Comments on: NYPD Sidewalk Hogs Make Way for Bike Parking and Benches (Updated)

By: Aaron Z

Aaron Z — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:51:41 +0000

So great! And the owners of the cars that were blocking the sidewalk before really can’t complain since they can easily take public transit to work. Or maybe they will even utilize those new bike lanes…

By: Erin

Erin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:16:01 +0000

This is great. This needs to happen everywhere that multiple police cars park on the sidewalk. I know that they sometimes leave enough room to walk (sometimes, although the remaining space is usually not wide enough for ADA compliance), but that’s beside the point. It’s stressful to have cars parked all around you, bumpers jutting upward over the sidewalk. At any time, the driver could put the car in reverse nearly hit a person walking by. This kind of stress should not be tolerated.

Roadways are often 40′ wide (that would be two 11-ft driving lanes and two 9-ft parking lanes, quite standard), and people not in cars fight for two 5-ft wide concrete paths, and sometimes we don’t even get those.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:48:11 +0000

Fantastic. It’s stuff like this that keeps me hopeful for the future!

By: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Clarence Eckerson Jr. — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:19:16 +0000

I love this spot so much, the next time I have to meet someone coming in on a subway to downtown Brooklyn, I am gonna tell them to go here.

By: Kaja

Kaja — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:15:53 +0000

Blown away. This is awesome, all my fives, holy lord.

By: J

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:43:01 +0000

This is fantastic. Hopefully this type of design will become standard at all subway stations. Additionally, planters like this would be welcome around all police stations, fire stations, schools, etc to prevent cops and other public servants from parking on the sidewalk.

By: Mfs

Mfs — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:07:51 +0000

This is the first roadbed reclamation for bike racks but not the first reclamation– the sidewalk build out at Bedford Ave is the first and hopefully not the last of it’s kind.

By: Emily Litella

Emily Litella — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:49 +0000

Actually I am told that DOT would like to make this permanent and may get an opportunity to do so in a later phase of the now in construction Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project.

By: Ian Turner

Ian Turner — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:31:54 +0000

Keith, the DOT budget is enough to do a complete street reconstruction (such as what you suggest) roughly only every 300 years. So, no, without improved government productivity or funding, these will not be rebuild as actual sidewalk extensions.

By: Keith Rand

Keith Rand — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:46:28 +0000

Does anyone know whether there is a plan to make intersections such as these more permanent (aka expanding the sidewalk to a bulbout rather than having the new pedestrian space at street level)?

By: Ed Ravin

Ed Ravin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:36:11 +0000

Now we need to improve the pedestrian flow underground in the station – pedestrians must walk extra mileage underground to reach the turnstiles because of much of the interior station space has been converted into Transit facilities (like the Transit Police, the same folks hogging the sidewalk in the pic above). Many other stations have had entrances re-opened by converting them to Metrocard turnstiles, that’s not possible here because of all the land grab of former pedestrian space in the station.

By: jass

jass — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:23:07 +0000

Looks fantastic. Im also glad to see that the crosswalk is angled to meet the new extension