PPW Bike Lanes Still Controversial
Surprise! The Prospect Park bike lanes are still stirring up controversy. Today the Brooklyn Paper reports that this PPW Bike Lane Survey started by Council members Steve Levin and Brad Lander got 800 responses on its first day. While the city has been analyzing traffic speed and accidents after the lane was put in, it…
Surprise! The Prospect Park bike lanes are still stirring up controversy. Today the Brooklyn Paper reports that this PPW Bike Lane Survey started by Council members Steve Levin and Brad Lander got 800 responses on its first day. While the city has been analyzing traffic speed and accidents after the lane was put in, it wants community feedback before deciding whether or not to make the bike lane permanent. Questions deal with safety and design modifications. (One question asks if the bike lanes should be more compatible with the historic character of PPW.) In the meantime, rival bike lane protests are planned for this Thursday morning – supporters will be at GAP with protesters at PPW and Carroll Street. Uh oh!
Survey Says PPW Bike Lane Still Very Controversial [BK Paper]
Biking in PP was not dangerous, ImSoGreen. Roads have to be maintained no matter what, even if bikes are using them, so that argument is completely specious. Since the city is so broke that they need to curtail services to homebound seniors, don’t you think that ANY waste should be avoided? If you find dealing with the “other” new york so be so awful, perhaps you should consider moving to the green city of your dreams. Perhaps Amsterdam? How lovely of you to say “Fuck em” to those of us who disagree with you!
As to you, jagarch, maybe they should just close PPW off to all vehicular traffic. Maybe then there would be sufficient room for all of those 65,000 PS residents you speak of to ride their bikes. While you may plan to ride your bike up and down PPW to work, play, shop, or whatever during the months from November through February, probably many people will not choose to do so, safe or not. It makes little sense to destroy the beauty of PPW simply to feed the egos of those who are simply to lazy to ride in PP where there’s plenty of room for all of you.
Again, I feel that the purpose of these lanes is not to cater to you or I, who are experienced riders who ride whether there is a lane or not, but for people who are only now considering for the first time whether or not to ride in NYC. For them, the lane can be a deciding factor, and a way for the city to reach out and show them that biking is safe and convenient. The city wants the lane to be as practical and usable as possible, which means the most number of entrances and exits, and in the most convenient location.
One north/south lane for all of Park Slope, about 65,000 people, isn’t cutting it.
This is such a “two new yorks” sorta issue. Not surprisingly it’s the Ferrer folks against the bike lanes. Fuck em.
Biking is dangerous, especially in New York. We should do what we can to make it safer.
If you have a problem with the way bikers ride, argue for enforcement, not against bike lanes.
And insurance for bikers that damage cars – it that really a problem. It sounds like a real crackpot argument
And cost of bike lanes – Are you kidding me??!!?? that’s nothing next to the cost of maintaining roads.
I really hate when I have to deal with the other new york.
So, jagarch, you’re objecting to bike riders having to become MORE fit by having to ride a few extra blocks? Jeez. As a 62 year old guy, I regularly ride from Crown Hts to Bay Ridge or to Greenpoint with no problem. Sorry the PS bike riders you represent are not in such good condition. Maybe the extra few blocks would help them achieve such fitness levels.
If the bike lane in the park is not quite as wide as the pair of lanes along PPW, perhaps a little bit of the runners’ lane could be added to the bike lane to achieve parity. Surely the runners aren’t THAT wide. As I said earlier, you can’t honestly be telling me that there is THAT much traffic along PPW (or 8th, 7th or 6th Avenues) between 1 and 5 AM that the hordes of bike riders at that hour are in mortal feel of riding with the existing traffic. Probably, even the 2-way 5th Avenue would be safe enough. Maybe the people you are talking about are simply too wimpy to ride their bikes in an urban setting. In that case, they should surely be riding in the park where, during most of the day, they might only have to compete with runners and walkers.
jagarch…another rational post, which means these anti-laners either (a) won’t read it, (b) will pretend it wasn’t written or (c) will not understand it.
I’d like to say there are some legitimate anti’s with legitimate arguments. But frankly, other than pointing out flaws in the details of the execution (which can’t be fixed until the review period is over – and they’re dragging that out), I don’t really think they have any legitimate arguments. They just_ don’t_like_it, end of story. It’s different, it’s for other people and it represents change, so it threatens them.
Let’s save our energies for the rally tomorrow (Thurs) at 8AM at Grand Army Plaza, and for more pro-lane events to come.
By the way, I hope everyone saw Markowitz’s cringe-worthy performance on NYOne. Standing alone on Fifth Ave. (Manhattan), ranting and raving in broken English to no one in particular about how Brooklyn is being persecuted because he can’t see a lane. (Actually, we’re persecuted because we don’t have as *many* lanes as Manhattan does.) Let’s just say it wasn’t Brooklyn’s finest hour. If that doesn’t make you want to fight for the lane, I don’t know what would.
There are a lot of misconceptions about the park lane vs the PPW lane so I’ll try and address those.
The park lane is two lanes for cars, one lane for bikes, and one for runners. All of these are one-way only, southbound closest to PPW, and northbound closest to the opposite, eastern side of the park. Cars are allowed to use the southbound lanes from 5-7pm on weekdays, so you can’t carve out a new bi-directional bike lane from the car lanes. And no, the single bike lane on the left side is not as wide as the double bike lane on PPW.
PPW is bi-directional.
The park lane has entrances/exits for bicycles at Grand Army Plaza, 3rd St, and 15th St. While there is an entrance at 9th st, it’s not connected to the bike lanes via a bike path, only via a pedestrian path, which is not safe (or legal) for bikes.
The PPW lane has entrances and exits every other block for its entire length.
The park lane is closed entirely (along with the rest of the park) from 1am-5am.
The PPW lane is open 24 hours.
Besides 5th Ave, a heavily trafficked, two way, one lane each way street, Park Slope has no other north/south bike lanes. As it is now, anyone wanting to use a bike lane to go north or south in Park Slope must travel down to 5th Ave, or up to the opposite, eastern edge of the neighborhood to the PPW lane. The park lane is even further east of the PPW lane, and therefore even further out of the way for someone who wants to travel on 6th, 7th, or 8th aves. All of these streets, btw, are narrower and less suited for bike lanes than PPW.
Furthermore, many people have said here something like, “I’ve biked for many years and never needed a bike lane.†If you don’t want to use the lane, you can bike on a different street, but I believe that one of the purposes of the lanes is to attract new bikers, who ordinarily would be intimidated by the idea of riding in NYC traffic. Studies show that purely statistically, increasing bike lanes increases ridership.
Bike lanes are not just for young, in-shape people. Anyone who has been to a mid-sized European city knows that all kinds of people have the ability to ride. Even seniors ride in large numbers in Europe, with no fear. People with balance issues can ride tricycles and people with leg issues ride hand-cycles. The goal is not some strange plot to force everyone to ride, but merely to increase ridership.
Apparently, brooklyndreamland, the two of us are personna non grata when it comes to this theme.
Nobody who lives outside of the defined Park Slope area can have an opinion on this issue apparently. However, those inside the defined area can make wild assumptions about what they think the rest of Brooklynites are like, apparently our knuckles drag on the floor and we all drive giant gas guzzlers only occassionally through Park Slope. So much for a healthy debate on the issue.
I haven’t taken measurements, jagarch, but isn’t the lane that was carved out of PPW about the same width as a lane INSIDE the park? If so, it would be pretty easy to divide one park lane into a bidirectional lane. As to the limited number of exits from the park, I would think that all of the bicycle fitness freaks posting here would be able to pedal a few hundred feet further to the next park exit. And, of course, people who still wanted to ride their bikes southward along PPW could do so even without a bike lane. That’s the way I’ve done it for the past 40 years and I’ve done it without incident. Amazing!
As for your statement, fuplease, is it your contention that only the residents of Park Slope have any interest in Brooklyn streets and traffic? Perhaps you would like to ban anyone from outside PS from even entering your nabe. Do the residents west of 5th Ave get any say in the matter? What about 3rd or 4th Aves? What makes you think that I do not ride through PS regularly? I’ve probably lived and ridden a bike through PS longer that you have been alive. The last I heard, virtually all of the streets in Brooklyn are PUBLIC thoroughfares.