Park Circle Revamp Underway
Streetsblog checked in on the overhaul of Park Circle, the traffic roundabout outside the southwest corner of Prospect Park. The DOT is in the process of establishing bike paths, a traffic island, and shorter crosswalks for pedestrians in the circle. Judging from the photos Streetsblog has up, the redesign is looking really great. Anyone seen…
Streetsblog checked in on the overhaul of Park Circle, the traffic roundabout outside the southwest corner of Prospect Park. The DOT is in the process of establishing bike paths, a traffic island, and shorter crosswalks for pedestrians in the circle. Judging from the photos Streetsblog has up, the redesign is looking really great. Anyone seen it in the flesh?
In Progress: A More Walkable, Bikeable, Trottable Park Circle [Streetsblog] GMAP
CB7 Approves Park Circle Changes [Brownstoner]
Photo from Streetsblog.
There goes that whole : shudder and resize : thing again…
Anyway, since I live a few blocks away from this thing and ride to the park all the time: it’s awesome. Protected bike lanes that go around the circle, stop/walk signs for peds, controls the free-for-all traffic situation (which was awful – I used to live at 10 OP and there were accidents all the time because cars couldn’t figure out the lanes).
Should look great with landscaping although I second Gross: could the stables PLEASE keep their horses off the bike lane? There’s a HORSE lane RIGHT NEXT TO IT for all those droppings. The new bike lane (heading down OP the wrong way but 2 ways for bikes) will indeed hook up with the rest of the OP bike lane; for now head down OP off the south side and follow the bike path (unmarked so looks like a sidewalk for now) down to Church Ave and cross over for the rest of the trip to Coney).
Anyway, I second the 1st few responses: great job DOT. Now if they could only pave Nostrand Ave – Rode down the Bedstuy part a few weeks back and it was HAIRY even with a mountainbike. ROughest pavement I’ve come across in a while.
CGups/Havelc
Thanks – haha as you know I HATE how the city kowtows to cyclists, so I was just nitpicking that really it’s bikers who cause confusion and danger and not cars…
but again that is INSANE that now there are 2 bikelanes in tandem taking up so much room
gemini— look carefully at the bike lane– it’s actually split in two with one lane going counter clockwise and the other clockwise. I don’t know if that’s a safer way to build a bike lane, but it’s how they built it– presumably so cyclists can get to where they want to go on the circle with the minimum amount of exposure to turn-without-looking cars.
gemini – you’re right that cyclists are supposed to go with the flow of traffic but in this case, it’s a two lane bike lane, a lane for either direction.
I drive through there a few times a week and find it somewhat improved. IMO these changes benefit pedestrians, cyclists, AND drivers.
I am at a loss trying to figure out how this is supposed to be an improvement. I just hope that, having spent all this money, it isn’t worse than before.
aren’t the bikers in the picture going the WRONG WAY?
aren’t cyclists supposed to go with traffic and not against it?
From what I understand there will be a link to Ocean Parkway via the under used Ocean Parkway on-ramp. That will be great once the Church Ave intersection gets some attention (very confusing and dangerous at the moment). Soon Olmsteads vision for a Prospect Park Coney Island link will be restored (kinda). And one of Robert Moses’ slash and burn of the boroughs remedied.
Local drivers are upset at the changes because most of them feel that they have a right to a disproportionate amount of public space because they are in a car.
I drive through the circle frequently and find it a much needed improvement. Slowing down and understanding it is a residential area help a lot to navigating the changes. I walk through more, and it is a lot safer and easier to cross with the new design. There was nothing worse than see people with kids in tow sprinting across 6 lanes of traffic to get the two schools on Coney Island Ave.
If we can get the Horse Stable to clean up the horse apples then we will be in good shape. Maybe they can scoop it into the new landscaping on the circle islands. Compost!
Some of us locals are less than thrilled, although God knows it was a free-for-all before. I’ve dubbed the new plan the “archipelago”–so many islands! From the air, it must look like a mandala. And lots of new streetlamp poles to wham into. And the turning lane for the bank–!!!—it is an outrage that anyone is allowed to bull their way through the middle of a lane of traffic at a red light for that damn TD Bank drivethrough, which should have been placed very differently in the first place; people coming out of the cirle, with or without a turn lane, do INSANE things to stick their cars through 2 lanes of standing traffic. Instead of a turn lane, they should have put up bollards to thwart them and forced them to access the bank by going around the block and making a right turn facing south…grrrr.
On top of it all, there are the poor riders trying to get across the chariot race to the park on their horses–I hope this at least makes it easier on them.