Proposed traffic changes on Franklin Ave.

@homeowner

Try this on for size. Cars should be forbidden from using any roadway designated as a bike route including Washington, Vanderbilt, Dean and Bergen. Kind of limits your options huh? I have never once heard you say a bus lane or bike lane makes sense. If I was to ignore every road with trucks on it I would be completely unable to get around. Your idea is completely illogical and has zero "common sense." There is nothing in your description of traffic routes that precludes bike or bus lanes. In fact they are more efficient by allowing a greater number of people to be moved.

As for your whole safety thing it shows you have no experience as a cyclist. Just beacuse a bike lane exists doesn't mean it's safer. In fact given how poorly maintained they can be and how often drivers use them as parking it is occasionally safer for us to use non bike routes. Drivers expect cyclists to stay in bike lanes and don't expect is to take the lane when the bike lane is blocked. Service roads often suffer from these above issues. That being said I favor bike lanes if they exist, are safe and don't require a large deviation from my route. It's obvious you only know "common sense" from a drivers' perspective.

Just like when Barclays got built and everyone freaked out about traffic, people are going to complain about any changes and it usually works out fine.

Incremental changes in adaptable systems do not cause disaster.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tautology_(rhetoric)

@newguy, stop and read what I've actually written. There are eight streets designated as truck routes. I'm not suggesting that you be barred from taking every street with a truck, but that truck routes (those that large trucks are specifically required to take BY LAW) be recognized as being different than any other streets. In my mind this is no different than the prohibition against commercial traffic on parkways. Its simply a recognition that while its possible to put every mode of traffic on the same roadway, its not always best. Its why we have elevated train tracks and underground subways and pedestrian flyovers for highways.

My suggestion is that bikers be precluded from these eight streets only. If you want to put a bike lane on every other street, have at it. I also very clearly stated that on streets where there were options of either a protected bike lane and/or service roads, bikers should be required to use the lanes or those roads and not travel in the same roadway as cars. This is no different than what currently occurs on all of the bridges with bike lanes, on the FDR, and the West Side Highway, yet you seem to overlook all of those practices and demand some legal right to ride somewhere that is less safe. As to your assertion that bike lanes are poorly maintained, I'd suggest that the problem is that the streets generally are poorly maintained, and that the failure of DOT to actually undertake routine maintenance is not some plot against you personally, or something that affects only bikers.

As for my cycling habits, I ride every week (weather permitting) and use primarily secondary or tertiary streets, some with bike lanes and some without. There are some streets I actively avoid, and others that I will go out of my way to take because they are better suited to my skill and comfort levels. I yield to drivers because I recognize that any encounter is probably going to end up not in my favor. Generally, I try to use that "common sense" which you have maligned.

I don't have any empirical data about Barclays either, but I can tell you from lots of first-person anecdotal evidence that some of that freaking out was warranted. Traffic on Flatbush and Atlantic are definitely affected on event days, as is parking in the area. And with Pacific being shut off, the traffic on Bergen between Carlton and Flatbush can get ridiculous. I've missed the light at Flatbush as many as four times sitting in traffic.

Plus Barclays is about to shut down one lane of Atlantic for almost two years: http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2014/06/before-community-meeting-tuesday-esd.html. 

Good for the Barclays Center then.

Good news:   In NYC, the lives of pedestrians and bikers are slowly becoming less cheap.   If you are a politician and people believe that you are trying to save their lives, you now get paid in votes.    

Increasing density will increase some kinds of deaths and problems, and decrease others.

In 10 years, we will get to use the stats to justify or condemn the current efforts.

It will be great.

@whynot_31 Yay! 

The initial markings for the bike lane were painted yesterday. They sit out from the cars on the right side by a couple feet, pushing cars into a pretty narrow slot up the left side of the street. Will be interesting to see how this changes traffic on Franklin. I suspect a lot of cyclists that use Washington and Beford will move onto Franklin and vice versa for some regular Franklin drivers.

"Anyone know why the lane stops at St. Johns?"

II suspect it has to do with the bus stop further down

DOT reverts to 2 traffic lanes for the last two blocks for "storage" reasons - ie. to allow enough cars to build up for the key light at the Franklin/EP junction

Thanks. Makes sense. Not a big deal... by then the cars have been slowed to a point they won't be able to resume the drag race until over the parkway (which they certainly do today).

Love the bike lane from Atlantic to St. John's. Feel much safer riding this stretch.

Kind of related. What's up with the one lonely bike rack outside the subway on EP and Franklin? Very generous DOT.

I'm hearing that the Franklin Ave bike lane might become protected under the latest NYC DOT bike projects. But I've been unable to find anything to substantiate the rumor! Oh please please let it be true! The lane has become a parking and turning lane.