Past and Present: Brooklyn Bridge Approach

MM: Great post!
Brokelin: too long! I will try to read your post tonight.

One of the best threads I’ve read here.

I love Shorpy. Looking at the full-size, I’m struck by how many of the familiar buildings on the Manhattan side were already there, more than 100 years ago, and are still there and functioning.

My reaction to the end of MM’s comment was the same – yes, despite the advertising, it was better back then in that there was more public transportation over the bridge.

Just because we now have the subway on the Manhattan bridge and running under the river through tunnels doesn’t mean that we don’t need more public transportation and less individual cars. (There are a LOT more people in NYC than when the subways were built 100 years ago.)

Despite the stupidity going on over on PPW about the new bike lane – sheesh, when I looked at apartments on PPW, I decided the sound of the rushing cars was too loud for me, and so I bought on a more quiet side street – you’d think the folks living there would appreciate less cars there – despite that, a mere blip, a last gap of those who resist progressive change, if you willl, it DOES seem that we are moving to make bike commuting easier, and since it IS difficult to get over the bridge quickly on the same roadway as the walkers, I predict that in time, there will be a better bike lane across the bridge.

People seem to miss the fact that when public transportation is plenty, clean, reliable, frequent, and easy to use, drivers DO prefer to leave their cars at home. In cities where it is easy to take a train to the airport, who drives there? Nobody.

Trolleys and streetcars, while not particularly fast, did move a lot of people where they needed to go before the rise of the gasoline engine did them in. We’ve certainly got a lot of room to start using them again all over the place.

And as to the particulate matter that clogs the air in swaths of the city composed largely of lower-income neighborhoods, that’s largely a problem of truck traffic in addition to auto traffic, a different, but just as necessary, problem to to tackle – how to get trucks that produce less pollution. Cynically, I think the air in those areas won’t be improved until the neighborhoods gentrify – it is always hard for poor people to get anyone to pay attention to health concerns; rich people, not as hard.

And, despite the fact that the city MAY seem cleaner to some, air quality all over the city doesn’t rank very high when they do actual scientific studies. We are one of the cities with poor air quality. It isn’t hard to see why – just look up any avenue in Manhattan on a summer day and you can see the haze of brown pollution hovering in the sky.

The last gasp people resisting change will be doing just that – gasping – I’ve always heard living in NYC was equivalent to smoking a pack a day, and have known life-long NYers who never smoked who died of lung cancer.

Minard — You are absolutely right. There have been amazing improvements to the environment in the city over the last half century. But there is still PLENTY of room for improvement.

There is nothing about the nature of business in this town that would prevent a movement away from the Automobile Status Quo. It’s PURELY POLITICAL.

Step #1 — Have DIRECT and FAST rail transportation to and from BOTH New York City airports. The only reason that business people and everyone else clogs the roads with cars to get to and from the airports is because of the Taxi and Limousine lobby. Even a 30% reduction in the Manhattan to JFK car trips would do wonders for congestion.

Step #2 — Implement congestion pricing, but only 7:00am to 8:00pm, Monday-Friday. This money must go to transit. Traffic in the lower part of Manhattan becomes essential or paid for. Traffic in the “outer boroughs” is also improved because folks are commuting through the most dense areas. Like Southbrooklyn says above, this is PURELY political.

Step #3 — Support and promote transportation alternatives. I’m not just talking bikes. I also mean Bus Rapid Transit, Trolleys/Streetcars, etc. etc. Maybe even some of those little pod things from Logan’s Run.

Step #4 — Pedestrian Zones. I’m talking pleasant pedestrian “refuges,” which have proven in cities around the world to improve commerce. You just have to realize that the majority of folks in the city don’t *drive* to the Gap to buy a sweater… they use their feet. If a fancy businessman’ cab has to stop a 1/2 block away from his meeting — they’re not going to decide NYC is no longer “business friendly.” And if they just can’t handle it, they can schedule their meetings in the morning when these zones are open for commercial traffic (deliveries etc.)

The environment in NYC including the water quality in the rivers and bay and the air quality have improved significantly since I was a kid in the 1960’s. There is no comparison. That has been one of our great victories.
However, when I read comments that there should only be one lane on the Brooklyn bridge for cars, or that we should be more like Copenhagen (the national capital of a small Scandinavian country) I think folks miss the point of the essential character of New York. We are not a capital city, we are a business city and while we should continue to endeavor to improve our environment and make our roads and bridges safer we cannot ever be a serene little European capital. It ain’t in the cards. We will never be like Bern or Oslo. Our model is more Hong Kong and Sao Paolo. That’s just the way I see it.

Sparafucile, Thank you! I didn’t know there were subways that went to Manhattan. Are they new?!