What FCR ESDC Expect us to believe 'bout Atlantic Yard

raulism

Subject: What FCR & ESDC Expect us to believe 'bout Atlantic Yard

This comes from Community Consulting Services, August 18, 2006:

Subways and buses are so uncrowded now during rush hours that there will be enough capacity for the added riders from all new development in 2016 and the 82,738 subway riders a day that Atlantic Yards will add, so there’s no need to add any trains or buses during peak hours.

Atlantic Yards will have an insignificant effect on buses, bus use will hardly grow at all, and there’s plenty of spare capacity, except on B38. But can always add more buses when demand occurs.

Pedestrians are better off with longer waits for green time and longer crossing routes. DEIS has no obligation to analyze pedestrian hazards or consider traffic calming measures.

Traffic currently flows through the Atlantic/Flatbush/4th Avenue intersection at good (Level of Service to acceptable (LOS D) conditions in the PM peak hour. Valid baseline for evaluating impacts.

Currently, between 5-6 PM, 35% of on-street parking spaces within _ mile of Atlantic Yards site are available. By 7-8 PM, 53% of parking spaces are now available and in 2016, 51% (3,091) will be and because there are sufficient off-street spaces for Atlantic Yards parkers, few will be searching for free on-street parking.

Trip generation characteristics based on 30-year old surveys in Manhattan are valid for Brooklyn. Can rely on 2000 Census data for travel patterns, even though discredited by NYMTC.

Okay to only account for less than half the development in pipeline. Only need to consider certain-to-be-built projects within _ mile radius of Atlantic Yards, even if that leaves out much of DTB.

DEIS can assign 30% of peak hour Atlantic Yards auto trips onto congested BQE and not assume they force any BQE traffic onto local streets. Can also add traffic onto roads that have no capacity.

A $2 discount on a Metrocard pass when buying $85 or $105 tickets on line will achieve a 20% reduction in auto use to Arena games (~2,000 trips), based on response to Metrocard discounts.

DEIS can take congestion mitigation credit even for one second transfers of green time from one movement to another. Drivers will go directly to garages and won’t circulate around site looking for free on-street parking.

The DEIS can continue to use the CEQR traffic analysis method that ignores spillback effects, even though the DEIS finally admits that adding more trips than the capacity of an intersection will cause long upstream traffic back ups. They still don’t evaluate spill back.

The DEIS doesn’t have to make public its traffic simulation model for mitigating the Atlantic, Flatbush, 4th Avenue intersection, after years of insisting it was not allowed to be used under CEQR.

No need to document assumptions, provide traffic analysis worksheets, demonstrate feasibility of mitigation.

To accommodate Atlantic Yards, communities will just have to live with unmitigatable traffic. No other solutions are available.

No obligation of DEIS to consider ongoing plans, e.g., Bus Rapid Transit pilot program, DTB Traffic Calming project , Resident permit parking study, Flatbush Avenue Redesign, DTB Transportation Blueprint, NYS Energy Plan, and a NYMTC air quality plan conformity determination.

If you believe this, they have also have a bridge to sell us.