A rendering of what Lafayette Avenue might look like with a protected bike lane. Image: jacob-uptown

Hilda Cohen, Ali Loxton and 1,600 petition-signers are asking for a painted bike lane and a road diet on Brooklyn’s Lafayette Avenue: They’re hoping to calm traffic and improve the area’s bike network by turning one traffic lane into a bike lane, and they helped persuade Brooklyn Community Board 2 to ask NYC DOT to revisit the idea.

Streetsblog reader jacob-uptown asks: What if you reallocated that space to build a parking-protected bike lane and pedestrian refuges?

By flipping the bike lane and the parking lane, he suggests, cycling and crossing the street would be that much safer. He Photoshopped the image to demonstrate what a protected bike lane might look like on Lafayette (current conditions are below).

Like what you see?

Last October, two drivers traveling at high speeds crashed at the corner of Lafayette and Vanderbilt, jumping the curb. Photo: Fort Greene Patch

There’s still a long way to go before an official redesign moves forward, but Cohen and Loxton’s impressive organizing has revived the idea of redesigning Lafayette, and it’s a great case study in how to mobilize for safer streets.

Cohen and Loxton both live in Fort Greene and bike, walk and drive on Lafayette with their kids. They told the CB 2 committee last night that the street feels like it’s geared more toward fast-moving cars than people, with two eastbound traffic lanes and two parking lanes. The galvanizing moment for them came last October, when two drivers crashed at high speeds at the corner of Lafayette and Vanderbilt Avenue, jumping the curb outside a packed church.

The next week, they started gathering signatures supporting “traffic calming and a bike lane” on Lafayette. Their regular sign-up spot was the farmers market by Fort Greene Park. Since the weekend of the New York City marathon in early November, 1,500 people have signed the petition in writing and another 100 have signed it online.

“You would just say ‘Lafayette’ and people would want to talk to us,” said Loxton. “In the cold, they would stop.”

Cohen said petition-signers described Lafayette as a “notorious speedway,” and parents shared fears of letting 10-year-old kids cross the street alone. On a recent Friday evening, she clocked drivers routinely exceeding the speed limit by 7 – 10 mph.

Under the banner “Make Lafayette Safer,” Cohen and Loxton propose extending the Lafayette Avenue bike lane from Fulton Street to Broadway, preferably on the left-hand side of the street, and adding sidewalk extensions and more prominent crosswalks at intersections. In addition to providing a useful new link in the bike network, especially for cyclists heading east from the Manhattan Bridge or neighborhoods on the other side of Flatbush Avenue, striping the bike lane could curb speeding by reducing excessive capacity for car traffic.

Following the committee vote, there will probably be another vote at the full Community Board before DOT puts out a plan to redesign Lafayette. (“If we hear a lot of support from the community, that could move things forward,” said DOT’s Chris Hrones last night.) There may also be some action at Community Board 3, which covers Lafayette east of Classon Avenue.

While “Make Lafayette Safer” has the backing of City Council Member Tish James and the Fort Greene Association, a Lafayette redesign is no gimme. Most committee members who spoke last night seemed to be open to change, but there’s more apprehension on the board than the final vote lets on. Committee member Nancy Wolf questioned why a bike lane was needed to calm traffic: “There are a lot of ways to do that that don’t involve a bike lane.” And Board Chair John Dew framed the potential conversion of a motor lane to a bike lane as a loss: “Downtown Brooklyn has changed so much, with a new park, new condos, a new arena. We’re not getting any more streets. We’re losing streets.” (Replied one committee member: “It makes it more urgent to look at issues like this to slow traffic and makes streets safer.”)

Supporters of redesigning Lafayette for greater safety made a strong showing last night too, crowding the room and speaking extensively about their experiences on the street. It will take a few more evenings like that before the vision of a safer Lafayette reaches fruition.

More than 1,400 people signed a petition to extend the Lafayette Avenue bike lane east, though a compromise might only connect it to Carlton Avenue.

A Brooklyn bike lane scuttled during last winter’s anti-bike frenzy is back on the agenda thanks to some intrepid citizen activism. More than 1,400 people have signed a petition to paint a bike lane on Lafayette Avenue, reports the New York Times’ The Local blog, and the local community board will be revisiting the issue this coming Tuesday.

Right now, there isn’t a great eastbound bike route through the area. A bike lane runs on Lafayette for a few blocks from Flatbush Avenue to Fulton Street, while another eastbound route runs on Willoughby Avenue, five blocks north of Lafayette. The Lafayette lane would serve as a matched pair to the existing westbound lane on DeKalb Avenue. Another benefit of the bike lane would be traffic calming; the proposed design would remove one of two motor vehicle lanes.

Supporters are hoping to extend the Lafayette lane a full 2.7 miles to Broadway, but The Local reports that a compromise might extend the lane only five blocks in order to connect riders crossing Flatbush to the northbound Carlton Avenue lane, where they could zigzag up to Willoughby.

Despite the show of public support for the lane, the debate Tuesday evening is sure to be contentious, given the project’s history. While Community Board 2 never formally voted the bike lane down, the Department of Transportation withdrew its plans to stripe the lane in the face of opposition last March.

Those interested in speaking on the issue should attend the meeting of CB 2′s transportation committee Tuesday night at 6:00 p.m, held at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street.

In what’s starting to be an annual tradition, Streetsblog’s first reader-submitted photo of 2012 shows a bus stop pole brought low by the impact of a motor vehicle. 2011 got off to a similar start.

This is the B69 stop at Vanderbilt and Atlantic, a stone’s throw from where Forest City Ratner and the Empire State Development Corporation want to build an enormous surface parking lot, beckoning people to drive to the new Barclays Center arena. The motorist who slammed into this pole had to drive across the Vanderbilt Avenue bike lane before wrecking city property. NYPD’s public information office had no details about the incident, which indicates that any bus riders or cyclists present at the time of the crash escaped with their lives intact.

Before the holidays, we caught word of three other curb-jumping incidents in Manhattan, at least two of which were known to have caused serious injuries. Not even the sidewalks are safe from driver recklessness. Meanwhile, City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca spent the end of 2011 on a media tour talking up his commitment to bike enforcement.

This crash occurred in the 88th Precinct. The commanding officer there is Deputy Inspector Anthony Tasso. If you’re concerned about traffic safety and want the 88th to do something about it, you can bring it up at the next community council meeting. The 88th Precinct community council meets on the third Tuesday of each month. Locations vary. Call ahead (718 636-6526) to confirm meeting dates and times.

“People can enjoy it now, and have been since about five minutes after the street was closed,” said Phillip Kellogg, the manager of the Fulton Area Business Alliance, which sponsored the plaza. Five minutes after the work crews left, he said, a skateboarder was trying out the new space. Immediately after tables and chairs were put out, locals brought out their chess sets. People escaped the heat of the laundromat and waited for their loads to finish out in the fresh air. “Everybody’s been giving it a thumbs up,” said Kellogg.

The plaza, still only a week old, has so far been the boon for business that the FAB hoped it would be. “Enhancing the pedestrian experience along Fulton makes it more appealing to walk on Fulton Street, to shop and come to our restaurants and get dinner or a drink,” said Kellogg. That theory was put to the test on Sunday and passed with flying colors, he added, convincing even the skeptical businesses that the plaza works, so far. “The deli sold a lot of soda and seltzer. The cafés were jam-packed, with lines out the door.”

Because Fulton cuts through the Fort Greene and Clinton Hill grids diagonally, said Kellogg, there are lots of underutilized triangular spaces created at three-way intersections. In addition to the Putnam plaza, which was built quickly with less permanent materials, FAB is also sponsoring the Fowler Square plaza, at the intersection of Fulton, Lafayette Avenue and South Elliott Place, which is going through the DOT’s formal plaza program and will be built with higher-quality materials. Right now, Fowler Square “is the kind of place where people just walk through on the way to somewhere else,” said Kellogg. “It’s really important that people realize that it’s theirs.”

Assembly Member James Brennan wants the state government to force more parking into Atlantic Yards. Image: NYS Assembly.

Brennan is working on legislation that would force Forest City Ratner to build more off-street parking at the Atlantic Yards site, as was first reported in the Park Slope Patch. Currently, an 1,100 parking space surface lot is slated for the site.

Tonice Sgrignoli, a legislative aide for Brennan, said the legislation is still being researched and no details are available at this point. According to Sgrignoli, ESDC eliminated a requirement to build underground off-street parking that had been in an earlier agreement with Forest City Ratner and this legislation would likely undo that change.

When Streetsblog asked why Brennan thought that Atlantic Yards should have more parking in the first place, Sgrignoli replied that “Anyone who’s ever tried to drive a car and park it in that area will understand why it’s important to provide parking.”

Hopefully, Brennan himself has a more sophisticated understanding of parking policy. As former Boerum Hill Association president Jo Ann Simon said, no conceivable amount of off-street parking is going to free up on-street spaces so long as they are cheaper than going to a garage and available to anybody. “If people drive there, they will always try and find something free on the street,” she said. What happens on-street — many in the area, including Simon, have long pushed for residential parking permits — Simon said, “is entirely irrelevant to whether there should be more off-street parking to serve the arena.”

Simon’s argument is borne out by the reality at Yankee Stadium. There, despite a whopping 9,000 off-street spaces, area residents still complain that on-street parking is impossible on game day, according to a Crain’s report.

Moreover, building extra parking will simply mean that more people are able to drive to the area instead. “Brennan’s proposal to compel more off-street parking in one of New York City’s most transit-accessible locations betrays a terrible lack of understanding regarding transportation and mobility,” said University of Pennsylvania parking expert Rachel Weinberger. “His idea will invite more traffic through his district, more traffic in adjoining districts, and by requiring all of that parking, other development is preempted.”

Agreed Simon, “You induce drivers if there is parking there.”

Steven Higashide of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which has analyzed the plans for Atlantic Yards and is a member of the Brooklyn Speaks coalition, said that underground parking had been a part of the Atlantic Yards plans, but was removed when the amount of development planned was scaled back.

“The only way Atlantic Yards can become part of a vibrant urban fabric is if the city and developer work to reduce driving to the site,” said Higashide. “Providing hundreds or thousands of extra parking spaces won’t do that.”

Plans for affordable and supportive housing at the Navy Green wouldn't have been possible if the city had insisted on its parking requirements. Image: The Local

Last month, builders broke ground on Fort Greene’s Navy Green project, which, when completed, will add 458 homes between the Navy Yard and the BQE. A full three-quarters of the project will be affordable to families earning between 30 and 130 percent of the area median income, and 97 of those residences will be supportive housing, offering social services in addition to shelter.

Such affordable prices for housing wouldn’t have been possible had Navy Green been subject to the area’s parking requirements. Nor would the 32,000 square feet of open space included in the project. Without an exemption granted by the city, said the project’s developer, parking would have replaced a playground and increased the cost of each unit.

Developer Martin Dunn explained that each parking space came with a direct tradeoff in terms of open space and affordability. “To meet the parking requirements that would normally be required,” he said, “if we made half the open space parking, we’d still have to build structured parking.”

Structured parking is expensive to build. Nationally, the average construction cost of a single structured space is $16,000, and in New York it is almost certainly higher. Building a garage, said Dunn, would have required either increasing rents or asking the government for extra subsidies. “So not having structured parking made it more affordable,” he concluded.

Even if the parking requirements were relaxed for Navy Green, including any parking at all would have taken away the project’s gardens and play spaces. Most affordable housing puts its parking at grade, explained Dunn, because that’s the cheapest option. With only so many square feet to go around, “there is a direct tradeoff between open space and parking.”

The city government concurred with Dunn’s assessment. A spokeswoman for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development said that including parking was financially infeasible on the site, considering the needs for affordability and open space. HPD, therefore, applied for a mayoral override of the parking requirement, which was granted. ”The city agencies were all very supportive,” Dunn recalled.

Though the project will be entirely without off-street parking, it will include bike storage in all of the multi-family buildings. The new Flushing Avenue bike lane travels right by the project site, as do a number of bus routes. The first building is scheduled to open in December 2011.

In earlier affordable projects, Dunn said that he hadn’t taken the same zero-parking approach. At the nearby Myrtle Avenue Apartments, for example, zoning required that they build parking for 25 percent of the units, leading to eight spaces. At the price of $25 per month, there have never been more than two spaces rented, said Dunn. The company could have built a bigger playground instead of those empty parking spots. “We’ve felt bad that we built that parking every day since,” he said.

Aileen McKay-Dalton

The NYPD failed to follow up with at least one key witness in its investigation of the crash that killed Aileen McKay-Dalton earlier this month, according to a woman who saw the collision and stayed at the scene.

Witnesses were allowed to leave the scene without being interviewed by police or leaving contact information, said Tara Simoncic, who was driving behind the SUV that struck and killed McKay-Dalton at the intersection of Clinton Avenue and DeKalb Avenue on July 8. Of the three witnesses who remained at the scene, only two are named in the NYPD's accident report, a copy of which has been obtained by Streetsblog.

NYPD filed no charges against the SUV driver, identified as Joel Loudon Murphy, who was heading north on Clinton when he struck McKay-Dalton, riding west on her Vespa.

Simoncic was driving some distance behind Murphy, she said, but with no cars in between them. "The SUV was going fast through the intersection," she recalled. "I saw the moped entering into the intersection and the SUV hitting the moped."

Simoncic remained at the crash scene with two other witnesses. After being ignored for some time by the police, she said, she went over to the squad car to talk to an officer. She recalled him telling her, "'You can stay or you can go, I'm not going to make you stay.'"

When one of the three witnesses, Hector Maldonado, had to leave around 15 minutes later, Simoncic says that she, not an officer, took down his contact information. Otherwise, she said, the police wouldn't have had a way to reach him.

A third witness remained at the crash location longer. She was a student, said Simoncic, and had just parked her car to go take an exam, which she skipped to stay at the scene. "She was traumatized," said Simoncic. "We all were. We still are." Simoncic didn't take down her name and contact information, assuming the police had it.

Only Simoncic and Maldonado are named as witnesses in the police report. The name of a third witness does not appear anywhere in the document.

According to Simoncic, both Maldonado and the third witness told her they were positive that the SUV driver was speeding and ran a red light. "They seemed without a doubt," she said. "I asked them each several times." Maldonado declined to be interviewed for this story.

NYPD may have neglected to interview other witnesses as well. Given that the collision took place at a busy intersection during evening rush hour, said Simoncic, "I have a hard time believing we were the only three people who saw that accident." 

NYPD's public information office maintains that there was no criminality in the crash. The department has not returned Streetsblog's request for an explanation as to how it reached this determination. Detective Ryan, the Accident Investigation Squad detective assigned to the case, has not returned phone calls.

Though the NYPD has declined to look further into the circumstances of the crash, Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes has opened a separate investigation, the scope of which may include NYPD's handling of the case. More than 500 people have signed a petition asking NYPD to re-open the investigation.

Phase two of the Flushing Avenue project maintains the city's commitment to a two-way bike path, but Brooklynites will have to wait a few years to get it. Image: NYCDOT

Last night, NYCDOT's Ted Wright presented a revised design for the Flushing Avenue bikeway to the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2. The new version preserves plans for a fully-protected, two-way bike path while leaving room for two-way bus service and auto traffic. Because the revised design requires more complex construction work than the original, however, Brooklynites will have to wait a few years before that phase of the project gets built. In the meantime, DOT plans to lay down a less-robust interim project, which the committee endorsed unanimously.

The interim project will extend the two-way bike path on Williamsburg Street West -- which is protected from traffic by jersey barriers -- onto the north side of Flushing, up to Washington Avenue. (To orient yourself, check out this map.) Between Washington and Navy Street, the plan calls for buffered bike lanes on each side of the street. Parking on the north side of the street will be removed.

Phase one will add buffered bike lanes west of Washington Avenue. Image: NYCDOT

The original concept for Flushing Avenue called for a two-way, protected bike path all the way to Navy Street, preserving curbside parking while eliminating the eastbound traffic lane. DOT could have built that out as an in-house project this summer, but adjusted its plans after Navy Yard businesses and local residents objected to the new traffic pattern.

The city hasn't backed away from its commitment to build a safe connection for bicyclists and pedestrians on Flushing, but it will take longer to get there. Phase two of the new plan for Flushing calls for widening the sidewalk on the north side of the street by six feet. The wider sidewalk will then accommodate a two-way bike path and pedestrian space. Since expanding the sidewalk along the entire street entails changes to drainage and grading, phase two will have to proceed through New York's multi-agency construction bureaucracy. Wright estimated that it would take two to four years to build.

After Wright's presentation, Alfred Chiodo, a representative of Tish James's office, said the council member is "very happy with the plan," including the two-phase build-out. Shani Leibovitz, a Navy Yard vice president, also said her tenants were pleased with the plan, which doesn't alter traffic patterns or bus routes (one westbound bus stop where about 35 people disembark daily, at Ryerson Street, will be removed).

John Eddey, representing Navy Yard tenant Steiner Studios, was still unwilling to fully endorse the second phase of the project, prompting Wright to plead with board members to remember the core goal behind the development of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway -- to build a continuous route that gives people of all ages a safe path to walk and bike.

"I want to ask you guys to support the greenway as much as possible," he said. "Lets not shoot it down before we get it up and running." The committee voted unanimously in favor of both phases, asking DOT to return with specifics on phase two at a later date.

The bike lane extension proposed for Vanderbilt Avenue would add some order to a chaotic intersection. Image: Google Maps

The proposal was crafted in response to a request from the committee, which asked DOT this spring to study gaps in the local bike network identified by CB 2 member Mike Epstein. Despite the fact that the Vanderbilt bike lane would eliminate no parking and leaves traffic patterns basically unchanged, members felt uncomfortable proceeding without informing the Fort Greene Association and the Society for Clinton Hill, neighborhood groups that had received invitations to last night's meeting but sent no one to attend. (The Fort Greene Association had also endorsed Epstein's earlier request.)

DOT's Keith Bray reassured the skittish members that the agency would publicize the project before implementation. Nevertheless, the committee chose not to render a verdict on the proposal.

The greenway segment on Flushing Avenue would connect Navy Street to Williamsburg Street West. Image: Google Maps

Toward the end of the event, City Council member Tish James asked for a show of hands: Who'd be satisfied with a bikeway plan where Flushing stays a two-way street? Most people in the crowd of about 80 raised their hands. It's not clear, however, whether the street can accommodate both two-way traffic and a safe, protected path for biking and walking.

For followers of bike lane disputes, the meeting had a little bit of everything. Some speakers cited concerns for bus riders who'd have to wait on Park Avenue, a BQE service road, if eastbound routes get shifted from Flushing. Navy Yard businesses pleaded to keep truck access the way it is now. Other speakers vented typical anti-bike sentiment, calling for bike licensing, registration and fees. Fears that all eastbound traffic on Flushing (a fraction of the westbound traffic heading to the free Manhattan Bridge) would divert to Park Avenue were widespread. And at times, the evening veered into a heated discussion of whom bike infrastructure is meant for.

The current concept for a Flushing Avenue bikeway. Image: NYCDOT

Rev. Mark V.C. Taylor, pastor of the Church of the Open Door, a black congregation on Gold Street, read prepared remarks accusing DOT of displaying a "deep and profound racism that masquerades as change," adding bike lanes for "young white newcomers." "DOT's concern for black cyclists is non-evident," he said, concluding by asking DOT to "transport ideas like this into the waste bin with ideas like slavery." About a third of the audience belonged to Taylor's congregation.

That came about 30 minutes into a two hour meeting. Once the inflammatory charges were out there, James and others stepped into the role of mediators.

Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development referred to the ongoing push for greenways in the South Bronx and Sunset Park. "Bike lanes are not exclusively the initiative of white communities," she said. "All communities are entitled to safe places to walk and bike."

From what I heard, a major question from long-time local residents wasn't necessarily "Why a bikeway?" but "Why now?" A few people spoke about riding bicycles when they were kids and wanted to know why the city wasn't proposing this sort of thing 20 or 30 years ago.

Part of the answer is that it takes a long time to build something as complex as the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. The basic route was first identified 17 years ago by the Department of City Planning. The idea has gradually accumulated public support, financial momentum, and official approval since then, thanks in large part to the persistence of local activists.

Milton Puryear of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative recapped some of that history as the meeting drew to a close. "This came out of communities from Greenpoint to Sunset Park," he said, including Farragut Houses, the public housing project at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge that's home to 20,000 residents and many members of the Church of the Open Door. In 2004, a team of Hunter College graduate students surveyed 133 residents of Farragut Houses. Twenty-five percent said they biked, and 91 percent said they would use the greenway in the neighborhood. Out of 31 students in Kindergarten through eighth grade, 25 said they rode bikes.

"Almost anyone can afford a bike," Puryear added. "This is a way that people can have mobility. DOT's motives are not sinister."

The two-way bike path concept for Flushing Avenue. Image: NYCDOT

A source tells us that supporters of safer biking and walking should come ready to respectfully make their case and to keep an open mind about how to tailor the project to address local concerns. (I don't have specifics yet on what those concerns might be.) If you live close to Flushing, your voice will carry a lot of weight. The meeting starts at 6:00 p.m. Here's where to go:

Navy Yard Houses - Community Room
45 N. Elliott Pl. (bet. Park & Flushing Aves.)

Image: NYCDOT [PDF]

DOT is aiming to implement the new bike path in July, and Brooklyn greenway project manager Ted Wright told CB 2 members to get ready for more greenway planning in the meantime. The agency is holding a series of public workshops, starting next week, for the full 14-mile length of the proposed greenway, part of a master planning process that officials expect to run through 2012. The first workshop, open to anyone who wants to come, will take place at Brooklyn Borough Hall on March 25. (You can RSVP with the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, which is sponsoring the workshops with RPA.)

The Flushing Avenue project would construct a two-way bike path from Williamsburg Street West to Navy Street, separated from traffic by a nine-foot planted median. Vehicle traffic would travel in one westbound lane, between two lanes of parking. Only three curb cuts providing vehicle access to the Brooklyn Navy Yard would interrupt the bike path along the length of the project. Passengers on the B69 and B57 would disembark at bus bulbs constructed in the center median, with eastbound bus routes diverted to Park Avenue.

Despite the current tendency of motorists to speed on Flushing, the high volume of trucks, and the absence of a bike lane, more than 300 cyclists ride there on summer weekdays, according to DOT counts. "People are already using it for recreation and commuting purposes," said DOT Bicycle Program Coordinator Josh Benson. With the recent completion of the Sands Street bike path and the Kent Avenue path, the attraction of Flushing as a bike route to the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge Park is expected to grow substantially.

Committee member Mike Epstein said the plan provides "a top-notch protected bikeway" on a street in desperate need of safety improvements. "It's important to look at this as a traffic-calming project" that will benefit pedestrians too, he said.

Epstein also requested better bicycle connections from Vanderbilt Avenue, where the bike lane terminates south of Fort Greene, and Bedford Avenue, where the erasure of a 14-block bike lane segment has left cyclists without a continuous route to the Williamsburg Bridge.

Benson said DOT would look into both ideas, but that adding a connection from Bedford would be hindered by ongoing construction work on Flushing Avenue. The segment of Flushing between Bedford and Williamsburg Street is still being reconstructed, he said, because the Department of Design and Contruction encountered an underground stream.

After the presentation and the unanimous vote in favor, I caught up with Milton Puryear, head of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative. Following last year's drawn out fight over the Kent Avenue bike lane, this early vote on the greenway precursor for Flushing Avenue was a friction-less affair. He was smiling almost the whole time we talked.

Atlantic and Flatbush time lapse from tracy collins on Vimeo.

This time-lapse film by Tracy Collins at Not Another F*cking Blog is a telling indictment of poor pedestrian conditions at Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues. And depending on how Bruce Ratner's new sports arena is built out -- the groundbreaking is set for this week -- things could get much worse.

As exemplified by the crosswalk hogs in the video, this is a terrible environment for pedestrians right now. If and when the arena arrives, two things will happen: thousands of pedestrians will arrive via transit to get to games -- the more the better, but they'll need more space; and more people will be driving here, especially if there's a huge surface parking lot.

Note that Forest City Ratner has not answered questions about all the "interim" surface parking it intends to construct. Scroll down this post for a thorough list of related unresolved issues from the Dean Street Block Association, care of Norman Oder.

The Vanderbilt Rail Yards and the rump of the Carlton Avenue bridge. Photo: threecee/Flickr

Largely unmentioned at the meeting was Forest City's intention to construct more than a thousand "interim" surface parking spaces on the site, mostly to store vehicles belonging to their employees and construction workers. Since all this new parking could sit around generating traffic and blighting the landscape for quite some time, neighborhood groups want to know exactly how much would be constructed, and how it will be priced and managed. They didn't get any answers on Wednesday.

For more on the meeting, head over to Atlantic Yards Report.

Mike Epstein's proposal for new bike lanes (in blue) at the confluence of Flatbush, Lafayette, and Third Avenues. The full plan would create a safer, more cohesive network linking several neighborhoods.

"The area between Fort Greene and Park Slope has been notoriously difficult to ride through," said Aja Hazelhoff of Transportation Alternatives. "This would produce safer and more reliable corridors between neighborhoods."

The proposal calls for a new connection linking bike lanes on Ashland Place, Schermerhorn Street, DeKalb Avenue, Lafayette Avenue, and Third Avenue, including a contraflow segment across Flatbush and down a few blocks of Third where motor vehicle traffic travels northbound only.

To the east, where the Carlton Avenue bridge has been indefinitely closed to accommodate Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, an extension of the Vanderbilt Avenue bike lane to Flushing Avenue would provide a much-needed alternate route across Atlantic.

The plan also envisions a new eastbound bike route on Lafayette Avenue and a Flushing Avenue connection linking Williamsburg's new two-way, protected bike path and the approach to the Manhattan Bridge.

Council members Tish James and Steve Levin have signed on in support of the proposal. According to reports from Tuesday's meeting, Downtown Brooklyn Transportation Coordinator Chris Hrones indicated that it's increasingly common for DOT to receive and move forward with ideas that originate outside the agency.

When Jeff Geisinger biked through a red light on Atlantic Avenue last October, he knew that he might get a traffic ticket. So when a cop pulled him over, he wasn't surprised. He just didn't expect to be handed a summons for disorderly conduct, a criminal violation.

What Geisinger did wasn't legal and it wasn't the safest technique. Shortly after midnight on a Tuesday, he ran a red while biking north on Sixth Avenue in Brooklyn, at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue. "There was a stopped car to the right of me on Atlantic waiting to turn north," he said. "As the light turned red and I dashed through the intersection, the car slowly started to turn and I cut in front of it, with enough distance between the two of us for me to pass by safely." An officer saw the maneuver and pulled him over.

It's hard to imagine that what happened next would have happened to a motorist who did the same thing. Rather than write a traffic ticket, the officer issued Geisinger a summons for disorderly conduct.

While moving violations are non-criminal offenses, disorderly conduct is part of New York's penal code and carries a fine of up to $250 and up to 15 days in prison. It's something of a catch-all charge, probably by design, that can theoretically be invoked for "threatening behavior," making "unreasonable noise," using "abusive language" in public, or obstructing traffic, among other things.

Geisinger says that he didn't give the officer a hard time or make a scene, making much of the statute inapplicable to his situation, but not necessarily all of it. (The 77th Precinct has not returned Streetsblog's requests for comment.)

"It sounds strange to be charged with disorderly conduct for a moving violation," said Adam White, an attorney who has represented cyclists for more than 10 years. White cited a 2006 court case which determined that improper conduct must be "reinforced by a culpable mental state to create a public disturbance." If Geisinger wasn't intentionally trying to cause trouble, he probably shouldn't have been charged with disorderly conduct. White concluded that "the police officer did not have a reasonable basis for charging the cyclist" with disorderly conduct.

He added that the relevant question is how the law normally gets interpreted and applied. On that score, it's worth mentioning that Gus Gonzalez, the driver whom a witness saw intentionally knock a cyclist to the pavement on Ninth Avenue, causing severe bruising, is now facing a disorderly conduct charge as well.

We'll never know for certain if the charge would have held up in the city's justice system. In December, Geisinger went to court, pled not guilty and had his case dismissed when the cop didn't show up. He regrets being denied his day in court. "I wish I could have at least gotten in a sentence or two to state my case," Geisinger said, "but I silently accepted the dismissal and went home."

State officials announced yesterday that, starting sometime around February 1, they intend to close three blocks of the Brooklyn street grid to accommodate construction of Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards arena project. Fifth Avenue between Flatbush and Atlantic and two non-consecutive blocks of Pacific Street are slated to be condemned.

An announcement circulated by Brooklyn CB 6 yesterday characterized the changes as "permanent closures," but Dan Goldstein of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn is calling that label premature. "It's the inevitability ploy," he said, noting that the closures seem timed to take effect immediately after a January 29 court decision on the state's seizure of properties in the project footprint. "At the very least they have to close the streets in a way that they can re-open them if they're forced to."

If the closures do take effect, it's about to get a little harder to move between Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope, no matter how you get around. Ratner's project has already forced cyclists heading to the Manhattan Bridge to find detours around one of the safest and most convenient routes, thanks to the 2008 closure of the Carlton Avenue bridge (for which there is no end in sight).

Now, these proto-superblocks will degrade the street grid further. Will pedestrians be barred from any of the sidewalks on the affected streets? The Empire State Development Corporation, overseer of the project, hasn't responded to Streetsblog's inquiries.

Can public art also mean public safety? A weekend addition to a Brooklyn street could be the start of something big. Clarence Eckerson explains:  

In what is being called the first event of its kind in New York City, Livable Streets Education teamed up with Community Roots Charter School and P.S. 67, with a helping hand from New York Cares and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, to paint a magnificent mural on St. Edwards Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The project, which was designed by art students, was done with the blessing of NYC DOT under its new Urban Art Program. These short term public art installations are referred to as "Arterventions."

Not only did these students beautify their school's street, they also identified it to motorists as a thoroughfare frequented by school-age pedestrians in a way that mere signage and conventional markings do not. There are hundreds of school zones across the city that could benefit from the same treatment.

The city recognizes the risks posed by idling vehicles near schools. Why not replicate this low cost, high impact project to lessen the hazards of vehicles in motion?

Laying down a fresh coat on Portland's Sunnyside Piazza.

While DOT isn't calling the mural a street reclamation, the spirit is similar to Portland's "intersection repair" and Ocean City's "traffic safety quilt". Those projects created can't-miss signs for drivers to slow down and look out for people. And is there anywhere in New York City that could use some eye-popping, windshield-piercing street art more than school zones? Let's hope that tomorrow's pavement painting is the first of many.

There's a speeding epidemic on New York City streets, but does NYPD know how big the problem is? Photo: TA.

Q: Can you please let us know what the 88th is doing to keep the streets safe from criminal drivers? We regularly see drivers flying through our streets (perhaps especially along Washington Park, right along the park, where there is no stop light for two blocks). Running red lights is also common. I live on Clinton between Myrtle/Willoughby and it seems that that block is a continual double-park fest. I've lived here since 2000 and cannot recall ever seeing a police officer issuing a traffic violation -- I don't doubt that it happens from time to time, but clearly it doesn’t happen enough to deter dangerous behavior from drivers.

A: We've never heard that we don’t give enough summonses. I do have a summons officer and will send him over to Clinton and Willoughby if that's an issue. But so far this year, we’ve already issued 1,200 violations in the precinct for hazardous driving, including running red lights, speeding, talking on a cell phone and backing up unsafely. That’s in addition to many summonses for less hazardous moving violations. We've also issued 2,400 parking violations so far this year.

Citing the number of summonses handed out is typical of how NYPD measures traffic enforcement, and it doesn't come close to telling the whole story. Consider that nearly 40 percent of New York City motorists were clocked speeding in Transportation Alternatives' report Terminal Velocity [PDF]. Or that drivers burn through red lights in the city more than a million times every day, according to a 2001 study conducted by the city comptroller [PDF]. It stands to reason that those 1,200 citations issued in the 88th comprise only a very small fraction of all hazardous driving violations committed in the precinct this year.

The questioner on The Local gets at the crux of the problem by asking whether the precinct's enforcement actually deters dangerous driving. The answer doesn't address this at all, and in fairness to Captain Kight, hard information on deterrence isn't available because NYPD doesn't measure compliance with traffic laws. If the city is serious about preventing the hundreds of deaths and tens of thousands of injuries incurred every year by motor vehicles, getting a handle on the prevalence of driver malfeasance is a necessary step.

After the jump, an "exchange" with 88th Precinct commanding officer Anthony Tasso about police cars hogging the public right-of-way.

Q: My neighbors and I would really appreciate it if this question could be addressed in a public forum: Why are police permitted to park their personal vehicles at an angle in front of the precinct on Classon Avenue, simultaneously blocking the sidewalk and obstructing an entire lane of traffic? Classon is a major thoroughfare to the BQE and the bridges, but your angle-parking creates a bottleneck at Lafayette, causing considerable delays (as well as sometimes forcing pedestrians to step into the street and walk in the busy traffic).

As you begin your new job, you would do well to consider the message being sent to the community through the rear ends of your cars. You seem to be telling us A) we don’t live here, B) the rules you have to follow don’t apply to us, and C) we don’t really care if that inconveniences you.

A: No reply.