Closing the Bike Lane Gaps
As you can see from this map Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn have had their share of pedestrians and bicyclists getting hit by cars. The area has made a lot of progress in the bike land department in recent years, but there are still plenty of awkward (and dangerous) gaps that need to be filled…
As you can see from this map Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn have had their share of pedestrians and bicyclists getting hit by cars. The area has made a lot of progress in the bike land department in recent years, but there are still plenty of awkward (and dangerous) gaps that need to be filled in. To address the issue, Mike Epstein recently made a presentation to Community Board 2 in which he made some specific suggestions on the lane creation front. There are bunch included in the presentation (including problems crossing the major thoroughfares of Flatbush and Atlantic) which can be viewed here, but one in particular that resonated with us was the gap in the eastbound route where the Lafayette bike path ends at Fulton and the next eastbound path doesn’t start again until Willoughby and Washington Park. Epstein suggests extending the Lafayette route to Carlton and then providing a northbound lane on Carlton to Willoughby. (Image on the jump.)
comments to articles like this are so predictable. Driver’s… settle down, nobody is going to take away your cars! And, we’ll try really hard not to slow your trip by 2 minutes!
Let’s be clear… ALL groups break traffic laws. However, the difference here is that only one of them is a 2 ton killing machine. Drivers bear additional responsibility because of the awesome power of the vehicle they choose.
OK, how many of those who object to my cycling wrong way, never jaywalk? Show of hands please. Thought so.
Puhlease!! YOu have no idea of how I cycle, and how I treat others. My going down Carroll st for a block or two endangers no-one, inconveniences no-one, and for the most part I see 2 – 3 cars along the way, if that. If you guys think that’s “better than everyone else,” “jerk behaviour” or “entitled” you are a lot more sanctimonious than I am. So be it.
id rather burn than freeze. its over faster. unless its a slowburn like brooklyn real estate. in which case id prefer frozen.
squaredrive 147p gets post of the year for getting me to agree with d-snark for first time in forevah.
CMU – as an avid biker I can say that riders like you are a danger to other bikers and pedestrians. You advocate dangerous behavior that is clearly illegal for good reason. As a cyclist going the wrong way down a one-way street, you are in a very dangerous position for a car or a bike making a blind turn down that street.
I’ve had too many close calls because of idiots like you that think you are invincible.
Park Sloper, you forgot how pedestrians fit into this whole mix.
I don’t enjoy biking in the city – too much effort. I prefer a good daydream on a country lane.
I never said CMU was a jerk; just that he was justifying ACTING like a jerk. That sort of justification can also be used by the REAL jerks (be they cyclists, drivers, or pedestrians) who cause lots of accidents. I’m aware that there are here rules for cyclists are quite casual, but what works in rural areas or hick towns* wouldn’t work in NYC. More enforcement of traffic rules for EVERYONE would help lot.
*As a native New Yorker, my definition of hick town is rather broad.
Prospect Park is right (about what cyclists face from drivers) but so is donatella (about what drivers face from cyclists). So let’s just accept that they’re both right.
For my part, whenever I bike around Brooklyn, I invariably encounter more problems from other cyclists than from drivers. If we truly want to make NYC a bike-friendly city, then not only do we have to increase the number of bike lanes and work to make drivers more aware of sharing the streets with cyclists, but cyclists MUST follow the normal rules of traffic. Red lights, stop signs, right-of-way rules and all the rest apply to cyclists as much as they do to drivers. Look at places like Copenhagen: bikers follow the rules. That’s the only way it works.
cmu-You’re going the wrong way down the street- you want to justify this? This is a perfect example of the problem. You don’t have to follow the rules because, hey- you know better than everyone else. Perfect. Yet you take jester to task for a mistake. I’d use the H-word here. I’m with bob marvin.
Whoa. I just came back to this thread. Wow. I am a safe and very careful driver. It is ENOUGH for me to deal with taxis stopped in the middle of the street, jaywalkers, ambulances, lunatic gypsy cab drivers, potholes, double parked trucks, SUVs, illegally parked cars blocking my vision. I can imagine what that must be like for a bike rider, but for CHRISTSAKES, some of these bikers are absolutely suicidal. The best recently was on Flatbush Avenue, where I saw some asshole on a bike, smoking a cigarette, with a cell phone and a PITBULL on a leash. Admittedly, this is an extreme case but DIBS is right, you just can’t SEE these people weaving in and out of cars and trucks. There are traffic rules which protect ME from having to have 360 degree neck rotation ability. I am not an OWL.
Another time, I was trying to make a left turn from Bergen onto 4th Avenue. Simple enough. I wait till all the coast is clear and start to make my turn — then like a bat out of hell, at 50 miles an hour just as I am starting to make the turn, some asshole comes doing the Tour du France to my LEFT. If I wasn’t as careful a driver that I am, that poor sucker would be a quadrapelegic.
The car assholes I can see anyway.
CMU, I don’t find your argument — that I should SEE European streets — rational. Hell, that’s like saying I shouldn’t complain about the HORRIFIC driving by drivers either, because I should see how they drive in Afganistan.