Streetsblog New York City

NYC is Changing
A StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson Jr.
Running Time: 1 minute 55 seconds

Clarence Eckerson put together a really nice little StreetFilm featuring some of the public space improvements that are now underway in various parts of New York City. He's got before-and-after shots of 9th Street Bike Lane, DUMBO Pearl Street Piazza, Broadway Bus Bulbs, the Bedford Avenue Parking Swap, and, a personal favorite, the bike rack that sprouted up outside of his own apartment building.

The debate is over, and as of today the Ninth St. bike lanes are swiftly becoming a reality.

Photo: Courtesy Zoe Ryder White

As so often seems to be the case in outer borough community meetings, a good portion of last night's discussion centered around the question of automobile storage. While there were none of the histrionics of the 9th Street traffic calming meetings, some of the most intense concerns were expressed by people who use the 300-space Wollman Rink parking lot for visits to the park and for Q train park-and-rides. They want to make sure that a sufficiently large (and free) parking lot is designed into the new plan.

Before the meeting started, participants were invited to check out the historical research that had been done showing the evolution of this particular area of the park. Prospect Park Alliance president Tupper Thomas kicked off the meeting by conveying that the purpose of the Lakeside Center was to replace the Wollman Rink, the parks's "most unattractive feature," and create the "great center the park never had."

The laundry list of potential uses for the new facility is long and as the programming process continues, Thomas is asking for more input from the community. For those interested there will be another meeting on Wednesday, May 30th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm.

Thomas said that, in the new plan, as currently conceived, car parking would be moved to the area known as Breeze Hill. She said the Prospect Park Alliance is working with transportation consultant Sam Schwartz to develop the plan and minimize conflicts between automobiles and park users. The number of parking spots would be reduced to approximately 150.

The transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6, of which I'm a member, voted unanimously last night to approve DOT's traffic calming and bike lane plan for Park Slope's 9th Street. The approval came with requests that DOT build a bike lane along Prospect Park West, undertake a curbside management study aimed at alleviating double-parking and that the agency monitor the effects of the new street design over the next year. 

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!

Konrad Kaletsch‘s street safety petition to DOT, July 2005.

Tonight, the Department of Transportation’s Traffic Safety and Bike Lane plan for Park Slope’s crash-prone 9th Street comes up before the transportation committee of Community Board 6 for the second time. Here are  the details:

6:30 pm at Old First Church
729 Carroll Street at 7th Avenue

As has been documented ad nauseam here on Streetsblog, a small but vocal group of 9th Street residents with influence on the Community Board have set out to kill DOT’s "Road Diet" plan. They enlisted the support of State Senator Eric Adams, who represents the two blocks of 9th Street closest to Prospect Park and Assembly Member Jim Brennan, who has written a letter in opposition to the plan despite an overwhelming number of calls, letters and visits to his office in support of it.

Advocates of DOT’s plan have generated 275 letters of support to Borough President Marty Markowitz and 160 to Community Board 6. The vast majority of these letters were written by Park Slope residents for whom 9th Street is an important community street. At least 20 9th Street residents have expressed support for the plan as well.

The Community Board may very well be a forum where it is simply impossible for advocates of this plan to win. Still, supporters need to show up, make their presence known and rational voices heard.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and 9th St. resident Konrad Kaletsch at Dizzy's Diner, Eighth Ave. and 9th St., August 2, 2005. That's DOT Borough Commissioner Lori Ardito in the background wearing shades and looking none too happy to be harangued by Park Slopers demanding safer streets.

Tomorrow evening the transportation committee of Community Board 6 is meeting to take up DOT's 9th Street Safety and Bike Lane plan. The meeting will be at 6:30 pm at Old First Church, 729 Carroll Street at 7th Avenue. Park Slope Neighbors and Transportation Alternatives have generated nearly 400 letters of support for DOT's plan. Still, it will be important for Livable Streets advocates to show up and make their presence known. Speaking of letters of support, here is an important one:

May 13, 2007

Dear Borough President Marty Markowitz:

I led my neighborhood in a successful endeavor to make 9th street a safer thoroughfare for both pedestrians and vehicles in August 2005. Your support at that time made a huge difference (the result that had the greatest impact was the new traffic light installed at 10th street that slows traffic entering the 9th st intersection). 

There is a new initiative to make changes to the street that further fulfills on making 9th street safe. I am referring to the DOT plans to reduce the two lanes to one and adding bike lanes and a meridian in the middle.  Having looked at the proposal, I see that it is a safety win/win for pedestrians and vehicles and not only support the plan myself, but believe that the 1200 people that signed the 2005 petition would support this step toward safety and traffic calming as well. 

I request your support once again in urging DOT to move forward with this improvement.  Thanks.

Sincerely,
Konrad Kaletsch
XXX Ninth Street
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Photo: Aaron Naparstek, August 2, 2005, 8:10 am

Those of you who are sick of reading about DOT's plan for Park Slope's 9th Street and the small but well-organized group of car-owning residents who are opposed to it, will be pleased to know that whole affair may soon be resolved.

On Thursday, May 17, the transportation committee of Community Board 6 will take up the 9th Street issue once again. This very same committee voted in favor of DOT's plan back in March but that wasn't good enough for the full board, who sent the plan back to committee, presumably, for more information from DOT. It is important that people who support DOT's "Road Diet" plan show up, make their support known and, most important, try to educate Community Board members about its benefits for the neighborhood. Mark your calendars:

Thursday, May 17, 6:30 pm
Old First Church
729 Carroll Street
(corner of 7th Avenue)

Likewise, supporters will need to come out to the general board meeting on Wednesday, June 13, 6:30 pm. It would be sad to see CB6, the Community Board with, probably, the highest rate of cycling in the entire city reject a traffic safety plan for 9th Street because it includes bike lanes.

Park Slope and Manhattan Valley have the largest numbers of bike commuters in NYC

The Department of City Planning just released its 2007 New York City Bicycle Survey. With over 1,000 survey respondents, the report documents several trends and key findings regarding bike commuting, parking, and facililties in the city. Some of the highlights include:

• For Bicycle Commuters: 44% start in Manhattan and 41% start in Brooklyn; 81% end in Manhattan and 10% end in Brooklyn.
• At the work place: 52% park and lock their bikes outdoors, 48% indoors.
• The average commute time for cyclists is 35 minutes.
• The most common reason that non-commuting cyclists do not commute by bike is because of driver behavior/traffic and lack of safe storage at work.
• The most common reason commuter cyclists do commute by bike is because it is healthy/good exercise and because it is environmentally friendly.

The report contains some great graphics. The map above shows where bike commuter trips originate, broken down by ZIP code. It turns out that Park Slope 11215 is the neighborhood with the highest rate of bike commuting in the entire city. Manhattan Valley 10025, at the northernmost end of the Hudson River Greenway runs a close second. The neighborhoods of western Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan are up there too. And while we're at it, check out the massive bike commuting dead zone known as Eastern Queens, in gray above.

Not to make everything into a 9th Street issue but I hope this data shows State Senator Eric Adams' chief of staff, Ingrid P. Lewis-Martin that it would be far more accurate to refer to supporters of DOT's plan for bike lanes on 9th Street as "constituents" rather than "outside groups" and "special interests," the terms she used in my phone call with her.

The entire report can be downloaded here.

First off, please accept my apologies for continuing to torture you with the intensely parochial drama taking place on Park Slope's 9th Street. I justify all of this coverage by imagining that this story may be useful for advocates working towards Livable Streets goals in other neighborhoods.

For those who are just coming in to the story, a few weeks ago the Department of Transportation put forward a thoughtful, responsive and well-designed "Road Diet" plan for Park Slope's dangerous, crash-prone 9th Street. Sadly, a rather well organized group of residents led by a Community Board 6 executive committee member named Robert Levine has set out to kill the plan (or, at least, get rid of the bike lane portion of it).

Here is an unedited video clip of Levine making his case against DOT's plan at last month's CB6 board meeting:

Levine says at the outset, "I'm not against traffic calming. I'm not against bike lanes. I think the combination of both on 9th Street is a dangerous situation." To Bob, the bike lanes and the traffic calming are two entirely separate things.

I've now sat through three community meetings on this issue and have tried hard to explain how neighborhood streets designed to accomodate motorists, pedestrians, transit users and cyclists tend to be safer, more functional and more community-friendly than streets designed only for motor vehicle traffic. Bike lanes, in other words, are traffic calming and congestion relief and even a way to free up some parking spaces if they help people making local trips to leave their cars at home. U.S. planners call this idea "Complete Streets." In Europe, many call it "Shared Space."

While Levine is relatively calm in the video clip above, it has been exceedingly difficult to explain these ideas because each time I have spoken at a meeting he has, literally, tried to shout me down or use some procedural tactic to prevent me from being allowed to speak. It seems that the last thing Levine wants is for his neighbors to actually see DOT's plan and understand it.

Why all of the emotion and anger over this project (and where the heck was it when a 77-year-old woman was mowed down on 9th St. and Seventh Ave. in August 2004, about four doors down from Levine's own house)?

Read more...

This weekend's full-page Wall Street Journal article on the measures that European cities are taking to make themselves more bike-friendly makes for an interesting comparison to what I'm seeing in my own neighborhood. While Brooklyn's Ninth Street Block Association "expresses concern" (i.e. yells and screams) that new bike lanes will increase traffic congestion, European cities, with 30 years of experience to look back on, see it quite differently:

Danish and Dutch officials say their countries might have been more congested if protests in the 1970s and 1980s had not sparked the impetus for building bicycle-lane networks. The arguments for more biking were mostly about health and congestion -- only in the past year has the environment started to be a factor.

And now with concerns about climate change growing, Europeans are setting aggressive targets to increase bicycling:

Norway aims to raise bicycle traffic to at least 8% of all travel by 2015 -- double its current level -- while Sweden hopes to move from 12% to 16% by 2010. This summer, Paris will put thousands of low-cost rental bikes throughout the city to cut traffic, reduce pollution and improve parking.

The city of Copenhagen plans to double its spending on biking infrastructure over the next three years, and Denmark is about to unveil a plan to increase spending on bike lanes on 2,000 kilometers, or 1,240 miles, of roads. Amsterdam is undertaking an ambitious capital-improvement program that includes building a 10,000-bike parking garage at the main train station -- construction is expected to start by the end of next year. The city is also trying to boost public transportation usage, and plans to soon enforce stricter car-parking fines and increase parking fees to discourage people from driving.

Meanwhile, bicycle riding is becoming as big a status symbol in some European cities as a blinged out Cadillac Escalade is here in New York City.

Read more...