Neighbors For Clear Crosswalks

UPDATE: 6:34 PM: Confirmed.  It’s clear.

UPDATE 4:37 PM: Reports are in that it has been plowed.  If you can confirm, please comment below.

As Aaron Naparstek points out in a detailed post, much of the Prospect Park West bike lane remained covered in snow and ice as of last night:

I’ve mentioned before that this is not about bikes.  This is about pedestrians.  If someone is playing petty politics by not plowing this stretch of asphalt, they also are playing with people’s safety.

Even if the bitter cold keeps every single bike rider at home from now until April, there’s still a need to plow the lane.  Every driver in the picture above who parks his car on PPW has to enter and exit the driver’s seat via a snowy and icy patch of pavement.  Passengers in the back seat have a choice: exit on the left onto ice or on the right into traffic.

Where is Marty Markowitz now?  Where is Norman Steisel?  Where is Iris Weinshall?  Where is Marcia Kramer, Tony Aiello, and the Mobile 2 van?  Where is the New York Post?

Where are the people who were at the last CB6 meetings expressing their outrage over the risk the bike lane posed to senior citizens at the Madonna Residence?  The very first question at last week’s DOT presentation came from a woman outraged that it was now more difficult for people with handicapped placards to find places to park.  But now, even if a handicapped person could find a parking spot, how could he or she safely get out of his car?  Has that woman called 311?  Where is Louise Hainline, Lois Carswell, NBBL and Seniors for Safety now that the crosswalks in front of their apartments are iced over?

The bike lane is a red herring.  None of these people care about pedestrians.  They only care about their view.