Image: NYCDOT

Eric McClure of Park Slope Neighbors files this report.

Last night, the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 unanimously endorsed a plan by the Department of Transportation to calm traffic on Prospect Park West through a major street redesign.

The plan features the implementation of New York City's first on-street, two-way, physically separated bike lane, which will run alongside Prospect Park on the east side of Prospect Park West, and will be protected by a four-foot striped buffer and a parking lane. In order to accommodate the new bike lane, Prospect Park West will be reduced from three south-bound travel lanes to two, and the remaining lanes will be narrowed to ten feet each.

The planned changes address two major issues: the need for northbound bicycle access on Prospect Park West, for which there has been strong demand, according to DOT Bicycle Program Coordinator Josh Benson; and a major problem with speeding, which has been a longtime concern of residents and neighborhood activists.

Preston Johnson, DOT's project manager for the Prospect Park West redesign, highlighted the problems caused by the street's current configuration. At nearly 50 feet wide and with three travel lanes, the street encourages high speeds and reckless driving, forces pedestrians to make long crossings, and lacks dedicated cycling space, despite a high volume of bicycle traffic. Prospect Park West's existing vehicle volume, which peaks at about 1,100 cars per hour, can easily be accommodated by two lanes, Johnson said.

In field surveys last month, DOT found that more than 70 percent of the cars on Prospect Park West were exceeding the 30 mph speed limit, and at least 15 percent were traveling at 40 mph or faster. From 2005 to 2007, there were 58 reported crashes on Prospect Park West.

In addition to the the two-way bike lane and buffer, the street redesign will include concrete pedestrian refuge islands, which will significantly shorten the crossings at intersections, and extensive new landscaping under the DOT's Greenstreets program. Parking spaces will be maintained along Prospect Park West with the exception of approximately two spaces at each signalized intersection.

The plan was enthusiastically received by the CB 6 transportation committee and an audience of about three dozen people. Board members raised some concerns about the lack of dedicated signalization for cyclists, especially those riding northbound. In a unanimously approved motion introduced by transportation co-chair Joanne Foulke, the committee asked DOT to include north- and southbound signals for cyclists, some daylighting measures, and dedicated drop-off zones in the final redesign. Roger Melzer, a 30-year Prospect Park West resident, was the only person to speak against the plan, saying that he feared the loss of a travel lane would create a "nightmare" of double-parking near the 9th Street park entrance.

Said Jeff Prant, a Park Slope resident, Transportation Alternatives board member and long-time advocate for livable streets, "I never thought I'd see the day when a proposal to remove an entire lane of traffic would encounter virtually no objection."

The Board chairs would not entertain a question from a resident regarding the possibility of converting Prospect Park West to two-way traffic, in conjunction with a similar reconfiguration of Eighth Avenue, asking that the discussion be limited to the proposal on the table. DOT's Benson, however, said that he thought such a change would create problems with additional signal movements at Grand Army Plaza, but he didn't rule out the possibility of further design changes over the long term.

According to DOT, the Department of Design and Construction will likely begin implementing the Prospect Park West redesign in September, and the full build out would take a few months.

In addition to the Prospect Park West changes, DOT announced that it is planning to permanently close the 3rd Street park entrance to vehicles beginning next month. In conjunction with the closure, DOT will stripe new bike and pedestrian lanes into and out of the park at 3rd Street, with the intent of reducing conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians. DOT will also permanently close the vehicle exit at 16th Street and Prospect Park South, so that all cars entering the park at Grand Army Plaza will exit at Park Circle. The park's West Drive is open just two hours each weekday, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

DOT also presented a plan for a traffic-calming redesign on Baltic Street between Hoyt and Bond Streets, a very wide block that has been plagued by speeding. The plan involves the installation of a landscaped 10-foot median, three lanes of parallel parking (two on either side of the eastbound south side of Baltic and one on the westbound side), and pedestrian refuges at the intersections with Hoyt and Bond. DOT cited the redesign of the north end of Carlton Avenue as an example. DOT also plans to implement a Class III bike lane on this stretch of Baltic Street, with "sharrows" to indicate shared road space for cars and bikes.

How fast do cars travel on Prospect Park West? Criminally fast. All the time. Members of Park Slope Neighbors clocked cars routinely exceeding the 30 mph speed limit -- including one sociopath racing at 65 mph -- during a ten-minute stretch earlier this month. Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue form a one-way pair funneling drivers to and from the free East River bridges and the Prospect Expressway, a configuration that makes for hazardous conditions. Last summer a school bus driver struck and killed cyclist Jonathan Millstein on Eighth Avenue. A few weeks ago a 57-year-old pedestrian was nearly killed a couple of blocks away from the Millstein incident. Parents are afraid to walk with their children across the corridor's dysfunctional intersections. NYPD enforcement is sorely lacking.

In addition to turning these beautiful and historic neighborhood streets into mini-highways, the current design of Prospect Park West and Eighth Avenue helps to create a never-ending bottleneck on Union Street below Grand Army Plaza. Because the avenues are one-way, virtually every motorist heading from Park Slope to Grand Army Plaza gets funneled on to Union Street.

Recent adjustments to signal timing haven't solved the speeding problem, so the Neighbors are asking DOT to improve safety by restoring the avenues to two-way traffic flow. You can sign a petition to DOT that also calls for a two-way protected bike path on Prospect Park West and full traffic-calming on both avenues. Here's an intriguing piece of background on the campaign:

This would actually be a "restoration" project, as 8th Avenue was changed from two-way travel to its current one-way northbound configuration on June 10th, 1930 by order of the NYPD -- because they felt there was too much northbound traffic on 8th Avenue's one northbound lane. Rather than switching Prospect Park West to two-way travel (we believe it, too, was originally a two-way street, but have been unable to find conclusive evidence to that effect) to accommodate that traffic, they saddled Park Slope with nearly eight decades of bad road design, which is why we're asking DOT to "Reverse the Curse" and restore the original traffic pattern.

Evicted from their Park(ing) Day spot by the 78th Precinct last month, Park Slope Neighbors (with the PD's permission) observed the event over the weekend. StreetFilms' new producer Elizabeth Press was there, talking to participants, passers-by and motorists who support human-oriented use of valuable public space.

There will be a Park(ing) Day celebration tonight in lower Manhattan, hosted by The Open Planning Project and Transportation Alternatives. Don't forget to RSVP.

A crowd of about 65 people were on-hand for DOT's presentation and the Q&A period that followed. Supporters outnumbered opponents of the plan by a two-to-one margin, at least. And the composition of the crowd highlighted a stark generational divide, with opponents of seemingly all falling into the 45-to-80 age bracket.

I'm Seeing Green has a report on the meeting and the arguments that were put forward in opposition to the bike lane portion of the plan in particular. The blog notes:

What was missing from it all was a feeling that maybe, just maybe, the roads could be for us all... bikes, cars, trucks, buses and walkers. Being a strong proponent of shared streets, it was sad for me to see so many staking out their personal positions without regard to the larger picture.

Prior to the meeting, Borough President Marty Markowitz weighed in with a letter of support for the 9th Street "Road Diet" plan. "I believe that it incorporates traffic calming measures which are much desired by the greater Park Slope community," he wrote. "I would therefore like to indicate my support for the concepts presented in this proposal." No word on whether Road Diets would become part of the BP's annual "Lighten Up Brooklyn" public health campaign. 

A staffer from Velmanette Montgomery's office was handing out letters of support from the State Senator at the front door. And Council Member Sara Gonzalez sent a representative to read a strong letter of support at the beginning of the meeting. Council Member Bill de Blasio has, likewise, expressed support for the plan. State Senator Eric Adams and Assembly Member Jim Brennan, both of whom have expressed doubts about the plan, were not present at the meeting.

Along with the more than 350 letters generated by Park Slope Neighbors, Transportation Alternatives and Streetsblog readers, the approval of these elected officials virtually guarantees that DOT has more than enough public support to go forward with its 9th Street plan regardless of how the full Community Board votes on June 13.

So, good work, folks. I would say that this is a win. But stay tuned!

The neighborhoods of north Brooklyn have long been some of the most abused by regional traffic and transportation policy. So, it is not a surprise to see that the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has managed to convince twenty-eight Brooklyn neighborhood organizations to sign-on to a strongly worded letter urging Mayor Bloomberg to "formulate and implement a thorough, urgent traffic management and relief strategy."

The groups signing-on to the letter (Disclaimer: My neighborhood organization, Park Slope Neighbors, is one of them) say that they support "well-planned growth," but add:

The city's traffic situation dictates that development must be mass transit oriented, and be planned and implemented concurrently with significant transportation improvements. These improvements must effectuate policies designed to defend and enhance quality of life in our neighborhoods.

Because of the Bloomberg Administration's failure to "articulate clear, goal-oriented transportation policies or priorities" the groups note that, "worthy city transportation initiatives are few, and many drift along as studies, failing to deliver any public benefit."

They urge the Mayor to "implement a people-first policy in our neighborhoods" and suggest that: 

Traffic engineers should not be in charge of the character of our neighborhoods. City planners who understand place-making and know how to converse and work with residents should be.

Finally, the groups come right and suggest that a full-scale overhaul of the city's transportation bureaucracy might be in order:

We would appreciate a reply from your office on these serious matters. We do not want another letter from the transportation department about why nothing can be done and how years of more study are required before any decisions can be made or anything concrete can be accomplished. The city must do a better job than that and test more innovations on a practical basis. If that requires changing institutional arrangements within city government to get more done, we encourage you to proceed in that direction.

July 13, 2006
Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor
City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
Re: Need for new transportation policies
Dear Mayor Bloomberg:

Our organizations write to call on your administration to formulate and implement a thorough, urgent traffic management and relief strategy for Brooklyn and the entire city.

Traffic and transportation have been significant quality of life, environmental and public safety problems throughout Brooklyn for many years. Now, booming development and city government's failure to link transportation infrastructure improvement and traffic management to ambitious development policies are blanketing our streets with cars and trucks.

Worsening traffic congestion and transportation capacity problems may indeed prove to be limiters to development. We want you to know that our organizations support well-planned growth in Brooklyn and all of New York City. But the city's traffic situation dictates that development must be mass transit oriented, and be planned and implemented concurrently with significant transportation improvements.  These improvements must effectuate policies designed to defend and enhance quality of life in our neighborhoods and leverage and enhance the huge investment New York has already made in mass transit and vibrant neighborhoods, such as people-first "traffic calming" plans for residential streets.

Your administration must articulate clear, goal-oriented transportation policies or priorities, such as San Francisco's "transit first" policy, which also encompasses development projects. Because this administration has thus far failed to do so, worthy city transportation initiatives are few, and many drift along as studies, failing to deliver any public benefit. Consider for example:

* The rezoning of Downtown Brooklyn addressed transportation in a superficial fashion, creating the need for a remedial study by the city which has proceeded at a snail's pace and shows no sign of reaching a conclusion or being translated into real improvements.

* An ambitious and widely supported "traffic calming" plan developed by the city for Downtown Brooklyn and surrounding neighborhoods - aiming to create better pedestrian conditions and deter excessive traffic - was unilaterally discarded by the traffic engineering-minded NYC Dept. of Transportation.

* The rezoning of Williamsburg and Greenpoint will fuel steep growth in the area's population, but the city's plan simply declined to address transportation issues. Subway overcrowding is already a problem there. The city's transportation commissioner recently refused a request by elected officials to undertake a transportation plan for the district to address the traffic and mass transit pressure that rezoning-induced growth will create.

* City government has failed for decades to address the absence of any mass transit capacity increase for Brooklyn, the city's most populous borough, most recently in the MTA's 2005-2009 capital investment program.

* A joint city/MTA study of "bus rapid transit" options to get our buses moving through traffic congestion has taken years to reinvent a concept for redesigned bus stops and lanes recommended by NYC Transit in the early 1990s. This low-cost, high-yield transit capacity application is sweeping transportation planning around the globe but is being taken up in New York at the pace of the B63 bus. The schedule for implementation is unclear. If other NYC DOT initiatives are any guide, it is unlikely anything will ever be done.

* The city began a review of truck routes and the laws and rules that are supposed to govern them, with a view to reducing truck impacts on communities, during Mayor Giuliani's administration. The study has recently been completed, but many of its common-sense recommendations could have been implemented years ago. Brooklyn neighborhoods have yet to see any tangible benefit from nearly a decade of work.

We urge you to take the bull by the horns and adopt new perspectives, priorities and projects with a sense of urgency regarding transportation in Brooklyn.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

City government should acknowledge that:

1.      There are limits to the traffic impacts that city neighborhoods can bear.

2.      Booming development requires improvements to mass transit and the street infrastructure.

3.      There are tradeoffs that need to be made between moving as many cars as possible and streets that work well for communities, pedestrians, buses and bicyclists.

4.      Neighborhoods need more protection from ever-increasing volumes of trucks. 

NEW PRIORITIES

Implement a people-first policy in our neighborhoods. Traffic calming should take precedence over traffic flow. The city should fully implement its Downtown Brooklyn traffic calming program and extend it to other neighborhoods. It is needed to protect residential areas from cut-through traffic, trucks on inappropriate routes and to maintain and improve the neighborhood qualities that make Brooklyn a great place to live. Traffic engineers should not be in charge of the character of our neighborhoods. City planners who understand place-making and know how to converse and work with residents should be.

NEW CAPACITY

The city should take the lead in developing a comprehensive look at Brooklyn's mass transit capacity in light of development and demographic trends and promote an official city government agenda for Brooklyn mass transit capacity expansion. We cannot begin too soon to promote ideas for the next MTA 5-year rebuilding program (2009-2014). We understand that NYC Transit is not a city-controlled agency but we nonetheless expect our Mayor to represent our interests when it comes to NYC Transit and the MTA. 

Mr. Mayor, you can wield tremendous influence and leverage over these agencies if you exert it. For example, you were able to win Transit's cooperation in the creation of the recently-released Staten Island transportation plan. We urge you to do this on an even more ambitious scale here in Brooklyn.

NEW POLICY

The city must explicitly adopt transit and pedestrian-oriented development guidelines that include:

1.      Zoning policy changes that eliminate parking requirements and impose Manhattan-like parking limits in built-up areas or areas zoned for high density.

2.      Residential parking permits in areas beset with commuter,
entertainment or other non-resident generated demands for non-residential parking.

3.      Straightforward discussion of the transportation impacts of major developments. Current EIS practices of obfuscating or papering over impacts are counterproductive.

4.      Street management priorities that include practical application of "bus rapid transit" systems on as many bus routes as possible, as soon as possible, not many more years of consultant studies.

5.      Incentives for transit-oriented development, such as density or financial bonuses for large retailers that limit parking construction in areas near transit lines.

We would appreciate a reply from your office on these serious matters. We do not want another letter from the transportation department about why nothing can be done and how years of more study are required before any decisions can be made or anything concrete can be accomplished. The city must do a better job than that and test more innovations on a practical basis. If that requires changing institutional arrangements within city government to get more done, we encourage you to proceed in that direction.

Sincerely,

Bay Ridge Community Council
Boerum Hill Association
Brooklyn Heights Association
Carlton Avenue Block Association
Cobble Hill Association
Fort Greene Association
Gowanus Community Stakeholder Group
Neighbors Against Garbage
North Brooklyn Alliance
North Brooklyn Development Corp.
Pacific 400 Block Association
Park Slope Civic Council
Park Slope Neighbors
Polish Slavic Center Community Services
Pratt Center for Community Development
Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council
Prospect Heights Parents Association
Prospect Lefferts United for Services
Save Our Streets (SOS) of Greenpoint
South Midwood Residents' Association
Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Union Street Block Association
United Jewish Organization of Williamsburg
United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park (UPROSE)
The Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association
Vox Pop
Waterfront Preservation Alliance of Williamsburg and Greenpoint
Williamsburg Watch

 On June 9, 2005, one year ago tomorrow, 28-year-old pro bono lawyer and Park Slope resident, Elizabeth Kasulis Padilla was hit by a truck and killed on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Prospect Place while riding a bicycle to her new job at the Brooklyn Bar Association.

Since that day, members of Park Slope Neighbors have been working to get the New York City Department of Transportation to make bicycle safety improvements along the narrow stretch of Fifth Avenue between Carroll and Dean Streets.

Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am at the corner of Prospect Place and Fifth Avenue, Park Slope Neighbors, Transportation Alternatives and the Park Slope Civic Council, along with elected officials, local bike commuters will gather to honor Elizabeth Padilla, read a letter from her family, and to announce the bicycle safety improvements that the Department of Transportation has agreed to make in response to our requests.

After the brief memorial, cyclists will participate in a group ride to DOT headquarters in Manhattan at 40 Worth Street. There, DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall will be presented with a letter calling for stronger street design standards to encourage bicycle commuting by better protecting New York City's cyclists.

* * * * *

Elizabeth Padilla worked as a pro bono lawyer and legal services coordinator with the Brooklyn Bar Association and was a tireless volunteer with a number of organizations. After graduating from Cornell, Ms. Padilla spurned a six-figure starting salary with a Silicon Valley law firm to do poverty law.

She worked at the Family Center in New York, providing pro bono legal services to indigent persons suffering from terminal illnesses, primarily people living with HIV-AIDS. She volunteered for Human Rights Watch, taught English as a second language to immigrant high school students, and worked in a soup kitchen run by New York Cares. A cyclist, swimmer and marathoner, as well as a personal trainer, Ms. Padilla was a member of the Achilles Club, an organization that enables people with all sorts of disabilities to participate in mainstream athletics.

DETAILS:

What: A memorial for Elizabeth Padilla followed by a group ride to DOT

Commissioner Iris Weinshall's office in Manhattan to call for stronger bike safety measures.

Where: In front of 79 Fifth Avenue, at the corner of Prospect Place, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

When: Friday, June 9th, 8:00 am

Who: Members of family, Park Slope Neighbors, Transportation Alternatives, Park Slope Civic Council, Visual Resistance, Councilmembers David Yassky and Bill DeBlasio and Community Board 6 and neighborhood cyclists.