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]
Good morning, Clyde. we’ve missed your intelligent conversation and wit. Got any more anagrams for us, dumbass???
DIBS, the pre- and post- PPW are completely different streets. You don’t need numbers to see that speeding is way down without much congestion, and that it’s now safe to ride a bike and safer to cross the street.
And yes, I believe the numbers. Why don’t you? Why do you think they’re false, when they square with reality?
dave, who has never been to park slope and never learned to ride a bike, should just stfu for once in his life.
I am not so sure the numbers can’t be fudged. Look at the evidence for “traffic calming” and Broadway. The DOT was surprised that evidence for the plazas in Time Square wasn’t showing the expected positive impact on area traffic patterns. Because city officials didn’t like the evidence, they didn’t change the plazas back after the “test period”.
I feel unequal about these questions. As a NYC resident, I would rarely take my car into Times Square, preferring mass transit. I like the plazas.
But as a Brooklyner, my day to day errands are run in a roughly 5 mile radius area that encompasses PPW as well as Tribeca. I frequently drive 2.5 miles into Manhattan to Whole Foods on Greenwich Ave., and my kid attended High School on Chambers St. I consider downtown Manhattan my own turf. East River crossing fees are a great idea – except I live here.
I run errands using Vanderbilt to PPW. I’d say I could easily take another route, but they’ve made it impossible to make a left on Flatbush from any street in Ft. Greene to go to other parts of Brooklyn. PPW is an important path.
I am nearly 60 years old, and I’m not traveling from Clinton Hill to Key Food on Fifth Avenue with a cargo bike, or visit my chiropractor in Bay Ridge on on the R train either.
On the other hand, my daughter would bike to any of these locations. I like that access for her.
So I have conflicting views. I do agree that bicyclists have many options near Prospect Park, including a HUGE sidewalk which could have been utilized for the bike lane.
Cars aren’t necessarily evil and many bike lane/traffic conflicts could be solved in better, more creative ways.
I’m just relating the actual experiences I’ve had, dh.
Because you believe the DOT, zinka.
DIBS, I’m not the one seeing a conspiracy theory. Markowitz, Steisel and Weinshall are. I’m saying that there isn’t a big conspiracy, and that the project is simply a clear success.
“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.”
you’re a dope
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.
what is a birther? and in truth 99% of people out in the real world dont give a crap one way or the other about these bikes lanes. it’s almost as if the people who yap about them non stop both have crazy persecurtoray delusions (on both sides) and cyclists are claiming some kind of strange martyrdom. newsflash: no one gives a shit.
as a non motor vehiclist and as a non cyclists all i care is that they stay the hell out of my way when im crossing the street. just make sure that whatever you are riding you are alert, cuz like most pedestrians, im generally not looking both ways.
*rob*