Closing Bell: New Bike Lane and Parking Cuts on Dekalb
We were pleased as punch to notice the new bike lane addition on Dekalb Avenue. There has been one for a while between Cumberland and Ashland–the new addition now extends the lane from Cumberland well up into Fort Greene. (Anyone know exactly how far it goes?) While this is great news, we got an email…
We were pleased as punch to notice the new bike lane addition on Dekalb Avenue. There has been one for a while between Cumberland and Ashland–the new addition now extends the lane from Cumberland well up into Fort Greene. (Anyone know exactly how far it goes?) While this is great news, we got an email from a resident of Dekalb describing a perhaps unintended consequence of a simultaneous elimination of parking on the north side of Dekalb between Hall and Adelphi streets.
This parking restriction, (“No Standing 7 am – 10 am 4 pm – 7 pm”) may not have resulted in the desired outcome: Traffic on these tree lined brownstone blocks of DeKalb Ave. has speeded up to what appears to be 50 MPH, traveling in three unimpeded lanes. Cars drive in the newly painted bike lane at high speed until they encounter a bicyclist and merge back in. The new B38 Limited bus also barrels up the far right hand lane of DeKalb Ave. at a substantially increased speed. While the intent MAY have been lane reduction and traffic calming, this has had just the opposite effect. There appears to be MORE automobile traffic on Dekalb, moving much faster using all three lanes. Cars in the bus lane – just 10 feet from my front door – are traveling at what seems to be 50 miles an hour or more. During rush hour, it’s like living on the Belt Parkway.
Have others noticed this as well?
Just being practical, 9:17. I wish we/I didn’t need cars. It would be a happy, happy world, if we could all float to work on a soft, fluffy cloud. But not all of us can. I have no choice–I need the evil, carbon-spewing thing (as does anybody who’s fixing a house or who lives in Clinton Hill and wants to buy unspoiled meat). Can you carry a piece of sheetrock on that Huffy?
Meanwhile, in a city without alleys and with this ridiculous alternate-side parking shakedown, it’s already hard enough to manage. Go on, be happy–you won this round. But many of your friends and neighbors lost.
I didn’t say that bikers should die, although their chances of doing so are excellent. Who are you people who are even brave/crazy enough to get on a bike in NYC? You couldn’t pay me enough.
10:08: That’s kind of a good idea, although you could never count on motorists to park correctly, could you? Maybe if they put in a concrete barrier?
When will DOT do what should be obvious and put the bike lane next the curb with the parking lane outboard? That way it gives us bikers a protected lane less likely to be used for parking without any more space or cost. Duh.
Rehab:
Your logic is crazed.
1) I support reducing the use of cars.
2) I feel I cannot reduce my own dependence on cars.
3) Therefore, bikers on Dekalb or any other street in Brooklyn that I deem unsuitable for a bike lane should die.
Happy world inside your head! Happy! Happy!
Great news: 100-plus parking spaces gone so that 13 bicycles an hour can have a bike lane wide enough for a semi on Dekalb. Stupid. Dekalb was a busy enough disaster already.
I’m all for reducing the use of cars in the city, but not all of us have that option. Try doing a DIY reno on your house with taxis. You can’t put a sheet of plywood in a cab. Or on a bike.
Bicycling sounds like a great, green option–if you don’t mind smelly co-workers–but it’s stupid to take an already bollixed traffic situation and make it even more pathetic by squeezing the street down to nothing like this.
You might be less excited about this development when you’re in the back of an ambulance, desperately trying to get to a decent hospital before your ticker quits.
Great news: 100-plus parking spaces gone so that 13 bicycles an hour can have a bike lane wide enough for a semi on Dekalb. Stupid. Dekalb was a busy enough disaster already.
I’m all for reducing the use of cars in the city, but not all of us have that option. Try doing a DIY reno on your house with taxis. You can’t put a sheet of plywood in a cab. Or on a bike.
Bicycling sounds like a great, green option–if you don’t mind smelly co-workers–but it’s stupid to take an already bollixed traffic situation and make it even more pathetic by squeezing the street down to nothing like this.
You might be less excited about this development when you’re in the back of an ambulance, desperately trying to get to a decent hospital before your ticker quits.
i was always under the impression that the cops in this city are under instruction to only serve tickets that earn the city money. i was told that speeding ticket fees go to albany but parking tickets go to the city.
Thanks for the heads up! I will now be using DeKalb to get to downtown Brooklyn. All you bikers and pedestrians get the FK out of my way.
Here’s the problem with the bike lane on DeKalb…there are no bikers using it. I traveled from Dekalb and Stuyvesant to DeKalb and Classon yesterday at 6:30pm before I saw the first person in the bike lane. Unfortunately it was some idiot on a fixed gear riding AGAINST traffic.
The problem with the bike lanes is that there is currently not enough bike traffic to support the number of bike lanes that are currently popping up. In addition, DOT seems to choose busy multi-laned streets with bus routes as their favorite sites for bike lanes, even where there are more sedate one lane streets that are wide enough to support a bike lane close by.
I know that this administration has a “build it and they will come” mentality towards the bike lanes, but I have yet to see more than a handful of people using the new bike lanes. In fact, I drive down Bedford every Saturday morning at 8:30am (a time with little car traffic) and I can honestly say I’ve only seen people in that bike lane on one or two occasions. If there were more bikers, car drivers would not feel as if they have carte blanche to drive in the lane with impunity. But so long as it sits there empty, drivers will continue to use it to get around the slow buses, double parkers, and cars loading and unloading people and materials.
NYC cops seem to be part of the Car Culture. I would bet that cops tend to live in areas where cars are necessary. They identify with car owners. To them bikes are the problem, not the solution.