Metro

Bike-sniping Weiner’s dubious ‘lane’ change

He’s positioned himself as a fearless voice for the Democratic Party, willing to tackle the touchiest national and international topics, but there’s one local issue Rep. Anthony Weiner won’t touch– bike lanes and pedestrian plazas.

Weiner, a leading contender for mayor in 2013, refuses to say what his position is on the two-wheel tracks being laid down around the city by Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Weiner might have been able to pull off his hiding act if not for a published report last week that quoted him telling Mayor Bloomberg last June that his first-year agenda if he got to City Hall would include “a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your [expletive] bike lanes.”

Bike advocates went bonkers.

“I voted for Anthony Weiner last election. Wish I could take that vote back,” wrote jweaver on New York Cycle Club website.

“Rep. Weiner’s lead-off remark about ripping out bike lanes was extremely disappointing and at odds with his public remarks..” John Kaehny, former executive director of transportaiton Aletrnatives, wrote of Streetsblog.

Weiner allowed the biking community, presumably part of his his voting base, to stew for five days befroe sending out a Twitter message that he was joking.

But since then he’s been ducking.

Perhaps it’s because his political mentor, Sen. Schumer and his wife Iris Weinshall, are opponents of the bike lane installed on Prospect Park West.

When The Post asked Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold for an explanation of where his boss stands on bikes, he sent back a response offering his Twitter address. After further questions about the 34th Street Transitway project, Arnold simply stopped responding.

Reporters for the Gothamist and Grist websites have gotten similar brush-offs.

In striking contrast, Weiner’s potential rivals are asking hard questions about the reshaping of city streets.

Public Advocate Bill de Blasio fired off a letter last week asking the Transportation Department to conduct independent envionmental reviews.

Previous in-house evaulations “provided a rubber stamp on every single one of its major proposals,” de Blasio wrote.

“Every project the DOT put forward which represented a major experimental change to our traffic system has been supported by its post implementation evaluations,” he added.

de Blasio also charged that in a study of the Times Square and Herald Square pedestrian plazas the transportation agency “ignored city data critical of the project.”

Comptroller John Liu described the lack of timely data coming out of the agency as “possible legal violations.”

Transportation spokesman Seth Solomonow said the 34th Street transitway would be thoroughly vetted before being built.

“These projects have improved safety, been embraced by bus riders and complied with all environmental guidelines. As we’ve noted at more than 50 meetings during the last three years, any project for 34th Street will be subject to an environmental assessment,” he said.

david.seifman@nypost.com