What’s to stop that from happening to any bike infrastructure, or any pedestrian infrastructure for that matter? What’s to stop some future administration from converting the Hudson River Greenway into a couple more lanes for the West Side Highway?

“In the meantime, couldn’t really clear lane markings on the promenade help abate some of the bike-ped confusion and conflict? I’m talking bright, repeated, multilingual signage. I’m as big a fan of our DOT Commissioner as anyone, but can’t she take this seemingly simple step?”

I bike over the Brooklyn Bridge every day, and if the markings were any more clear, they would have to be replaced by DOT workers physically moving the tourists into the correct lane. I mean, what could possibly be more clear than a thick solid line with an icon of a bike on one side and an icon of a pedestrian on the other side? Not to mention that in my experience the issue is with spillover and photo ops, not because people don’t understand the lane concept.

I’ll also mention that the people who have the most trouble with this seem in my experience to be Americans, not folks from far flung countries who need it spelled out for them in their obscure native language. It’s not like I’m dodging people in African robes or saris or kimonos.

When I first started encountering so many pedestrians on the bridge, I used to get angry and feel righteous about “my” bike lane. I used to holler at the meandering tourists who would be staring through their camera lenses, oblivious to the world around them at that moment. I used to purposely ride past pedestrians and brush my shoulder bag against them to send a little message. What a jerk I used to have been.

Then I thought about it a little. What the hell was I doing? I’m not helping anything by acting this way. In my mind, the Brooklyn Bridge has so much more significance to the city as whole than it does when compared to the five or so minutes that I am on it on my way home from work. So if you ask me, if Sullivan is really concerned about alleviating cyclist/pedestrian relations, then only allow bikes on it from 5AM to 10AM. Its that simple. Obviously this means you’d have to take the Manhattan Bridge at times, and yes, I know, a whole extra half mile is a difficult thing to deal with on a bicycle. But we can’t have everything. Otherwise, leave the bike lane as is and promote a better atmosphere on the bridge with some signs that tell pedestrians to be careful and bikers to SLOW DOWN and treat the visitors of one of NYC’s greatest landmarks with respect.

As far as a new bike lane on the deck goes, I honestly think it’d be a cold day in hell if this ever came to be. I’m not civil engineering expert, and I know new infrastructure in NYC is infinitely complicated to consider, but the effort that would have to go into getting cyclists onto the street level safely just seems impossible to me. However, as I said, I’m no expert and would never discourage anyone from looking into it.

The question I keep asking myself now is, would I use such a bike lane? And I’m not sure. Regardless of the pedestrians I deal with on my way home work, I still enjoy taking the Brooklyn Bridge on my way home solely because of the view. I’m not sure I’d get the same feeling if I wasn’t on an elevated platform where I could see more than the asphalt in front of me. I try to never take it for granted. And I encourage everyone else to try it, all you have to do is slow down.

That said, here are two problems with closing off the Brooklyn Bridge ped path to cyclists:
1) I’m pretty sure that the cycling community doesn’t trust the city to do the right thing in setting up bike lanes on the Brooklyn Bridge itself (I can already hear the angry drivers screaming at cyclists); and
2) the city hasn’t done much to make the Manhattan bridge approaches as safe as those on the Brooklyn Bridge. I’d prefer to ride the Manhattan bridge–but the entrances to the Manhattan bridge are downright crazy compared to those for Brooklyn. Not only that, but the Canal Street leadup to the Manhattan bridge is an absolute nightmare.

Brooklyn Bridge, ideal configuration: 1 elevated pedestrian-only path; on the main deck, 2 automotive lanes (TOLLED), 2 express light rail lanes, 2 local light rail lanes; on an additional elevated structure, a bidirectional bicycle path.

Brooklyn Bridge, even more ideal configuration: cars are banned from the 5 boros, and the 2 automotive lanes are given over to pedestrians and pedestrian amenities. When necessary, small emergency and maintenance vehicles (e.g., streetcleaning machines) can pass through this area.

And vnm’s ideal is the best.

My grandparents’ business was destroyed by the removal of the Myrtle Avenue El. They moved to Long Island and didn’t look back.

Incidentally, in honor of this thread, I used the Brooklyn Bridge to get home from work yesterday. At 7.30pm I counted seventeen (17) bicyclists, and NONE OF THEM ZERO had ANY lights fore or aft. One I didn’t see coming as a result, and he yelled at me for being in the “oncoming” side of the cycle track. One other was traveling much faster than I do, and I move fast.

Given this behavior I think the ped annoyance is entirely acceptable. I also find myself hoping for another NYPD scofflaw-cyclist crackdown.

I’d like to see a complete restoration of the Myrtle Avenue Elevated and the Lexington Avenue Elevated across the bridge, meeting up, as they used to, with today’s J/M/Z. And in separate lanes I’d like to see the bridge carry an extension of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to Red Hook. And of coruse ample bike lanes on the lower level giving peds the full upper deck.

If there is any room left over for cars, they should be charged a toll commensurate with the carbon they emit to the atmosphere and the costs they create in terms of congestion, crashes and frayed nerves.

We already have this route, it’s called the Grand Street Cycle Track which crosses Chrystie Street two blocks north of the Manhattan Bridge. Granted, the route going west, over the (non-protected) Prince Street Bike Lane, is a bit more sketchy but the downtown Bicycle Network is still developing.

One major hurdle is that there are a limited number of through-streets below Houston and too many streets have become access routes for trucks entering either the Holland Tunnel, the Willy B or the Manhattan Bridge. The closest through street below Canal is Worth Street, and that only runs from Chatham Square to the Hudson Street. Those of us who live in the area have argued, for decades, that reworking the whole Verrazzano toll scheme could dramatically reduce congestion in lower Manhattan, but I digress.

Encouraging cyclists to use the Manhattan Bridge is one of the factors that makes the Grand Street Bike Lane key, Not only does it encourage cycling for those wary of trafficas well as shorten the distance for pedestrians crossing Grand Street itself, but it should also should help relieve bicycle congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge by providing safer cross town access to the Manhattan Bridge.

As urban biking has increased, so has anti-bike sentiment. The non-biking populace still outnumbers our cycling crowd by at least a hundred to one. Pedestrians fearful of being clipped by bikers at crosswalks don’t stop and think how grateful they are that bikes aren’t SUVs. We bike riders may see ourselves as eco-friendly contributors to traffic decongestion, but to many pedestrians we are just pests. There is a reason why Bill Thompson concluded that Mayor Bloomberg’s blessing of bike lanes is a point of vulnerability for the incumbent, even in cycle-happy Williamsburg.

As Sullivan argues, the wonderful Brooklyn Bridge walkway is one of those places that is now making a bad relationship worse. A decade or less ago you could walk or bike across the bridge with something approaching a sense of restful solitude. That’s long gone, with more New Yorkers biking everywhere and every tourist guidebook urging a Bridge stroll (followed by the mandatory pizza at the former Patsy’s). On weekends the pedestrian side of the path can barely accommodate the foot traffic.

For almost two decades I’ve been a regular from-and-to-Brooklyn bike commuter. The Manhattan Bridge is best for heading up the East Side, but for Wall Street or Tribeca or the Hudson the Brooklyn is still the only way to go. But after ten minutes on the bridge as a mere pedestrian I’m ready to sign a bike-banning petition.This is an architectural treasure, not a velodrome. Bikers still usually enjoy more personal space on the bridge than walkers, the pedestrians wandering blindly into bike lanes notwithstanding. Yet as a group we bikers can seem selfish and outright rude, thanks to snarling shouts at straying walkers from the off-to-the-races Lycra brigade. Bridge walkers are not all clueless tourists, either. There are plenty of ordinary Brooklynites and Manhattanites headed for work or out on errands while also enjoying the views and fresh air. Not all path-clogging snapshot-takers are out-of-towners either: listen to them talking, if you slow down enough to hear.

So Sullivan is correct: something has to give. Putting bikes on the roadways below with the cars may not be the best alternative, though.

Creating dedicated bike paths on the bridge roadways would reduce an already congested and narrow three-lane bridge crossing to just two, one of which each way is essentially an exit lane, to Cadman Plaza/Fulton Street and the FDR, respectively. The bike paths would have to go on the inside lanes, which makes bridge approaches and exits physically tricky, and probably prohibitively expensive. And they would still snarl inbound and outbound auto traffic, even if adopted as part of a bridge-toll congestion pricing plan.

Here are five alternative ideas, in roughly declining order of ambition:

* Retrofitting: Build new bike paths paralleling the wooden pedestrian walk on each side, some five feet above with light protective fencing, right over the roadway. Use as the undergirding the existing steel framework over the roadways. Horrified preservationists can be reminded that this would be just the latest transport-mode alteration of the iconic span, `and with minor visual impact. Granted, this framework inconveniently ends before the bridge does, in both directions, but extensions could perhaps be cantilevered down to return to the inside walkway entrance and exit. Or, better, on the Manhattan side, create bike flyways from the new overhead bike lanes in and out of City Hall Park.
* Bike speed limits: Coasting down the bridge slopes unimpeded, a bike quickly reaches 15-20 mph, too fast at peak use times given the proximity of pedestrians. Add a little aggressive pedaling and downhill bike speed can exceed 25 mph, a speed that is dangerous to nearby walkers and slower-moving bikers alike. Screaming ‘on your left’ or ‘get off the bleeping bike path’ is not a civicly acceptable compromise. How about a voluntarily observed 10mph cycling limit on the bridge, at least on weekends, perhaps with radar-gun signs signaling a biker’s speed?
* The Coney Island precedent: The boardwalk at the beach is open to bikes from 5 am to 10 am only. That seems to work well, allowing reasonable access to recreational bikers but avoiding conflicts and congestion when pedestrian traffic gets too heavy for both. The Bridge path is quite different, as a weekday commuter route, but it could also be closed to bike traffic after 10 am on weekends when tourism and recreational bridge strolling doubles or triples the average weekday pedestrian flow.
* The Manhattan Transfer: Biking the Manhattan Bridge instead would be more popular if there were a clear, protected east-west bike route between the bridge and the West Side. Build it now, with barriers and signposts and all, a block south of Canal all the way to the Hudson River Greenway. And that includes a rethinking and rebuilding of the current bridge access and exit routes on the Manhattan side, which after the last series of improvements still requires adept dodging of delivery vans, intercity buses, pedestrians and skateboarders.
* And finally, get those City Hall and Board of Ed cars with their spurious parking passes off the bike path in front of City Hall Park. The southbound bike lane directly across from the Brooklyn Bridge entrance should be one of New York’s busiest, but has instead long been a free linear parking lot for assorted municipal functionaries, forcing bikes out into intense traffic or onto the already crowded sidewalk. Fixing this won’t resolve bike-vs.-walker tensions in the greater Bridge area, but it would keep a few more bikers off the sidewalks, away from the buses and out of the emergency rooms. Call it the Broken-Bikepath Theory of Transportation Mismanagement: You can hardly expect your average car-driving civilian to respect bike lanes as no-parking zones if this elemental rule is brazenly flouted by senior city officials in one of the most visible and critical marked bike lanes in the city. Nor can you expect the police to start ticketing parked cars for blocking bike lanes elsewhere if this rule is never enforced right in front of City Hall. Instead, police also use the City Hall bike lane for workday parking.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/towing/towing-capacity/vehicle/curb-weight38.htm

Even the Sequoia and the Land Cruiser, among the most egregious SUVs, are ~5.4Klb fully laden. I think the Hummers qualify for the ban.

Let the cars travel underneath and they should have nothing to be complain about since they will still have all their roadways underneath.

That is what should be done. The bridge will flourish; and, will become an even better place for tourists and New Yorkers alike. The increase in city revenues from the increase in tourism could possibly offset much of the cost for the upgrade. The Gates project in Central Park was supposedly brought in about one-quarter billion dollars.

A Highline-type park adaptation might be also be suitable. It will definitely be quite high.

Fully separated commuter lanes might be a good idea, as they’d certainly remove a lot of current bikers from the bridge. Slow bikers who don’t mind the congestion as much could still use the walkway, but the faster riders who clash most with pedestrians would voluntary ride on the new roadway bike lane. You could even put up a speed limit for the walkway (perhaps 8 mph). For me at least, the scenic view becomes less exciting when you are constantly terrified someone’s gonna jump in front of you, and I would certainly use a protected on-street lane.