From NY 1 which also has a video on the topic:
A growing number of residents are protesting the city’s plan to install a bike lane in Park Slope. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.
Bicyclists are not supposed to ride on the sidewalks along Prospect Park, but residents say they still do.
“I think absolutely essential that they get the bicyclists off the streets, off the sidewalks,” said Park Slope resident Cecil Bergen.
Cyclist John Cianciotta says he’s guilty of not obeying the rule.
“They hassle you if you ride on the sidewalk, but if you guys built a bike lane, I’d ride in the street,” he said.
Soon, Cianciotta will get his wish. The Department of Transportation plans to install a two-way bicycle lane along the park side of Prospect Park West by June.
While that makes many bikers happy, a growing number of residents oppose the plan.
“New York is a beautiful place and the only way to really enjoy it is on a bike,” said cyclist Shahnti O’Neill.
“They should definitely have a bike lane on Prospect Park West because it’s dangerous with the three lanes and the traffic comes so fast,” said cyclist Tony Reid.
“We’re shocked, we’re disturbed, and we’re worried,” countered resident Denise Walters.
Walters lives on Prospect Park West. She says she just learned about the proposed bicycle lane — and thinks it’s a safety hazard.
“I think pedestrians are going to have a more difficult time crossing the street with their dogs. They’ll have to cross the lane of traffic and then they’ll have to look both ways in the middle the street to make sure one of the bikes isn’t coming from either direction,” she said.
Those who live along Prospect Park West, and those who run the Poly Prep Day School there, say they haven’t been included in the decision making process.
“I live right on the park and didn’t know anything about it,” said resident Suzanna Douglas.
But the DOT says this has been three years in the making – starting with a request from the local community board. Community Board 6 says there’s been plenty of notice about planning meetings.
It says the bike lane will serve as a connection to the one that was recently put in on 9th Street.
Those who oppose the bike lane have started a campaign to try and stop it, handing out flyers over the weekend which pointed out the possible problems and saying cyclists have plenty of park space to ride.
“It seems that this area, at this point, it’s just not necessary,” said Arthur Foresta, a resident of Windsor Terrace.
“A lot of people double park, so it might be dangerous people weaving in and out,” added Park Slope resident Allison Clardy.
Community Board 6 says it’ll address this issue at a public meeting next Thursday.
David,
It’s not a “dangerous, untested arrangement.” Physically-separated bike lanes have been working well and making streets safer in cities like Copehagen and Amsterdam for decades. Here in NYC, separated bike lanes have made 8th and 9th Avenues in Manhattan substantially safer, particularly for pedestrians. Those avenues are no longer one-way highways where old ladies get mowed down and people are afraid to ride a bike. I don’t have the stats handy but you can find them on the NYC DOT web site. This configuration will be substantially safer than the PPW that we have today.
As for hiding cyclists behind “a divider” — this won’t really be an issue. The bike lane will be “day-lighted” at pedestrian crossings so cyclists and walkers can see each other easily as they approach each other.
As for cost: These bike projects cost almost nothing on the grand scale of transportation spending and the NYC budget as a whole. They don’t even qualify as capital projects.
Finally — this notion that the project is being “imposed from outside” by people who don’t live here: Totally incorrect. This project is being demanded by your neighbors. Park Slope Civic Council, Community Board 6, Park Slope Neighbors, Transportation Alternatives’ Brooklyn Committee, Councilman Brad Lander and a number of other groups and individuals from the neighborhood have voted for this project and pushed it going on years now.
This a nice, cheap, fast fix that the DOT is proposing for PPW. It solves a lot of problems. And if it creates the traffic cataclysm that you predict, it’ll be very easy to rip it out and restore PPW to its current speedway format. I very much look forward to the most beautiful street in the neighborhood to no longer being designed and run like a 4-lane highway.
I live on PPW, and use all 3 methods of transportation that will be in play, bike, car and bus. I bike almost every morning. But on balance, the bike lane seems to me to be a very poor idea.
The park already has decent bike lanes. They can’t accommodate everyone’s style of riding (for instance, 2-way lanes in the park would be dangerous), but there is ample outlet for those like me, who like to ride and depend on it for exercise.
I believe the PPW bike lane in its proposed configuration, behind a divider, will hide cyclists from view. Someone crossing east on PPW will not be able to see most average-height bike riders behind the large number of SUVs that typically park here. You’d step into the bike lane blind, not seeing a cyclist until he’s almost upon you. If you are a bit older and walk slowly, or if you are a mom with a stroller and kids, no time to jump away. Very dangerous considering the highly aggressive cyclists in our area. And all the more so in a 2-way bike lane.
In fact, I have a short video which demonstrates this, and if anyone is interested, send me your email address and I’ll send it to you.
The constriction of car traffic to fewer lanes is not what we need. Even if the net number of parking spaces remains (which calculations say won’t be true), swinging your car out to parallel park in a narrower street is a good way to have an accident.
I believe more traffic lights will help with the speeding. I acknowledge the speeding motorists are dangerous. But substituting another dangerous, untested arrangement is not what we need. The proposed changes will cost more money; cause their own disruptions while being done; and put any number of untested changes into play.
As a cyclist, I’d love it if more people adopted cycling as a principal mode of transportation. That’s not the same as wanting it imposed from outside by people who won’t have to live with its effects.
Chandru is absolutely right. The plan for the bike lane includes a four-foot buffer, and there will be an eight-foot wide parking lane between the travel lane nearest the park and the buffer. So a pedestrian crossing Prospect Park West, with or without his or her dog, will only have to cross two lanes of traffic rather than three, and will have the 12 feet of pedestrian refuge between the travel lanes and the bike lane. Shorter crossings are safer.
I emailed Jeanine Ramirez, the NY1 reporter, last night, to provide her with some facts to counter the false and misleading information being put forth in the anonymous anti-bike lane flyer. I never heard back from her.
The claim that a growing number of residents are protesting the Prospect Park West traffic-calming plan is bunk. Park Slope Neighbors has more than 1300 signatures on a petition supporting traffic calming on PPW, including a two-way protected bike lane. The project is supported by Council Members Lander and Levin, Community Board Six, and the Park Slope Civic Council. It was announced more than a year ago.
Traffic calming on Prospect Park West, where cars routinely reach dangerous speeds well above the 30 mph limit, is long overdue.
“the safety of her house”
“I think pedestrians are going to have a more difficult time crossing the street with their dogs. They’ll have to cross the lane of traffic and then they’ll have to look both ways in the middle the street to make sure one of the bikes isn’t coming from either direction,”
Unbelievable. IAnyone who’s this incapable of simple observation should never leave her safety of her house. I sincerely hope she does not have a driver’s license.