Borough President Marty Markowitz has been open about his opposition to the Prospect Park Bike Lane. Here is his response to this morning’s anti-bike lane rally.
“Although I regret not being able to attend today’s community rally against the Prospect Park West bike lane, I again call on the DOT to remove this dangerous eyesore and bring the issue of our city’s bike lane strategy before a larger public discussion and City Council consideration.
It is common knowledge that the Department of Transportation installed this two-way dedicated bike lane to reduce alleged speeding along Prospect Park West. But instead of simply addressing this purported reckless driving, DOT opted to use the speeding issue to achieve its bike lane ‘vision’ and impose traffic congestion mitigation in any way possible. As a result, parked vehicles have been shifted to the center of the road, destroying the majesty and beauty of this magnificent thoroughfare and making it more difficult for visitors and residents to find parking, temporarily load and unload, and cross the street through bicycles coming at them from both directions—at the risk of those cyclists not yielding to pedestrians.
If the reason for this bike lane was to slow down traffic on Prospect Park West, then the DOT should have found other ways to do it, including additional traffic lights and stop signs. Taking away parking from a regional amenity like Prospect Park West—while forcing pedestrians to navigate the hazards of crossing through parked cars and cyclists just to get to the curb—is a terrible idea. In addition, it seems to unfairly target Prospect Park and Brooklyn, as a similar two-way bike lane is nowhere to be found along Fifth Avenue and Central Park West, which border Central Park in Manhattan .
Because the DOT is well on its way toward ‘re-engineering’ the street landscape of our entire city, I believe it should not be left to the discretion of a single city agency but rather require a public policy review by City Council to determine the future use of our sidewalks, thoroughfares and highways. We need to hear from the residents of our city, directly and through their elected officials, whether they support the notion of city policy encouraging and expanding bicycle usage as opposed to other means of transportation, such as light rail, express buses and cars.
Marty is a dolt and a clown and I feel like it’s time for a new clown.
>while forcing pedestrians to navigate the hazards of crossing through parked cars and cyclists just to get to the curb
Well Markowitz, you’ve just entered alternate universe territory. The last time I considered a parked car a ‘hazard’ was never…kinda like traffic engineers call trees ‘fixed hazardous objects’ because of their capacity to destroy cars when they are hit by the latter. And if you can’t negotiate a 6′ wide double bike lane without fearing for your life, you should stay at home and fulminate on the evils of the DOT.
>destroyed the majesty and beauty
By moving parked cars over? Only if you’re aesthetically challenged.
>more difficult to find parkiing … and …Taking away parking from a regional amenity
Last I looked, there were the same number of parking spots as before (well, maybe 4 less). I guess Markowitz thinks it’s impossible to spot a parking space unless it’s at the kerb.
This has to be the most overwrought statement put out by our fearless leader yet.. Fun to read, though.
I wish you had made it to the rally today, because the main thing you would have seen is that Brooklyn and all of NYC want the Bike lane to stay. Brooklyn should be honored that the DOT chose Prospect Park West for this new type of bike line and I can only hope that we start seeing more of them all over this great city.
That’s right, Marty, the City Council should vote on the Prospect Park West traffic-calming project, but Atlantic Yards? Oh, no, that monstrosity doesn’t need Council input.
The local Community Board asked for the redesign of Prospect Park West, and voted to approve it. You appointed them. Are you going to do another purge?
This is why the overturning of term limits was a bad, bad thing.