PPW Bike Lanes Reducing Traffic Speed
Park Slope Neighbors conducted a radar gun study along Prospect Park West and found that average speeds on Prospect Park West have been reduced by nearly 25% by the addition of bike lanes. The group, which has been pro-bike lane from the beginning, also reported that the number of cars traveling more than 40 mph…
Park Slope Neighbors conducted a radar gun study along Prospect Park West and found that average speeds on Prospect Park West have been reduced by nearly 25% by the addition of bike lanes. The group, which has been pro-bike lane from the beginning, also reported that the number of cars traveling more than 40 mph has been cut by 95 percent. “Prospect Park West has been transformed from a noisy speedway on which nearly every vehicle was speeding to a calmer, quieter neighborhood street on which the great majority of drivers are now obeying the speed limit,” commented Park Slope Neighbors campaign coordinator Eric McClure. “What a difference a lane makes.” Brooklyn Borough President, who opposed the creation of the bike lanes, wasn’t buying it. “Double-parking is still commonplace and the result is more noise from car-honking, more pollution from traffic jams and more frustration to residents and visitors alike,” Markowitz told The Brooklyn Paper.
PPW Bike Lane Puts the Brakes on Speeders [Park Slope Neighbors]
“the only ‘residents’ that are frustrated are those that don’t live anywhere near PPW or the park.”
Says a guy that lives in Ditmas Park to a woman that lives in Ft Greene.
Ditto — That’s not nice. I’m sure DIBS still has many years left in him.
I can’t wait until school starts. PPW is going to be a parking lot with kids getting picked up and dropped off at Poly Prep. The brain trust behind this idea did not create a loading and unloading zone for the school and the original study that determined that traffic from the school was negligible was done on a Saturday. Add in the parents transporting kids to other PS schools by way of PPW (St. Savior’s comes to mind) and I think that we have yet to see what the full impacts are.
But the good news is that traffic can’t get any calmer than gridlock!
I thought the cyclists are the yuppies? Its the stodgy, old, soon-to-die-out crowd that’s holding back NYC from becoming a bicycle nirvana.
Yep, the next time some $%#$ bag is blasting their car horn at 6 am outside my window I’ll remember the holier than thou attitude of cyclists 😉
At the end of the day, cars have a huge impact on our quality of life. I see no reason why we can’t claim some of it back. Bike lanes, ticketing horn honkers, pedestrian zones all help claim our beautiful city back from motorists.
Still, do see the occasional misbehaving cyclist, just as I see the more than occasional idiot auto driver. The difference of course is it’s tough to kill someone by riding a bicycle recklessly.
I used to run over the Brooklyn Bridge and have been hit a couple of times by cyclists traveling at insane speeds. Problem is in the Slope we have a great place for riding – but we have to dodge the cars before 7.
Have seen dozens of cars speed through lights in my 25 years in NYC and out of control drivers are commonplace. Case in point, SUV kills scooter rider last week. I once stalled my bike at a green light only to have an SUV blast through the red (driver on cell phone) and miss me by a couple of feet. Driver didn’t even brake.
DIBS, its all relative I suppose. There’s city resident pedestrians vs tourists on the sidewalk entitlement issue.
Time once again for uptight yuppies to rant about how cyclists and bike lanes are the biggest problem in NYC.
I’d say self-involved entitlement is the clear modus operandi of pedestrians too… lovely city, right?
Exactly Heather — the only ‘residents’ that are frustrated are those that don’t live anywhere near PPW or the park.