PPW Bike Lane Foes Gearing Up to Sue the DOT?!
Good heavens, is it possible that the Prospect Park West bike-lane brouhaha is going to drag on longer than the Williamsburg one did? It sure is seeming that way. WNYC reports that “Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes,” a group that questions the city’s rationale for installing the lane, is not giving up. The article says…
Good heavens, is it possible that the Prospect Park West bike-lane brouhaha is going to drag on longer than the Williamsburg one did? It sure is seeming that way. WNYC reports that “Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes,” a group that questions the city’s rationale for installing the lane, is not giving up. The article says that in “late December, a lawyer working pro bono, Jim Walden, wrote a letter to transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan asking for additional data, saying he hoped ‘this begins a constructive phase of dialogue between DOT and the affected community members’…there’s been no official legal action, though that’s expected to come next week.” One member of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes says she thinks the lane should be moved into the park. Meanwhile, the Post reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer, despite being a cyclist, is not a fan of the Prospect Park West bike lane either: “Sources said Schumer — who has yet to take a public position on the 19-block bike corridor — shared his feelings privately with some members of the City Council. ‘He’s asked legislators what they’re going to do about [this and other] bike lanes,’ said one source.”
Residents Prepare Lawsuit on Brooklyn Bike Lane [WNYC]
Not in Chuck’s Back Yard! [NY Post]
Prospect Park West Bike Lane Back in the News! [Brownstoner]
Photo by swimfast.
Agree with you totally, Minard. From streets, to school governance, to smoking, to … well, whatever, Emperor Mike’s administration has a habit of playing fast and loose with statistics. If the “visionary” of the DOT felt that any fair analysis of the statistics on PPW (or of the Herald Sq pedestrian mall, for that matter) would back her up, why wouldn’t she release all of the raw data? Her intransigence suggests that her people have cherry-picked data to “prove” her point of view. That’s why the DOT is being sued to comply with FOIL.
I find it amazing that so many people here, especially young and presumably healthy ones, found it impossible to cross PPW at the traffic light before the bike lanes were installed. If that were really the case, then why is it the “old” people here, presumably less spry and quick-moving, who are against the bike lanes? In any event, probably a better, easier, quicker solution to this supposed dilemma would have been for the DOT to adjust the traffic lights to allow for longer “reds” and which would have discouraged racing cars from actually using PPW.
Of course, that would not have not satisfied those who believe in the inherent evil of urban driving in 2011.
I really don’t understand the opposition to the bike lanes on PPW. I don’t always agree that bike lanes are a plus- depending on where they are, but here, certainly they are.
I have to ask the question, what exactly do borough presidents even do?
Outrageous that these people are thinking of tying up the courts to undo a bike lane that is (1) demonstrably safer than the previous configuration and (2) favored by the majority of people in the neighborhood. I’m a PPW resident, too — shame on Iris Weinshall and her cronies.
mgm — So bsically, what you’re saying is that the bike lane destroyed the beauty of PPW and it’s more dangerous than ever?
My kids love riding in that bike lane. We use it all the time.
Also, we were walking on the sidewalk on PPW (park side) recently and it seemed a lot quieter than it used to be. The cars are now further from the sidewalk and they move more slowly.
(meaning they’ve had a lot of practice being old folks that bristle at anything “newfangled” like a bike lane!)
Southbrooklyn… I think Minard’s point was that it’s the old folks that are the whining NIMBYs here and tend to hate change. Any change. And it’s the old folks that consistently show up at the polls to reelect idiots like Marty Markowitz. And, I believe, in this case… “old folks” includes these PPW millionaires that were old folks at age 35 because of their money.
I love the argument that the bike lane interferes with the original beautiful design of PPW. Because cars are gorgeous and bicycles are disgusting. Oh, and paint lines on the street are terrible, except where its the paint that marks different lanes for cars, and then its awesome. Bunch of idiots.