PPW Bike Lane Foes Gearing Up to Sue the DOT?!
Good heavens, is it possible that the Prospect Park West bike-lane brouhaha is going to drag on longer than the Williamsburg one did? It sure is seeming that way. WNYC reports that “Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes,” a group that questions the city’s rationale for installing the lane, is not giving up. The article says…
Good heavens, is it possible that the Prospect Park West bike-lane brouhaha is going to drag on longer than the Williamsburg one did? It sure is seeming that way. WNYC reports that “Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes,” a group that questions the city’s rationale for installing the lane, is not giving up. The article says that in “late December, a lawyer working pro bono, Jim Walden, wrote a letter to transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan asking for additional data, saying he hoped ‘this begins a constructive phase of dialogue between DOT and the affected community members’…there’s been no official legal action, though that’s expected to come next week.” One member of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes says she thinks the lane should be moved into the park. Meanwhile, the Post reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer, despite being a cyclist, is not a fan of the Prospect Park West bike lane either: “Sources said Schumer — who has yet to take a public position on the 19-block bike corridor — shared his feelings privately with some members of the City Council. ‘He’s asked legislators what they’re going to do about [this and other] bike lanes,’ said one source.”
Residents Prepare Lawsuit on Brooklyn Bike Lane [WNYC]
Not in Chuck’s Back Yard! [NY Post]
Prospect Park West Bike Lane Back in the News! [Brownstoner]
Photo by swimfast.
Wow, the sore loser parade marches on.
Minard, really having a hard time following you here.
PPW redesign makes the street safer for seniors because you can cross the street in two sections instead of having to get across 3 lanes of high-speed traffic in a single trip. Yes, pedestrians have to learn to look both ways before crossing the bike lane. It really isn’t so hard, and I am pretty sure that members of the “older generation” can learn this trick.
Is it the “older generation” that was driving PPW at speeds over 40mph?
Your post is very confusing.
Completely ludicrous that this group of self-entitled elitist NIMBY pricks are getting pro bono representation, are tying up the city (and our tax dollars) in a ridiculous lawsuit, and are going around the expressed will of a clear majority of the neighborhood who support this traffic calming project.
There’s nothing wrong with the new PPW that a little bit of concrete and some signs won’t fix. There was nothing wrong with the 5-year-long public process that led to this redesign. The only things wrong are with these millionaire NIMBYs who can’t stand not getting their way.
There is also a serious generational disconnect in this that is unfortunate. As usual, younger folks just want old folks to drop dead and the older generation see the young as entitled and pampered and kind of silly.
The final outcomes are usually decided at the ballot box and there, older citizens seem to come out ahead as they tend to vote in larger numbers than the young.
Jim Walden is the same lawyer who sued to prevent the reopening of the BHOD (and lost). Despite being a very prominent and successful lawyer, he seems prone to taking the reactionary nonsense side (i.e. whatever Marty wants) of all arguments. Oh, and he’s a first class a$$h0l3.
“”here we go again….”
damn, cant recall the artist on that song”
Dolly Parton, I think.
Randolph — the pot holes are CRAZY from the plows. Just pealing up any patches and leaving enormous holes. Yikes!
i wonder if Schumer and the rest of the anti bike lane crowd would have supported it if the DOT promised that it would create “jobs and housing and hoops.”
the contrast is so stark:
a bike lane conceived of by the community, with community support and input, that is shown to reduce accidents, increases eco-friendly transport and costs relatively next to nothing, is hysterically opposed by a few rich NIMBYs (a term i hate), including a former transportation official, a borough president and a senator
vs.
a top-down, private development that uses eminent domain, which might never deliver its promised housing and jobs, will generate more auto traffic with a temporary surface parking lot for 1000+ cars, leaves the taxpayers with most of the costs and the developer with most of the profits, and is causing blight in a neighborhood that it was supposed to be enriching.
this is truly crazy town.
It bothers me that I personally know a couple of these NIMBYs. I hope they sue. They need to have their ridiculous opinions put into the public record.
The ridiculous arguments are the following:
** The bike lane has made the road narrower. (Yep, that was the point!)
** Traffic is more congested. (Nope. It’s not. It just “seems” that way because you can’t drive 50 mph.)
** It destroyed the aesthetics of the boulevard. (Ya, whatever.)
** And stuff about pedestrians… I personally find it MUCH easier to cross now. And I’m able bodied. It must be a MILLION times better for an 80-year old.