greenpoint-ave-bridge-0510.jpg
A proposed bike land installation is ruffling feathers again in North Brooklyn. As part of a $5.8 million renovation of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, the city is planning to install two bike lines, each with a nine-foot buffer. The result: Two fewer lanes to accommodate the many trucks that use the Brooklyn-Queens connector on a daily basis. The proposed change comes on the heels of a new bike lane installation on Greenpoint Avenue that local industrialists blame for big back-ups. “They’ve really made Greenpoint Avenue a mess,” said Paul Pullo of Metroenergy. The bike lobby insists more buffered lanes are necessary in the area: “Those narrow sidewalks [on Greenpoint Avenue] currently make it pretty hazardous for two cyclists, let alone two pedestrians, to comfortably pass one another,” said Wiley Norvell of Transportation Alternatives. “Separating bike and pedestrian traffic would do a lot to improve safety.” And so it goes.
It’s Trucks vs. Bikes on Greenpoint Avenue [Brooklyn Paper]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. “Old people rode bikes without bike lanes and survived. If not so much a wimp, you could too.”

    Yeah – I agree. I don’t even really like riding in bike lanes, and many of the ones that have been installed suck (Kent Ave, Grand St, Prince St, and that Smith St idea sucks)

    But this one I think makes sense – cuz it is a little hairy getting over to LIC and people have been killed. If bike lanes are needed ANYWHERE it’s on truck routes, as their visibility is the poorest.

  2. Some bridge confusion in this thread. Pedestrians from Greenpoint use the Kosciuszko Bridge to access the #7. I’ve never seen a pedestrian or a bicyclist on the Pulaski (I don’t think it has a lane for either). The Greenpoint Bridge carries heavy auto and truck traffic to industrial parts of Queens as well as to LI Expressway. I drive the Kosciuszko nearly daily, and in addition to the LIE it also carries traffic to the 59th St. Bridge. Sometimes I use the Greenpoint as an alternative. The pedestrian/bike lane on the Kosciuszko is insufficient. I have no experience with the one on the Greenpoint. Both Kosciuszko and Greenpoint bridges are drawbridges. Lots and lots of traffic on both bridges and surrounding streets during rush hour as well as all day long, and lots and lots of back-ups when bridges are drawn.

  3. I actually use the Greenpoint Ave. bridge (anyone else here?), driving.

    It does not back up, at least when I’ve been on it (various times maybe once or twice a week). Greenpoint Ave. does back up at McGuinness, mostly because the stop line at that intersection is way before the corner because of the firehouse on the corner. But I think the red light cycle could be adjusted to help that situation.

  4. what is wrong with old people. You probably think all should be exterminated because you are too lazy to work 2 jobs to pay for medicare, etc. Old people rode bikes without bike lanes and survived. If not so much a wimp, you could too.

  5. “Exactly. If you can’t or won’t bike in the same lanes as other traffic, as has been done successfully for the last century or so, maybe New York just isn’t for you. It’s a crowded city, and demanding exclusive road space for bicycles is selfish as well as unnecessary.”

    Maybe the city doesn’t want cycling just to be for bad asses! But, if this particular bridge serves a commercial purpose that would be disrupted, then I agree that the bike lanes should not be put in place of vehicle lanes.

  6. “reflexive whiners who hate bikes for some strange personal reason.”

    “Only old people hate bike lanes!!”

    And lastly, this doozy….

    “take it back from the lazy truck drivers and give it back to the community.”

    The “community?????” BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA

  7. No, I don’t hate bikes. I have 2 of them.
    But reading the article – says trucks now back up (spewing their fumes of course) for extra lanes for bicycles.
    Somehow doesn’t make sense.
    Even if cyclists had to walk the bike a bit, doesn’t seem that horrible.
    Remember, on rainy day, the bike lane will be totally empty.The trucks will still be out there.

  8. and the pussification of new york continues

    *rob*

    Exactly. If you can’t or won’t bike in the same lanes as other traffic, as has been done successfully for the last century or so, maybe New York just isn’t for you. It’s a crowded city, and demanding exclusive road space for bicycles is selfish as well as unnecessary.

    I’ve bicycled over this bridge many, many times and can’t see what the problem is.

1 5 6 7 8