Streetsblog New York City

A protected bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge — calming traffic heading to McGuinness Boulevard and providing much more breathing room than the bridge’s narrow bike/ped path alone — has cleared a significant planning hurdle. In a letter to Assembly Member Joe Lentol [PDF], DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said that the proposal meets traffic analysis requirements, and that an engineering study and recommendations will be made by the end of the year:

DOT says an engineering study is underway for a protected bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge, and the agency will make recommendations by the end of the year. Photo: *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

Since December, we have analyzed traffic data and we are confident that one Brooklyn-bound lane can be removed from the Pulaski Bridge without an adverse effect on traffic flow… However, there are some engineering questions remaining about how to properly design and install such a bicycle path on the bridge. To resolve these questions, we are initiating an engineering study with a structural engineering consultant.

The most likely engineering concerns are related to the bridge’s wide joint gaps, which could ensnare narrow bike tires, and how to maintain an adequate physical barrier between bicycles and motor vehicles on the drawbridge section of the span. DOT expects to wrap up the study and recommendations later this year, according to Sadik-Khan’s letter.

While this update puts the study schedule behind the March deadline that Lentol had cited at the beginning of the year, it’s a good sign of progress.

In the meantime, advocates continue to build support for the bike lane. The Transportation Alternatives Queens volunteer committee, which has a petition supporting the lane with 300 signatures, will be gathering more signatures on the Queens side of the bridge path on Saturday, May 11, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.

The bridge path would complement a separate proposal to bring bike lanes to 11th Street in Long Island City, connecting north to Queens Plaza and the Queensboro Bridge. ”DOT and CB 2 have already agreed to this,” TA volunteer Steve Scofield told Streetsblog via e-mail. “We’re expecting their exact proposal and an implementation date in a matter of weeks.”

Spotted on the door of Greenpoint Finest Deli on Manhattan Avenue. Photo: Hilda Cohen

Here’s a welcome sign on the front door to Greenpoint Finest Deli, at the corner of Manhattan and Norman Avenues. The notice, ostensibly from NYPD, reminds drivers and passengers of their obligation to look before opening the door of parked cars. “Summonses will be issued,” the sign warns.

The sign, spotted by Hilda Cohen, would be consistent with the anti-dooring campaign TLC and DOT launched in September.

Bodega employees said that an officer from the 94th Precinct had distributed the sign. Officers on the street couldn’t verify whether the sign came from the precinct or not. Streetsblog has put in an inquiry with NYPD headquarters and the 94th Precinct for more information. We’ll let you know if we hear an update.

Photo: Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Quick update on the campaign for a protected two-way bikeway on the Pulaski Bridge: We don’t know if DOT is going to implement one yet, but we know when they’ll make a decision. Yesterday, Assembly Member Joe Lentol sent out word that DOT chief Janette Sadik-Khan told him the agency will wrap up its feasibility study of the bikeway by March:

Although the response from Commissioner Sadik-Khan did not provide a definitive answer to the likelihood of the dedicated bike lanes installation, it did explain that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs unit is investigating the matter. The investigation will examine various factors, including the traffic conditions on the roadway, the structure of the movable bridge and the connections on the Brooklyn and Queens sides of the bridge. The investigation is slated to be completed by March 2013.

Lentol asked DOT to study the bikeway in October, after hosting a public meeting about the increasingly crowded conditions on the bridge’s narrow bike-ped path. DOT announced their feasibility study the next month, saying the main engineering challenge would be designing physical protection for cyclists that works on the drawbridge section of the roadway.

As Lentol noted in his statement yesterday, converting a southbound traffic lane on the bridge to a protected bikeway would also help control drivers’ speeds as they head off the bridge onto McGuinness Boulevard, which has a terrible safety record:

“I have long advocated for traffic calming measures on McGuinness Boulevard and this proposed bike lane would undoubtedly slow drivers down, while making the Pulaski Bridge safer for pedestrians and cyclists who travel along this road everyday. This bike lane is a common sense solution to a multi-faceted problem and I hope Commissioner Sadik-Khan’s investigation will result in the correct decision to make this bike lane a reality.”

Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 1′s transportation committee voted 3-0 in favor of a preliminary design for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway’s first capital project on West Street in Greenpoint, and, in a separate 3-0 vote, endorsed pedestrian safety improvements for Borinquen Place in Williamsburg. These projects will bring major improvements for biking and walking on these two North Brooklyn streets.

NYC DOT has proposed sidewalk extensions, concrete medians, and other safety fixes for Borinquen Place. Above, a rendering of the intersection where Borinquen Place converges with Grand Street. Image: DOT

Borinquen Place is a major route for cyclists and drivers going to the Williamsburg Bridge, and it has a deadly history. Because it intersects the grid at an angle, it creates dangerous crossings for pedestrians. The intersection with Grand Street, for example, has an exposed crossing distance of 130 feet.

DOT’s plan is to expand pedestrian space and reduce crossing distances using painted curb extensions and concrete median islands.

The agency began studying Borinquen Place after a request from Council Member Diana Reyna and a string of fatalities. The agency is proposing painted curb extensions at Grand Street, South 1st Street, and South 2nd Street. A concrete median island would be installed on Borinquen Place between Rodney and South 2nd Streets, and concrete curb extensions would be added to the intersection with Marcy Avenue.

One block of South 1st Street, between Keap and Rodney Streets, would be changed from one-way westbound to one-way eastbound to minimize conflicts with pedestrians near Borinquen Place.

In addition, South 4th Street, which widens to 45 feet as it crosses the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, would receive a 15-foot wide painted sidewalk extension, narrowing the travel lane to 12 feet.

The agency is still working on identifying community partners to maintain possible tables and chairs in the sidewalk extensions and will reach out to businesses along the street in the coming weeks. Implementation could begin later next year.

The committee also voted to support the first capital project for the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway, which would reconstruct West Street in Greenpoint, converting it to a one-way street with a two-way bikeway separated from motor vehicle traffic by a mountable curb.

Read more…

The NYC Department of Transportation is undertaking a feasibility study for constructing a protected bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge connecting Greenpoint and Long Island City, agency representatives said at a neighborhood transportation town hall on Monday night.

The study, coming after Assembly Member Joe Lentol met with constituents about the issue in October and wrote to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan asking for a change, will likely take several months.

DOT is studying a protected Pulaski Bridge bike lane and how to overcome the challenges posed by the span's drawbridge section. Photo: *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

The study is necessary, DOT staff said, because the agency has to figure out how to separate the bike lane from motor vehicle traffic on the drawbridge section of the crossing, which presents challenges that other bridges do not.

Because the center span of the bridge is opened for nautical traffic on Newtown Creek, any physical separations installed on the bridge would have to be lightweight yet stable when the drawbridge is opened.

Another issue raised at Monday’s meeting is the need to replace the wide expansion joints on the roadbed with a smaller joint that poses less risk to bicyclists. The existing shared path already has smaller, bike-friendly joints. The bike lane connect to the growing network of bike lanes in Long Island City and Sunnyside.

DOT staff acknowledged that the roadway had excess capacity for the number of vehicles that use it and said that reducing the number of southbound motor vehicle lanes on the bridge from three to two could help reduce speeding on McGuinness Boulevard, which is two lanes in each direction.

DOT staff also presented data showing that non-fatal injuries on McGuinness Boulevard are declining, dropping from 51 in 2006 to 11 in 2010. However, traffic fatalities on the roadway have remained steady. DOT representatives said that the agency would look into dedicated left-turn signals on McGuinness Boulevard, which already has dedicated turn lanes, as a way to reduce the number of crashes.

That wraps up our coverage today, Streetsblog readers. Enjoy the holiday and we’ll see you back here on Monday.

A preliminary rendering of the two-way bikeway and planted buffer slated for West Street in Greenpoint. Image: DDC

NYC DOT and consultants for the Department of Design and Construction gave Greenpoint residents a glimpse of preliminary designs for the West Street segment of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Wednesday night at a full meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 1. The two-way bikeway proposed for West Street is the first of 23 capital projects that will eventually comprise the finished, 14-mile greenway.

While CB 1 voted in 2008 to support a similar redesign of Kent Avenue (a preliminary segment in the greenway), the current board seems to have regressed since then, and residents who support the project shouldn’t take anything for granted. At Wednesday’s meeting, the fundamental premise of establishing a two-way bike lane on the street received some support from the audience, but also a hostile response from the transportation committee chair.

For motor traffic, the plan would convert the length of West Street, currently two-way, to one-way northbound. Approximately 80 parking spaces on the west side of the street would be replaced with a two-way bike lane, separated from motor vehicle traffic by a mountable curb.

A mountable curb is not what Milton Puryear of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative would have preferred for West Street. “It’s not ideal,” he said, noting that the he often encounters parked cars on the Sands Street bike path, which has a mountable curb. While the proposed design will be open to similar incursions, Puryear said, it will be “way better than the way it is.”

Read more…

Brooklyn and Queens residents walk over the shared path on the Pulaski Bridge yesterday at 3:30 p.m. With the G train out of service for over a week, North Brooklynites relied on the crowded path to access the 7 train. During rush hours, the crowding was worse. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

Over the past week, the long G train outage caused by flooding from Hurricane Sandy brought the need for changes to the Pulaski Bridge into starker relief. Streetsblog received multiple reports of extreme crowding on the bridge’s narrow bike and pedestrian path, which could have been relieved with a protected bikeway across the bridge.

Crowded conditions on the Pulaski Bridge’s shared path have long been an issue, and recently Assembly Member Joseph Lentol announced his support for adding a protected bikeway across the bridge to provide more space for cyclists and pedestrians.

200 bikes locked up within one block of the Vernon Boulevard - Jackson Avenue subway station in Long Island City. Photo: Clarence Eckerson Jr.

A temporary bikeway would have been especially useful in Sandy’s wake, when the city and the MTA set up temporary bus routes across the Manhattan Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge, but failed to provide substitute bus service for straphangers who rely on the G train.

Without the train or a backup in place, North Brooklyn residents had to find different ways to get around, and many chose to bike or walk over the Pulaski Bridge to catch the 7 train to Manhattan. Conditions on the bridge path were crowded, especially during rush hours but during off-peak times as well.

Evidence of the spike in bike-to-7-train commuting was abundant at Long Island City’s bike racks. Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms counted 200 bikes locked up within a block of the Vernon Boulevard – Jackson Avenue station yesterday afternoon — many more than usual.

The G train resumed limited service this morning, but crowding on the path is likely to remain. A protected bike lane on the bridge was needed before Hurricane Sandy, during the G train suspension, and will be needed after the subway system returns to normal.

UPDATE: Assembly Member Joseph Lentol told Streetsblog that the G train disruption showed why a Pulaski Bridge bike lane is necessary. His office has only gotten positive feedback on the proposal since it was floated in October. “I expected to get outraged motorists complaining about taking a lane on the bridge, but I haven’t gotten that at all,” Lentol said, adding that he will soon follow up on his October letter to Commissioner Sadik-Khan with a phone call. “You always have the bureaucratic naysaysers who say why you can’t do it,” Lentol said. “I know they have the expertise to come up with a solution.” Lentol added that he plans to reach out to Assembly Member Catherine Nolan, who represents the Queens side of the bridge.

The narrow bike and pedestrian path across the Pulaski Bridge has long been a concern for bridge users and local residents. Earlier this month, Assembly Member Joseph Lentol hosted a meeting to air the issues and find a solution. Now, Lentol is asking DOT for a two-way protected bike lane on the bridge.

Runners cross the Pulaski Bridge during the New York City Marathon. Photo: nycstreets/Flickr

“This is not us versus them,” Lentol told Streetsblog, saying that attendees at the meeting wanted to find a solution that works for both pedestrians and cyclists. “I think everybody is in consensus that there ought to be a way to take away the southbound right lane of traffic and dedicate that to cycling and give the walkway back to the pedestrians,” he said.

The big hurdle, he noted, is convincing DOT to figure out a way to make that happen, which is why he’s appealing to the top in a letter to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. “I understand that there are inherent engineering challenges that need to be overcome,” Lentol wrote, “but I have faith in your ability to motivate the DOT engineers to make it happen.”

Funding for the project could fall into place if DOT commits to the project. While Lentol said he doesn’t have direct access to discretionary funds, he can request Multi-Modal Funds from the New York State DOT to help pay for the project. But “the only way you can spend it is if the Department of Transportation has a project they approve,” he added.

Lentol was quick to note that removing a lane of southbound auto traffic on the bridge, in addition to providing space for bike riders and walkers, would help calm traffic on notoriously dangerous McGuinness Boulevard, which is a continuation of the bridge on the Brooklyn side. ”If we could get a speed camera on McGuinness Boulevard and slow the traffic coming off the Pulaski Bridge,” he said, “It would work in tandem.”

Tackling enforcement and design on the same roadway could yield real benefits. “This would be a nice coordinated effort,” Lentol said. While Albany needs to take action on speed camera legislation, the engineering side of the equation could be solved by DOT.

The Pulaski Bridge, which connects Greenpoint and Long Island City across Newtown Creek, provides a narrow path for pedestrians and cyclists to share, next to six lanes of fast-moving motor vehicle traffic. As volumes have picked up on the path, minor tweaks made years ago may not be sufficient to provide space for interborough walkers and bike riders. It’s a concern that’s getting attention from elected officials.

The Pulaski Bridge, between Greenpoint and Long Island City, offers a narrow eight-foot path for pedestrians and cyclists to share. Photo: *Bitch Cakes*/Flickr

Last Thursday, Assembly Member Joseph Lentol met with neighborhood residents, DOT and Transportation Alternatives to discuss the path’s crowded conditions. Reports are mixed, Lentol’s office said, as to whether conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians have become a problem on the bridge, where the eight-foot wide path falls two feet short of the minimum suggested by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

A Lentol spokesperson said the meeting was called in an “attempt to generate ideas and hear points of view” on how the crossing could be improved.

This isn’t the first time the bridge’s narrow path has become an issue. In 2009, a group of residents and bridge users formed the Pulaski Bridge Coalition to address crowding on the path. That same year, DOT installed new signage and striping but did not increase the eight feet allotted to walkers and bike riders.

Converting one southbound motor vehicle lane to a two-way protected bike path is one possibility suggested by riders and walkers. While the bridge presently has three lanes in each direction for motor vehicle traffic, roads on both sides leading to the span do not: 11th Street and Jackson Avenue in Queens and McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn all have two lanes in each direction.

“Separating out a bike lane would make a lot of sense,” said Lacey Tauber, secretary of Neighbors Allied for Good Growth. “It would make the pedestrians feel a lot safer. It would probably slow traffic,” she said. “There are so many drivers who speed over the Pulaski and keep speeding on McGuinness.”

Two-thirds of motorists on McGuinness Boulevard are speeding, including one in three truck drivers, according to a report released in March by a coalition that includes TA and NAG. The report led to a speeding crackdown by the 94th Precinct but the roadway is still lacking long-term design and enforcement fixes.

“There is a growing number of New Yorkers who are choosing bike and foot to travel between Queens and Brooklyn and they simply need more dedicated space,” TA said in a statement. “Widening the existing pathway or giving space on the street to bicyclists will keep everyone out of each others’ way and out of harm’s way.”

Read more…

If you live in North Brooklyn and you’re excited about the impending arrival of bike-share, you don’t want to miss the Community Board 1 meeting tomorrow evening. DOT will be presenting its revised bike-share station siting plan for Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and it would be a mistake to assume that everything will work out on its own.

When DOT went to Brooklyn CB 1 with a preliminary station map in May, board members objected to the loss of about a dozen car parking spaces, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The fact that they would be getting hundreds of bike-share docks in return didn’t seal the deal for them.

So don’t take anything for granted. Even though North Brooklyn is a largely car-free area where many people live quite far from the subway (i.e. prime bike-share territory), we’re still talking about the district that sustained NYC’s most notorious bike lane freakout of the pre-NBBL era — the Kent Avenue saga. Tomorrow’s meeting is where you can put all your well-honed arguments about the benefits and efficiency of bike-share compared to car parking to highly productive use.

To testify tomorrow, you have to sign in at the meeting by 6:15 p.m. Here’s where to go:

Swinging 60s Senior Center
211 Ainslie Street by Manhattan Avenue