Prospect Park West Bike Lane Back in the News!
The inevitable backlash to last week’s report from the DOT that the Prospect Park West bike lane is a big success has finally arrived. That there video above from CBS2 shows Borough Prez Marty Markowitz disputing the DOT’s claims; Streetsblog fires back: “Marty seems to have either lost the ability to distinguish truth from fiction,…
The inevitable backlash to last week’s report from the DOT that the Prospect Park West bike lane is a big success has finally arrived. That there video above from CBS2 shows Borough Prez Marty Markowitz disputing the DOT’s claims; Streetsblog fires back: “Marty seems to have either lost the ability to distinguish truth from fiction, or his stubbornness is just all-consuming and he’s ceased to care about his public credibility.” Gothamist, meanwhile, has a quote from Markowitz in which the BP says that “we need an outside study—not one conducted by the DOT but perhaps by the NYPD—to get an impartial analysis of the Prospect Park West reconfiguration.” And, last but not least, the Brooklyn Paper is quick to print claims about how a conspiracy theory not imagined by Markowitz may be afoot: “One day after the Department of Transportation announced last week that the lane has improved safety for drivers and cyclists, two members of the city’s old guard — former Sanitation Commissioner Norman Steisel and former Transportation boss Iris Weinshall — struck back, claiming that the agency fudged numbers to make the lane appear more successful than it is.”
Markowitz on PPW Data: It’s a Vast Biking Conspiracy [Streetsblog]
Markowitz Says Activist Cyclists Distorted PPW Study [Gothamist]
Former Officials Slam City for Lying on Prospect Park West [BK Paper]
Hard to take Marty seriously without his clown nose and makeup.
I have read that before the redesign, 3 out of 4 drivers exceeded the speed limit. Now, only 1 in 5 drivers does. The average speeds have declined from about 34 mph to about 27 mph. (And of course because we are talking about a street of about 1 mile in length, this has had a negligible effect on how long it takes to get to Bartel Pritchard Square from Grand Army.)
When you consider that those are AVERAGE speeds, you realize that before the redesign, plenty of drivers were topping 40 mph. Did the DOT really fake these numbers? The only charge from Markowitz (that clown) and the rest is that the stats on bike usage were inflated.
But the redesign was not intended primarily to create a bike lane. It was done in order to make the street safer for everyone.
Nothing improves road safety in pedestrian-heavy areas than reductions in automobile speed. Cars traveling 40 mph are extremely deadly to pedestrians. Cars traveling 20 mph are not.
“In 2006, speeding was a contributing factor in 30 percent of all fatal crashes, accounting for over 13,000 lives lost. The severity of an automobile crash roughly doubles for every 10 miles per hour increase in speed at impact. A pedestrian struck by a car traveling 20 mph has a 5 percent chance of dying. If the car is traveling at 40mph, that pedestrian’s odds of dying are 95 percent.”
http://www.cglaw-auto-accident-lawyers.com/causes.html
And in spite of the hysterics of the anti-bike crowd, there has not been a single injury to a pedestrian by a bicycle on this road in the six months since the introduction of the bike lane. Indeed, prior to the bike lane, 50% of riders along PPW rode on the sidewalk, where they posed a greater danger to pedestrians than they do in the bike lane. Now, only 3% do.
how more of these threads before we see some bike AD banners?
zinka, DIBS does not need to consider reality. He’s never been to PPW – just likes to dump on park slope and bike lanes at any opportunity. And he never learned to ride a bike. Tough kids stole his before he took the training wheels off. He’s just whining and maligning.
“what is a birther?”
is brownstoner the only news you read? the birther movement believes that Obama was born in kenya or indonesia and therefore not eligible to be president….and they continue to believe this in the face of FACTS that PROVE Obama is a citizen.
“Exactly, rob. At least the cars don’t go zooming down the street the wrong way and barrelling through the red lights in between other cars.”
yeah, but they do go barrelling down the street, swerving around other cars INTO THE BIKE LANE without looking, make turns ACROSS THE BIKE LANE without signaling or looking to see if someone is coming, run red lights, make illegal U turns…..NEED I CONTINUE???
i will say it yet again on yet another bike thread……CARS KILL PEOPLE BIKE DON’T.
Both sides should be heard, zinka. Problems with that????
Zinka, I’m not sure that’s what I did say.
I do know on DeKalb, the bike lane has resulted in traffic speeding faster than it ever did during the AM rush hour. Cars pass at speeds approaching 50 MPH on the right side within inches of pedestrians.
While I like our bike lane, I’d like less traffic.
My questioning isn’t about the bike lane, it’s about OTHER traffic changes, resulting in PPW being the only path out of here.
Stonergut, from your comment, you’d think they’d closed PPW to cars entirely.
But they didn’t. At all. It still handles the same number of cars. Yeah, they move a little slower. That’s a good thing, to have drivers obey the law. It makes the street safer.
So what’s the tradeoff here? This is one of the most creative and successful projects that DOT has done. It kills two birds with one stone: traffic calming and bike accessibility. There are still plenty of driving lanes and even more parking spots than before (because of the decommissioned former bus stops, unrelated but happened around the same time).
ET, I’m up for Uno.
It has to beat another bike lane debate.