PPW Bike Lanes Still Controversial
Surprise! The Prospect Park bike lanes are still stirring up controversy. Today the Brooklyn Paper reports that this PPW Bike Lane Survey started by Council members Steve Levin and Brad Lander got 800 responses on its first day. While the city has been analyzing traffic speed and accidents after the lane was put in, it…
Surprise! The Prospect Park bike lanes are still stirring up controversy. Today the Brooklyn Paper reports that this PPW Bike Lane Survey started by Council members Steve Levin and Brad Lander got 800 responses on its first day. While the city has been analyzing traffic speed and accidents after the lane was put in, it wants community feedback before deciding whether or not to make the bike lane permanent. Questions deal with safety and design modifications. (One question asks if the bike lanes should be more compatible with the historic character of PPW.) In the meantime, rival bike lane protests are planned for this Thursday morning – supporters will be at GAP with protesters at PPW and Carroll Street. Uh oh!
Survey Says PPW Bike Lane Still Very Controversial [BK Paper]
I love the PPW bike lane, esp. because it is two way. Previously I had to ride on 8th Ave. and the cars go way too fast on that street and swerve around a lot.
Churchgoers legally parking on bike lanes is going to make me a terrorist. My out of state brother is buying me an asp…watch out car windows/mirrors.
brooklyndreamland:
According to your profile you live in Marine Park, which is like 6+ miles out toward Coney Island? So I think we can assume you use PPW as a freeway on your daily commute or something? I don’t think you’re riding with your kids to the GAP on the weekends. Why should we even listen to you on this issue (let alone your ranting about the Bloomberg administration)?
I’d guess that at least 80% of the bike lane ranters live in Midwood, Boro Park, Coney Island etc. They have no stake in the community the PPW bike lane serves, other than to drive through it as fast as they can. They’re basically astro-turfers. And they’re the reason we need the bike lane….so residents of Park Slope children in particular, can cycle safely through OUR neighborhood.
We’re not telling you what to do in your neighborhood. Don’t tell us what to do in ours. You have no standing on this issue. Find some other way to drive home if you don’t like bike lanes. We didn’t ask you to take PPW.
As a walker/biker/driver I think the PPW bike lane is great and the trade off of a bit more traffic on PPW well worth it, although I don’t drive much during the week so can’t comment on weekday traffic.
And yeah the really stupid subset of bikers out there are annoying as hell (and I admit to being one of them when I was younger) and it would be good to enforce the biking rules once in a while, it would be even better to enforce the rules for drivers. When was the last time you saw someone stopped for speeding, running red light, talking on cellphone, signal etc.
Finally, my personal traffic rant – what is it with so many NYC drivers that they only turn on their turn signals when they are starting to actually make the turn, that is if they bother to use their signals at all?
I for one didn’t vote for Bloomberg
that being said – I see I can’t fight the bike lanes so the city and state should really start cashing in and make all cyclists (especially if they are commuter cyclists/delivery men)
am not talking about your kid on a bike with training wheels
register their bikes and pay insurance. Just make it a fair playing field. If I get into an accident with a bike that the bike caused – where’s my recourse? who am directing my needs to get my dented car fixed?
We should just corinate Bloomberg King and get rid of elections. We also voted for term limits.
“Emperor Bloomberg” haha, it’s so true.
Every time I drive through GAP I think ‘why aren’t the lanes painted more clearly?’ I don’t know how many accidents I’ve almost had because because the lanes are only implied, especially as you exit the roundabout onto PPW. It’s a bit of a free-for-all. As far as the traffic on PPW goes the real villain is double parking.
RE: bike lanes, I’m 100% in favor of them, but as there are more cyclists on the road there also need to be better defined AND enforced rules of the road for them. There are some real crazy-ass cyclists on the roads.
Bike lanes on PPW are fine assuming that NYPD Traffic now actively enforces ticketing for double parking. One double parked car now creates a traffic jam. However, Bike lanes on streets that are already so narrow that a driver must decide if they want to take out the mirrors of parked cars or the biker when passing is absurd. Once you pass 7th Ave on 3rd St or (I forget the street after Union heading up to the Plaza) those are your choices.
By the way – I’ve seen evidence of broken car windows on PPW in the past 2 weeks – one by carroll and another btn 3rd & 4th on PPW park side. About in line with what we would see around this time of year.
I love the new PPW. I drive on it and walk across it into the park fairly frequently. (I do however wish the police would enforce traffic laws on bikes)
Re the “Emperor Bloomberg” and “runs it like an empire” Bloomberg comments: I want a mayor who makes strong decisions and has competent staff (Sadik-Khan) to execute those decisions. That’s what we elect mayors for; if we don’t like the decisions we vote someone else in next time. Bloomberg expanded bike lanes for his first two terms and he won a 3rd, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. If folks don’t like it I suggest start looking for an anti-bike lane candidate next time…and good luck with that.