Closing Bell: Sands Street Bike Lane Opens
If you happened to bike into Brooklyn via the Manhattan Bridge on Friday, then you saw a crowd of bicyclists gathered at Jay and Sands, next to the slick new bike lane. Even though we support spontaneous bicycle soirées, this was of the more planned variety: the official dedication of the Sands Street bike lane,…
If you happened to bike into Brooklyn via the Manhattan Bridge on Friday, then you saw a crowd of bicyclists gathered at Jay and Sands, next to the slick new bike lane. Even though we support spontaneous bicycle soirées, this was of the more planned variety: the official dedication of the Sands Street bike lane, which makes entering and exiting the Manhattan Bridge much easier and safer (say goodbye to the days of weaving through exit-ramp traffic along Jay Street). The fête was hosted by Transportation Alternatives, including a post-dedication party at Recycle-a-Bicycle on Pearl Street, a community bike outreach organization. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, Manhattan Bridge bicycle commuters have increased from 829 in 2005 to 2,232 currently. Bicyclists rejoice! First Sands Street, and then THE WORLD! GMAP
Sands Street Bike Lane a.k.a the Budnick Bikeway [Transportation Alternatives]
New Bike Lane Celbrated [Brooklyn Eagle]
Large photo by Jonathan Scheff/Brownstoner; small photo by Ali Qadeer
I am anti-bike, but if you’re going to have a bike lane on a busy street you really need physical separation like this. Most of the bike lanes in Brooklyn are a joke.
actually I think this bike lane is PRECISELY an improvement for residents of farragut houses – those nearby who can’t afford to drive but do have a bike now get a much safer commute to manhattan.
anyway, it looked Sands Street was being rebuilt to replace water and sewer systems below ground – you could see the giant sections of pipe they were putting in. I’m sure the actual difference in cost between rebuilding the road surface with or without the separated bike lane was incremental to the cost of that project.
YEAYAYAYAYAAYAY to the bike lane!!!!!
BKLOVE are you seriously trying to make a parallel between a bike path and the public housing scam (pun intended)?
Hellhole conditions of farragut houses aren’t caused by improvements to infrastructure in other areas of the city, but by a system that’s very much like what they did to the admiral row houses: demolition by neglect. In this case, it’s demolition of an entire layer of society by governmental and societal neglect. There is no support for the working class. It’s purely Wealthy vs. Welfare in good ol’ NYC, because that’s the CHEAPE$$$$T way to deal with poverty. There is no encouragement of or support for working people. Why can’t we have buildings set aside exclusively for working teachers, court clerks, police officers, and other city employees who are an intrinsic part of the functioning of the city, and who are currently priced out of the immediate area because they get paid nickels for their hard work? Other cities like SF have managed to do this. Economic segregation and professional separation hurts the city on many levels (brutality, indifference, neglect etc). Economic segregation in the form of the current public housing system should be confronted head-on, not used as an excuse NOT to improve things like public safety and accessibility such as bike paths.
bklove-
a) I suspect they’re funded by different parts of the city.
b) bike lanes benefit everybody, both hipster bikers and those of us who bike because it’s cheaper than the subway or a car, ie some of the same folks who live in the farragut houses.
THIS is how bike lanes should be done! How wonderful it would be to have one of these run the entire length of Flatbush, Atlantic or Fourth Avenues.
nice to see the city spending millions on a cornball bike lane whereas they can’t spend a dime on improving the hellhole conditions for farragut residents right next door.
I love seperated bike lanes!
yes. I biked through there for the first time in 6 months on Friday. What a relief! No longer do we have to negotiate BQE ramp traffic! Well done NYC D of T.