Streetsblog New York City

The first Select Bus Service route in Brooklyn is on track to start speeding bus trips next year, after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and NYC Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced yesterday afternoon that the project has secured a $28 million federal grant.

The B44 route on Nostrand, Rogers, and Bedford Avenues, which runs between Sheepshead Bay and Williamsburg, is one of NYC’s most used but least reliable bus lines. Plagued by bus bunching, the B44 took home the Straphangers Campaign’s “Schleppie Award” in 2009 and consistently ranks as Brooklyn’s most unreliable route. After it’s converted to Select Bus Service, the B44 will feature off-board fare collection, dedicated bus lanes along most of the corridor, and 12 bus bulbs to improve speeds and cut down on the amount of time buses spend standing still.

The B44 links Brooklyn residents to Medgar Evers College, Brooklyn College, Kings County Hospital, and SUNY Downstate Hospital, as well as several subway lines. Weekday ridership currently stands at about 44,000 passengers. Not only will they see faster, more reliable service, but the improvements should attract more riders. Following SBS upgrades in Manhattan and the Bronx, more passengers started riding those routes, cutting against a citywide trend of declining bus ridership.

“I think everyone who saw Sandy from near or afar recognized the critical role buses played once the subway system went down, underscoring the value of these types of investments in our transportation infrastructure,” Sadik-Khan said in a press statement. “SBS continues to bring enhanced service to densely populated areas in need of transportation enhancements.”

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The motorist accused of fatally striking a Brooklyn pedestrian while driving drunk this weekend will be charged with manslaughter, Streetsblog has learned.

At around 12:34 a.m. Sunday, William Boney, 49, was crossing Atlantic Avenue at Troy Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant when he was struck by a Lincoln Navigator driven by Carmelo Galloway, 39, according to reports. Boney was declared dead on arrival at Kings County Hospital.

One person who saw the crash said Galloway was accelerating through the intersection to beat the light. Police said he continued driving until stopped by witnesses. From the Daily News:

“The man just came out of this lounge and was crossing the street and the car ran a red light,” said the eyewitness, Donna Roseboro, 48. “He picked up speed. He was trying to make the light and he hit him as the man crossed the street.”

Roseboro said she ran over to try to help the victim, whose contorted body lay in Atlantic Ave., but it was too late.

“His body was all twisted up. He was just laying there,” she said. “He had his eyes open but he wasn’t moving. He did that last gasp for breath and he was gone.”

Initial coverage indicated that Galloway was charged only with DWI. A charge of second degree vehicular manslaughter is forthcoming, according to the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes.

William Boney was the 49th pedestrian or cyclist known killed in New York City traffic this year.

The driver of a private sanitation truck hit and killed a pedestrian at the intersection of Broadway and Myrtle Avenue this morning, according to the NYPD. The driver hit the pedestrian, a man in his 60s crossing Myrtle, at 7:12 a.m and the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

The police, as usual, do not suspect any criminality on the driver’s part.

As Charles Komanoff wrote last summer, this is one in a series of traffic deaths caused by garbage trucks, which seem to be disproportionately dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.

The city's Department of Health has made encouraging physical activity, which can help prevent obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other ailments, a top priority. As part of promoting healthy lifestyles, the Department's Brooklyn District Public Health Office spent last summer studying cyclist behavior in Bedford-Stuyvesant to learn who in that neighborhood travels by bike, and how, so as to better be able to promote cycling in the broader North and Central Brooklyn area. The recently released results [PDF] provide a rare neighborhood-scale look at who cycles, how they ride, and what they think of biking conditions. 

DOH studied cyclists on four blocks with bike lanes. Two, DeKalb Avenue where it crosses Throop and Bedford Avenue where it crosses Fulton Street, had buffered lanes. The others, Tompkins at Putnam and Franklin at Myrtle, had unbuffered painted lanes. The researchers gathered most of their data on cyclist behavior using video cameras, and also conducted more than 300 surveys. 

During the 10 recorded hours at each intersection, spread across the week, over 2,400 cyclists rode through the study areas: more than one per minute at each crossing. Most cyclists -- 89 percent -- rode in the bike lane, and those riders were obstructed by an illegally parked or idling car fully 10 percent of the time captured on camera. 

Demographically, 80 percent of the cyclists were men, with 40 percent identifying as black, 39 percent as white, 15 percent as Hispanic, and two percent as Asian. They tended to be regular commuters, with 65 percent reporting biking for half an hour or more at least five days in the previous week, and most lived in the area.

The survey also underscored the need for further bike safety improvements across the city. Of the cyclists surveyed, 27 percent had been involved in a crash in the last three years alone and a full 74 percent had felt unsafe on their bike. 

One reason that DOH survey is particularly important is the lack of decent data about biking behavior outside Manhattan. DOT's screenline count tracks only the crossings into the Manhattan CBD while a Department of City Planning study from last year looked at Manhattan bike lanes between 2001 and 2008. Census data covers the entire city, but is believed to undercount cycling by ignoring non-commute trips. These Bed-Stuy numbers may only be a one-year snapshot of a single neighborhood, but it's all part of painting a fuller picture of New York City cyclists. 

Yesterday the Straphangers Campaign awarded Brooklyn's B44 the Schleppie Award in recognition of its status as the most unreliable bus route in the city. Over 20 percent of B44 buses, which run on the Nostrand Avenue corridor, arrive either bunched together or very far apart. About 42,000 people endure the route's maddening inconsistency every weekday.

The Schleppie came five days after several prominent New York City Democrats lent their support to the Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association at a small press event protesting plans to upgrade B44 service. Brooklyn's first Select Bus Service corridor is slated for Nostrand and Rogers Avenue, with implementation projected for 2011. The package of improvements would alleviate exactly the problems that B44 riders put up with.

In light of the B44's new Schleppie, I called Council Member Tish James, whose office sent out the alert for Saturday's presser, to get her views on enhancing bus service. While James said she favors bus improvements, she made her support for Select Bus Service conditional. "Given the poor service and the lack of reliability I believe we need to improve service," she said. "At the same time, we have to balance the interests of businesses and improving mass transit."

"The question is the parking, and will this generate more foot traffic or less," she added. More than two thirds of households in James's district do not own a car, and neighboring districts are equally dependent on transit. So I asked if she thought faster, more reliable buses might attract more foot traffic to shops along Nostrand. James said an uptick was plausible, but that merchants "need to hear that from DOT."

While James said DOT has informed her the Nostrand Avenue configuration would differ from Select Bus Service on Fordham Road in the Bronx -- which converted a curbside parking lane to an exclusive bus lane -- she wants the agency to show merchants a specific plan.

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With extremely low turnout expected for tomorrow's mayoral election, Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg canvassed the city over the weekend trying to drum up some enthusiasm for their candidacies. For Thompson, the itinerary included a stop in Bedford Stuyvesant this Saturday to protest plans for improving bus service along Nostrand Avenue.

Hopping off the campaign truck at the corner of Fulton and Nostrand, Thompson and the entire citywide Democratic ticket joined local council rep Tish James for a quick show of solidarity with Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association president Lindiwe Kamau. Kamau takes issue with bus improvements planned for Nostrand because, she claims, dedicated bus lanes will eliminate curbside parking along the corridor. Here's the thing: The most recent renderings of Select Bus Service on Nostrand [PDF] depict buses operating in an existing travel lane. The curbside parking lane would still be there.

That didn't stop Thompson, James, John Liu, and Bill de Blasio from lending their support for a few minutes, standing beside Kamau and repeating stock phrases about "protecting small businesses." The biggest constituency they addressed appeared to be the press. About four reporters were on hand, outnumbering Nostrand Avenue merchants by approximately four-to-one. After a light cycle or two, the pols hopped back on the truck and were driven away.

If the Democratic ticket had walked over to the B44 stop around the corner, they would have found a much larger and more captive audience to address. Their message might not have gone over very well though.

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For a sense of the challenge that lays ahead for congestion pricing supporters, take a look at the mailer that Brooklyn Democratic State Senator Velmanette Montgomery sent to all of her constituents last week. Montgomery has a smart, engaged staff when it comes to transportation policy and she has often been helpful when it comes to Livable Streets issues.

Her 18th Senatorial District covers Bed-Stuy, Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, Gowanus and Sunset Park -- a swath of Brooklyn that is absolutely pummeled by regional through-traffic and epidemic asthma rates. Clearly, Montgomery's district stands to gain more than most from reductions in traffic congestion and improvements to mass transit and air quality.

Yet, in her mailing, Montgomery says Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan "is silent as to the benefits for the outer boroughs and for upper Manhattan." For that and other reasons she has "major reservations" about the proposal. Montgomery then presents a number of informational points and objections to the pricing plan while offering no suggestion of any benefits to her constituents. 

One of the arguments stands out. Montgomery writes, "The congestion pricing measure will not help asthma sufferers." That one appears to be pulled directly from pricing opponents' talking points and, by most reliable accounts, is not based in fact.

If the Senate Democrats matter in the coming debate then, clearly, congestion pricing supporters have some work to do.

If you get congestion pricing mailings and letters from your elected officials, please send them to Streetsblog. Find Montgomery's mailing, in full, after the jump...

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The Shuttle, as seen from Brevoort Place.

This four-stop line deteriorated and was nearly abandoned by the MTA in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Instead, after community opposition, it was restored for $74 million in 1999, although one station, Dean Street, was closed. Does anybody know more details about the community advocacy that led to the preservation of the line?