DOT Steps Up Grand Army Makeover
At a meeting Thursday night with three area community boards, the Department of Transportation unveiled its much-anticipated plans for remaking Grand Army Plaza. StreetsBlog summarized the changes in a blog post: Lots of asphalt will be reclaimed for walking and biking. Getting to the central plaza will be a much-improved experience, as will biking to…
At a meeting Thursday night with three area community boards, the Department of Transportation unveiled its much-anticipated plans for remaking Grand Army Plaza. StreetsBlog summarized the changes in a blog post:
Lots of asphalt will be reclaimed for walking and biking. Getting to the central plaza will be a much-improved experience, as will biking to the greenmarket, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the park, thanks to an entirely two-way system of bike lanes. Russo said DOT hopes to begin implementation in August.
The plan got a very positive reaction from other stakeholders, including Robert Witherwax of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition: “We have called for a wholesale rethinking of the interplay between peds, bikes, and cars and the space devoted to each: DOT brought that.” There’s another diagram of the makeover on the jump and lots of graphics in the DOT presentation. You psyched about this? Looks pretty exciting to us.
GAP as a Walkable Destination and Bicycling Hub [StreetBlog]
DOT’s GAP Plan: Bold, Exciting, Crowd-Pleasing [StreetsBlog]
Grand Army Improvements [DOT – pdf]
Does this plan eliminate the street light which blocks the nighttime view from the Brooklyn Mirador? Because of the glare of this street light, the view of the illuminated Empire State Building Tower bisecting the Civil War Arch at night is not as spectacular as it should be. The pole supporting this street light also blocks the only crosswalk from the park’s entrance to the Plaza.
Ive been thinking about this intersection lately. I dont see why Plaza Street West or Union St even need to ienter into the circle. They should just have Plaza Street West U-turn onto Union traveling back toward 8th Ave – local traffic only. If you want to come back to the plaza just make two rights onto flatbush. The pedestrian crossing from PLaza West neighborhood to the park would be much simple than the three road merger deathtrap that is there now…
Spend a little more $ and put all the road traffic and transitions underground and let the peds and bikes have the entrance to the park back.
tbur6 — I see what you mean. I was referring to the N corner of the one particular intersection at Union, not N or S of the entire GAP. Okay, I am walking north on PPW, then cross Union St. Then there is a traffic light where one can cross on foot into the GAP.
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris has an underground walking tunnel underneath all lanes of traffic. One comes out under their Arch and can take the elevator to the top of that Arch and view Paris from there. I have not done that but read it. I was once on the other side of the street from that tunnel entry.
Here is one rendition of driving around the Paris circle
describing it as “a game of fender-bender chicken”:
http://www.ricksteves.com/news/tribune/arcdtriomphe.html
this may foil my plan.
I was going to collect all of the parts left over from accidents, then weld them together to build a mini arch.
as far as i’m concerned, the gap was designed to cull excess human population. Nothing that is done to mitigate its killing power will work. The Beaux-arts planners and designers were smarter than us.
This is a great first step, but the big improvement will be when they connect the park to the plaza as some plans have suggested.
GAP has always reminded me in feel of Vincennes outside Paris., and if I mentally block out a select few things, I feel the euphoria of feeling back in France.
I can’t evaluate these map-proposals, but what I’d love is if the traffic signalization and lights were modified so as to not block out view of the arch, and obscure the beauty of the space.
I hope the improve it. It’s such a treasure, but tragically marred by poor decisions
“I almost kill myself every time I drive around that thing, probably because I haven’t been doing it for 30 years. It’s insane design, and it only works if you’ve either driven it for 30 years or you’ve spent a couple hours studying a map plus satellite imagery before entering the circle. ”
OK, I can see that. Like I said, if it improves things, I’m cool with that.