PPW bike lane update

BornnbredBrooklynite wrote: [quote=eggcream][quote=squindar]sounds like Marty's putting a stop to the PPW bike lane:

http://www.wpix.com/news/wpix-brooklyn-bike-lane-prospect-park,0,3588858.story

" A Prospect Park West bike lane slated to be ready for the summer may never be finished after Borough President Marty Markowitz asked city Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Kahn to put a halt to the project.

"What it's done in my opinion is caused a traffic congestion making it worse than it originally was, and taking away much needed parking from Park Slope residents," said Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz."

if you disagree with him, let him know:
http://brooklyn-usa.org/pages/contact_us.htm

Go Marty. First thing he's said that makes sense. People have to watch cars on one side and bikes on the other when they exit their car. Parking is a problem. Bikes as usual don't follow road rules even though they want bike lanes so it's more dangerous for pedestrians to cross the street. Less parking hurts everyone in the neighborhood. Bikers have lanes in the park. Finally, if I see one more dope with the One Less Car t-shirt I'm going to open my door on him. It makes no difference to the environment.

"Let's assume you saved a gallon of oil in your commute (a generous assumption!). Global daily energy consumption is 9.5 billion gallons of oil equivalent. ... So by biking to work, you save the equivalent of one drop in 10 gasoline tanker trucks. Put another way, it's one pinch of salt in a 100-pound bag of potato chips."

Well said. I've not seen those t-shirts yet but if I do I'll be sure to give the yuppie transplant the thrid finger salute. The problem with MOST(not all, need to highlight that word cause I know most of you non-native types will go crazy with that) bikers is they do not have regard for anything. This includes cars, pedestrians and other bikers. Yes, losing a traffic spot in a densely populated area is a major problem. Car owners and native New Yorkers shouldn't be inconvenienced by the influx of half-wit morons who gasp at the mere stie of an automobile and didn't realize they were moving to the big city.
I am tired of cyclist swerving out of their bike lanes into automobile traffic. I'm tired of having to stomp on the brakes because these cycling fools don't know the difference between RED and GREEN. You fools think the road is yours and yours alone. You're so quick to blame the big bad one ton piece of metal, but maybe if you came off of your pompous high horse and paid attention there wouldn't be so many problems. Cyclist are so far from innocent it's comical to read some of the comments here. Go ride your bike in the hundreds of city parks, stay off the main streets before you cause an accident.

Exactly. Bloomberg needs to pass a law that bikes need to be registered. They need license plates and they need to follow the laws of the road. Why the hell do they get to run red lights, swerve into traffic and pretty much do what the heck they want. You want to ride in the street then follow the rules, else get a ticket like car owners.

It amazes me how defensive car drivers get when they are asked to share a small portion of the road with bicycles. Tells you something about their attitude. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of people every day are NOT driving in cars. For those people, this bike lane, and the other efforts to calm traffic, are nothing but a positive.

Hamilton wrote: the city should require cyclist to be licensed, which will help pay for development and maintenance of the lanes built for them..

I think that's a great idea, but maybe somebody should start with enforcement of all the already existing laws (apparently NYPD doesn't think it's their job, except when they need to meet a quota or hassle somebody).

I read a statistic that pedestrians & bike riders outnumber drivers 9:1 in this city. The position drivers take against bike lanes & pedestrian safety are just indefensible.

ringrunner wrote:

Nice generalizations about bike riders, but they are just not true. I have lived in Brooklyn all my 47 years and a proud to say that I obey all traffic regulations. Also, biking is not just for "the hundreds of city parks", but it is for getting from one place to another.

Once again MOST DOES NOT MEAN ALL. I wouldn't have a problem with cyclist if they paid attention. It certainly is true throughout Brooklyn if you want to tell me no, sorry but I'm gonna call you completely naive. I have seen way to many times bikers just zoom through red lights, not stop at stop signs, and my overall favorite weaving in and out of the bike lane. I DONT WANT TO ACCIDENTALLY RUN YOU OVER BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO DENSE TO FOLLOW RULES and because you think you are all high and mighty or are in the mood for a game of chicken. To sit there and say bikers don't have this attitude is absurd. I see it everywhere.

The creation of all these bike lanes is not a good thing. You reduce parking spaces, you cause more congestion and just like with drivers you get the pompous bikers who are complete jerks.

Anyway, I thought everyone like you moved to New Jersey or at least Staten Island already.

OK, I'll play along but just remember who is making the generalizations now. I'm not going to give the yuppies the satisfaction.

For any New Yorker to criticize bicyclists while remaining silent about NY drivers is just ridiculous. Hands down, New York drivers are the most aggressive, careless and ignorant of traffic laws/rules of any I've ever seen. I'm not saying they're *bad* drivers, just aggressive, careless and ignorant. They are the problem here and traffic calming is just what the doctor ordered in this city.

And, before you jump all over me, I own a big nasty SUV and drive it.

Also: How does the creation of bike lanes influence parking? It moves parking, but it doesn't actually decrease the amount of it.

When it comes to a battle between bikes and cars over which one ruins quality of life, cars win every time.

What really gets me is that some people on the Park Slope Parents group were voicing their opinion that PPW is *uglier* with the new bike lane. WTF?!? Who are these people living amongst us? Someone who lives on PPW that would rather have freeway-level speeds outside their door? Someone who lives a block away that thinks that three lanes of speeding traffic is "prettier" than a multi-use, calmed street bordering one of our city's great parks?

Rode the new lanes yesterday. They are awesome! The PSP posts were rediculous...it's like parents were being put out by having to look both ways while crossing the street. But, like most things, it has just taken a little getting used to by people. And, I totally appreciate the traffic slowdowns the lane has caused...PPW is now somewhat civilized.

As a recreational biker I obey traffic rules...I also have yelled at bikers for going though lights, going against traffic, etc. I have no problems with tickets being given out to bikers IF and only if cars that double park in the bike lanes get ticketed as well (not talking about trucks making deliveries on 5th Ave - but about all the cars double parked there and on other streets)

August 2, 2010

A study conducted between July 17th and 24 seems to confirm that the new design of Prospect Park West is a success. According to a press release from Park Slope Neighbors, a neighborhood advocacy group, traffic is slower on PPW thanks to the new bike lane and one less lane of traffic…

“A radar-gun study conducted last month by Park Slope Neighbors has confirmed that the redesign of Prospect Park West has accomplished exactly what the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) intended – it’s made the street appreciably safer by significantly reducing vehicle speeds.
The study, conducted on July 17th and 24th, found that average speeds on Prospect Park West have been reduced by nearly 25%, bringing five times as many drivers into compliance with the speed limit and cutting the number of vehicles traveling 40 miles per hour or faster by a whopping 95%. The redesign, which narrowed the roadway from three travel lanes to two – replacing one travel lane with a parking-protected two-way bike lane, and adding wide refuge areas for pedestrians – was implemented in June by NYC DOT after calls for traffic calming from Brooklyn Community Board Six, Park Slope Neighbors, and the Park Slope Civic Council, among others.

Volunteers from Park Slope Neighbors conducted the speed survey as a follow-up to their March 2010 field survey, which was conducted prior to the redesign of Prospect Park West. That study found that 85% of cars were exceeding the speed limit, and a startling 30% were averaging 40 mph or more. The new results demonstrate a huge reduction in speeding – the primary goal of the Prospect Park West project.