All the Best
Up Mayo

Vehicles get stuck here all the time; and everyone honks.
I live on this corner, and see them getting mashed-up all day long. The main reason is the changeover to a one-way street for the last block of Broadway. ALL southbound traffic has to turn left, east, onto Grand St. This creates a bottleneck and a free-for-all in the other lanes as drivers fight for a way thru.

Worsening the problem is the surplus of bars, so that from Thurs thru Sun eve, noisy drunks are out on this corner hailing cabs. Just one cab stopping at this intersection can create havoc (and honking).

The sudden, and unexpected, one-way barrier is most likely a means to ease traffic on Canal…..which gets backed up due to the Holland Tunnel…..on and on.

My point is that the bike lane may, or may not, create problems at this intersection….but this is minor, and tangential to the root issues.
Enforcing the noise law is not a solution. Honking is a symptom. The main problem needs fixing. The issue is more complex than bike lanes.

Debate on bike lanes, driver behavior, SUVs, Sean Sweeny, and ideas to improve our daily urban experience is great, and useful. But do some homework first; visit the site; come down on a Friday evening and watch.
Contact me, and maybe we can find a way to pressure the city to fix this.
You can piss and moan on blogs…call each other names……or try do do something.

Incidentally,it is not as futile as you may think, my defeatist friend. Schumer’s protege, Senator-elect Dan Squadon and I have talked about it repeatedly. Even on Broome Street during Friday rush-hour traffic. It will never be reversed till we have a Dem Congress. We now have that, more or less. Squadron thinks it is possible. Do you know something he doesn’t? And how the SoHo Alliance chooses to spend(or waste) our money on environmental causes is none of your business, particularly since you have never given a dime, although you are a neighbor.

Furthermore, if you don’t think the SoHo Alliance is not advocating for bike lanes(“unmask your equally self-serving claim to be committed and effective bicycle advocate(s)”), visit: http://www.thevillager.com/index175.html

There are Alliance members present holding up ‘Protect Cyclists’ sign, including myself? Where were you, Charlie? Out on your bike touring somewhere else perhaps?

Also, you can contact Asst. DOT commissioner Forgione who will tell you that I have requested a Broome Street bike lane. I pushed and won for it at the CB2 level, which has a reso endorsing that proposal. TA is pressing for a similar lane on Delancey, hooking up with the Wburg Bridge. Since Delancey merges into Broome, our request to have a Broome Street bike lane is a no-brainer. Do you disagree? I bet not. So, where’s the beef?

Charlie, don’t misrepresent. I did not voluntarily ‘crow’ about my work. You doubted our good works. I supplied you with the record and hopefully educated you.

Sorry that it deflated your stereotype.

As for the rest, while you were throwing resources down the rathole of a well-intentioned but, by your own admission, futile fight to rationalize the Verrazano Bridge toll, I was helping to build an organization (Transportation Alternatives) that has catalyzed a renaissance in cycling, walking and public space provision in NYC and nationwide, and another (Right Of Way) that galvanized civic awareness of and resistance to motorized violence against walkers and bike-riders.

I’ve since moved on. My Rolodex is now geared to even larger causes such as carbon taxes and road pricing. I don’t crow about my work, I just do it.

Since Mr. Komaoff starts at 1986, so shall I.

Back then, while the fledgling TA was indulging in simplistic bike-lane demonstrations, TA or Mr. Komanoff was nowhere in sight when it came to the real source of the downtown traffic mess, namely, the iniquitous reversal in 1986 of the Verrazano Bridge one-way toll on Staten Island.

This ‘temporary experiment’ has dumped millions of polluting trucks and cars seeking to evade the toll in S.I. into lower Manhattan and northwest Brooklyn over the last 22 years. The seasoned activists of the SoHo Alliance did not respond with publicity stunts, instead in 1987 we filed a lawsuit against the MTA and Gov. Cuomo to have the tolls reversed back to the original configuration. Although our legal effort was not successful, SoHo Alliance and its members have continued to persevere, holding elected officials feet to the fire – as recently as last Monday – to reverse this disaster.

If you don’t believe it, please refer to the offices of Sen. Schumer, Congressman Jerry Nadler, NYS senator-elect Daniel Squadron, Speaker Shelly Silver, et alia. They will tell you how I constantly badger them to change the Federal Law (of Al D’Amato) that federally institutionalized a local traffic change in 1990. I apologize in advance that SoHo Alliance focuses on the big picture, and not just bulb-outs on Houston Street, which seems to be Mr. Komanoff’s forte.

Talking of which, in 2007, SoHo Alliance pledged $5000 to Councilmember Alan Gerson to fund a lawsuit against DOT for its placing two dedicated left-hand turns bays on Houston Street to make it easier for cars to idle while making the left-hand turn on Mercer and W. Bdwy. These bays uprooted trees and are sited nowhere else in CB2 except on the West Side Highway! Unfortunately, Gerson was unable to raise the other half of the money, and the lawsuit did not proceed. But the SoHo Alliance puts its money where its mouth is. Do you, Mr. Komanoff? Because if you do and you or your allies wish to come up with the $5000, we can proceed together in action against the DOT for this decidedly pro-car, anti-environment construction project.

And talking about the environment, it was SoHo activists that convinced the Landmarks Commission and the Parks Department to permit trees in SoHo, where they had never been allowed before. We now have dozens of trees and planters. Where were you in this streetscape effort, Mr. Komanoff? Or are trees just not part of your agenda?

I won’t even mention our active participation in demonstrations organized by Trees Not Trucks to stop illegal interstate truck traffic on Broome Street leading to the Holland Tunnel. I never saw Mr. Komanoff or anyone from Streetsblogs once at these rallies. Or aren’t diesel fumes your concern?

The Alliance is currently in NYS Supreme Court as well as the NYC BSA to reverse the building permit granted to Trump SoHo, a mega-project located at the mouth of the Holland Tunnel, which will worsen an environmental and traffic nightmare. We worked, lobbied and demonstrated against this project. Where were you, Mr. Komanoff?

The SoHo Alliance was the lead community group in negotiating with the City Planning Commission in 2005 to remove some 16 parking lots in SoHo to be replaced by housing and retail. This removed about 1000 parking spots in SoHo. Again, Mr. Komanoff, why did you have no involvement in this issue?

Finally, I never said that the Alliance was solely responsible for the Lafayette bike lane. We weren’t. I mentioned our participation because a commenter said we did nothing to get bike lanes. In fact, the SoHo Alliance did lobby DOT for a bike lane on Lafayette Street, independently of TA. It is only yourself to blame that you are unaware of our assistance.

Perhaps if you had reached out, as Teresa Horney of TA did in 2006 regarding a Prince Street traffic survey that we both participated in, our name would be in your Rolodex, Mr. Komaoff. But you didn’t. In over 22 years, you never once reached out for our valuable assistance. All you have done is criticize. And that, Mr. Komanoff, is completely your fault and your style, not the SoHo Alliance’s.

We [SoHo Alliance] requested and got the Lafayette Street bike lane in 1997. Everytime you ride up that bike lane on Lafayette, thank us for it. (#9, above)

has been recycled by Grand Street Resident,

Sean Sweeney was the initial and lone advocate who fought for the installation of bike lanes to begin with!!! Do your homework. (#19)

I feel compelled to respond — notwithstanding that Moser’s fine capsule history of the Lafayette Street lane (#10) nailed Sweeney by pointing out the lane was christened in 1994, not 1997.

I was at the heart of cycle advocacy in NYC from 1986, when I assumed the presidency of Transportation Alternatives, until circa 1993, when I rotated off the T.A. board and also turned over the editorship of our City Cyclist magazine. Everyone who lifted a finger to advance bicycling in NYC during those years hooked up with T.A. at one time or another. My rolodex was stuffed with close to a thousand names — from stalwarts like Charlie McCorkell of Bicycle Habitat to anonymous photographers or bike couriers who took photos or made messenger runs for us. Sweeney’s wasn’t among them. Whatever he was doing with the SoHo Alliance, bike advocacy wasn’t part of it. Similarly, in later years when many of us expanded our focus to pedestrian rights and fighting car mayhem, Sweeney/SoHo wasn’t part of the mix.

As I write, I’m looking at the cover photo of the May-June 1994 City Cyclist showing the Lafayette Street lane. I’m thinking of the years of toil by so many people that went into that piece of infrastructure and similar “wins” for cycling, from full-time bike lanes on the East River bridges and the GWB to improved access to subways and commuter rail. It’s possible that Sweeney and the Alliance helped at some point, but I suspect he has no conception of what it really took to accomplish these positive changes.

Years ago, I had no parking at night signs installed, after many years of lobbying, just so the double parked taxi’s could sit curbside, (instead of double parking) allowing the night traffic to pass.

[...]

The only abatement of honking now is between the hours of 3 and 6 AM and during the day when there are curbside spaces available, allowing traffic flow.

Okay, there’s the solution! Meter the curbside spaces over the weekend, no one will have any reason to double-park, traffic will flow, and people will not honk as much. But no, it’s not so easy.

Perhaps there can be parking on one side of the street only. But car owners will rightfully complain.

So you had the solution all along, but failed to mention it because you have too much sympathy for the car owners.

There are two actions that you acknowledge would resolve the traffic tie-ups: freeing up some space for loading on weekends, or removing the bike lane. Years ago, you got the DOT to make some loading zones, but apparently now that’s not acceptable; it’s the bike lane that has to go.

I love the idea of a bike lane

Just not enough to actually try to make it work.

This is not about my habits, nor my neighbors either, vis a vis groceries or cabs. I am not a car owner and I walk everywhere—and with my groceries! I am not advocating anyone’s bad behavior or habits. I am only reporting what I see and hear. We all know that you cannot instruct people how to behave, especially the out of state visitors trying to find the Holland tunnel or make their way to Chinatown. The passing cars simply need two lanes of traffic.

Carol Friedman: “People cannot exit a cab or take groceries from a car or pause to park without unleashing a honking war.”

Solution to the exiting-a-cab problem: Use mass transit. The MTA has lovely maps that will acquaint you with subway lines and bus routes.

Solution to the groceries-from-a-car problem: Buy a fold-up shopping cart. I use one and so do several 80-year-old ladies in my neighborhood. I see them trundling their groceries through the streets of the UWS every day. The carts are available at any hardware store.

The real problem here is not a bike lane. The real problem is the windshield perspective of Soho residents who are apparently affluent enough to own cars in a place where a car is clearly a luxury, as well as an oppressive, noisy, polluting, menacing presence to everyone else who lives in the area — both your neighborhood and mine, Carol.

Bikers and their lanes are not to blame for this. Drivers are.

That was easy.

Hi Lee, this is a good idea but there is so little parking as it is and car owners will be up in arms. And in another few years, the remaining parking lots will all be gone because condos have been committed to every one of these outdoor lots. These lots may be unaffordable but visitors park there and at least free up the competition for some of the free spots. Years ago, I had no parking at night signs installed, after many years of lobbying, just so the double parked taxi’s could sit curbside, (instead of double parking) allowing the night traffic to pass. Large trucks were leaning on their diesel horns all night long, because the idling taxis would not move and traffic could not pass. Now after all of that work the DOT has created a slightly worse situation. It’s simple math. No one can pass. Period. Perhaps there can be parking on one side of the street only. But car owners will rightfully complain.

The only abatement of honking now is between the hours of 3 and 6 AM and during the day when there are curbside spaces available, allowing traffic flow. When cars are parked on both sides, no one can pass at all. Saturday and Sunday here is now absolute chaos. I have watched the cops from the 1st precinct actually knock on the windows of the cars sitting behind the parked ones to point out to the drivers that they are sitting behind a row of parked cars. True.

The blog bashers should spend a minute and talk to the bartenders at Toad Hall or Lucky Strike or the various shopkeepers on the ground floors. These folks watch the insanity all day long. Everyone on this blog seems caught up in straw man arguments instead of realistically looking at the effects of an ill conceived location for a bike lane.

I am not sure what happened with the Houston Street idea as the street width could handle a bike lane more efficiently. Bike lanes should not exist on a single lane residential street. I love the idea of a bike lane, and this is not a NIMBY situation. This is just a bad situation that now needs to be amended. And the fire trucks truly cannot pass.

THE WAY THE STREET IS SET UP NOW, THERE IS NOT A LANE OR SPACE TO ‘DOUBLE PARK’ THERE IS NO PLACE TO STOP A CAR. PERIOD. YOU ARE SO INTERESTED IN YOUR PLATFORM THAT YOU HAVE NOT EVEN LOOKED AT THE SITUATION.

Well, I have, actually. There’s an entire lane on the north side that is supposed to be for deliveries, as well as the parking that acts as a barrier. You haven’t mentioned either of those, and in fact throughout this entire discussion, the antis have acted as though car traffic and parking is an uncontrollable force of nature that can never be altered. There is apparently no room to modify the current plan, the only thing they will accept is returning it to the previous layout.

I’ll also point out that using all caps is considered “shouting” in a forum like this, and is very rude. Not to mention your insulting language. If you actually want to have

Solution to the exiting-a-cab problem: Use mass transit. The MTA has lovely maps that will acquaint you with subway lines and bus routes.

Solution to the groceries-from-a-car problem: Buy a fold-up shopping cart. I use one and so do several 80-year-old ladies in my neighborhood. I see them trundling their groceries through the streets of the UWS every day. The carts are available at any hardware store.

The real problem here is not a bike lane. The real problem is the windshield perspective of Soho residents who are apparently affluent enough to own cars in a place where a car is clearly a luxury, as well as an oppressive, noisy, polluting, menacing presence to everyone else who lives in the area — both your neighborhood and mine, Carol.

Bikers and their lanes are not to blame for this. Drivers are.

Sounds familiar. Other people, when faced with this kind of situation, have tried to solve the underlying problem rather than scapegoating their potential allies. If you really believe that the drivers don’t live in the area, then where are they from? Why are they there? Is there a way to get them to go somewhere else?

BRILLIANT. WE’LL JUST CONTROL THESE PEOPLE IN THEIR CARS. LETS PUT UP SIGNS ASKING THEM TO BE NICE AND NOT HONK THEIR HORNS. I THINK YOU SHOULD RUN FOR MAYOR. THIS SORT OF BRILLIANCE IS BEING WASTED. OR BETTER, WHY DON’T YOU DIRECT TRAFFIC ON THE CORNER?

People cannot exit a cab or take groceries from a car or pause to park without unleashing a honking war.

Has it ever occurred to you that double-parking is illegal for a reason? That making streets wide enough to double-park compromises safety in a really bad way? That there might be other places to unload a car or get out of a cab besides the driving lane?

YOU ARE JOKING, RIGHT? YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT ENTIRELY. THE WAY THE STREET IS SET UP NOW, THERE IS NOT A LANE OR SPACE TO ‘DOUBLE PARK’ THERE IS NO PLACE TO STOP A CAR. PERIOD. YOU ARE SO INTERESTED IN YOUR PLATFORM THAT YOU HAVE NOT EVEN LOOKED AT THE SITUATION. COME LOOK AT IT ON THE WEEKEND. THE ‘DRIVING’ LANE IS THE ONE AND ONLY THOROUGHFARE !!! THAT IS THE POINT. THERE IS NO CURBSIDE PLACE TO GO. DELIVERIES CANNOT BE MADE. GET OFF YOUR BIKE FOR A MOMENT AND STAND ON THE CORNER ON SATURDAY AND THEN COMMENT ONCE YOU HAVE.

As the video shows, cars turning onto Grand Street mistakenly position themselves behind the lane of parked cars.

This lane has been in place for what, two weeks? But you and Sweeney have been against it from the beginning. Rather than waiting to see if the drivers will get used to the change, you’ve been condemning it from day one.

NO ONE HAS BEEN AGAINST A BIKE LANE. WE HAVE BEEN AGAINST A BIKE LANE ON A SINGLE LANE RESIDENTIAL STREET. AGAIN, COME DOWN ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND WATCH THE INSANITY BEFORE YOU MAKE MORONIC COMMENTS

It’s because he is using status to bash a protected bicycle lane I use every day? I care about having this lane a lot more than I care about you or Sweeny’s feelings, quite frankly, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t consider yourselves “anti-bike” or anti-salad-shooter or anything else, that has never been the point or the charge. You’ve set out to be very publicly anti-this-bicycle-lane (throwing yourselves in front of provocative regional television producers, and now a failed youtube stunt), forcing people that depend on the lane to oppose you just as passionately. There is precious little we could align on, I’m afraid. Hard as it would have been to believe two decades years ago, today it is the “bureaucrats” of the DOT effecting positive change and comfortable artists stooging for the status quo.