community residents have struggled for a safe and convenient way to get from one end of the peninsula to the other after the devastating damage from Hurricane Sandy.

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Now the group is asking for a total of 10,000 signatures to help sway the NYC Mayor’s Office into building new safe bike and pedestrian lanes underneath the elevated A train tracks on the Rockaway Freeway. Currently, the petition has 549 supporters but it needs 9,451 more digital signatures, so help make a difference by signing today!

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via DNAinfo

Images © Squirrel83 and Rockaway Waterfront Alliance