Brooklyn Spoke

Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben talks climate change:

When I was last in Copenhagen for that ridiculous failed climate meeting, the one really good thing was watching the fact that 40 percent of people in that very advanced city have adopted the bicycle as their way of getting to and from work. The bicycle is as technological as the airplane. And probably a lot better for you.

Now that the new school rezoning maps have been approved for Park Slope, many parents are understandably concerned with classroom sizes, teacher quality, and, other issues related to their kids’ education.  And even though most of the schools in the neighborhood are of an amazingly high quality, there’s also the not so insignificant issue of people who bought pricey homes and apartments in the coveted PS 321 district years ago only to find themselves zoned out as of Wednesday.

While these are all valid concerns, Councilman Brad Lander, writing on Park Slope Patch, brings up an issue of perhaps greater importance.   PS 133 and the new school to be formed in the St. Thomas Aquinas Building are located on the very busy and very dangerous 4th Avenue, where I happen to live:

One concern that came up at last night’s vote was pedestrian safety on 4th Avenue, where both new schools are located (and existing PS 124 is as well). The strip has long been a safety concern, and I have been working with the Department of Transportation, Borough President Markowitz, Community Boards 6 and 7, the Park Slope Civic Council’s Forth on Fourth Committee to bring traffic calming, larger medians, countdown clocks, the left-turn arrow at 9th Street, and other improvements to 4th Avenue.

My immediate recommendations would be for bulb-outs at all corners next to and across the street from both of these buildings in order to slow down turning drivers as they transition from the 4th Avenue speedway to the smaller side streets.  Extending the curbs at these intersections would also make it difficult for drivers, including the many tow truck drivers who work in the area, to park in crosswalks.  Raised crosswalks might also be a good idea, at least across the side streets, although I understand that snow removal and street cleaning means these can’t be placed just anywhere.  Wider painted medians with plastic delineator poles, as have been installed in Sunset Park, also need to be put in on 4th before these schools open their doors.

As Brad notes in his post, “DOT is planning a public meeting early next year for you to give input on what kind of improvements you would like to see on 4th Avenue going forward.”  Stay tuned for more information about this public meeting.

Iris Weinshall opposed a common-sense change to the confusing off-duty lights atop the city’s taxi fleet.

Thanks to a near-unanimous vote at a meeting this morning, the Taxi and Limousine Commission will require taxi owners to replace their existing two-light system with a single light with two settings–on and off–to indicate a taxi’s availabity.

The only dissenting vote came from Iris Weinshall, the city’s former transportation commissioner, who is Senator Chuck Schumer’s wife.

Why anyone would be against this is beyond me.  But then again, I feel the same way about the bike lane in front of Weinshall’s house.

I’ll update the post if I find out why Weinshall opposed the change.

UPDATE 11/30/12

The Times lets Weinshall explain her opposition:

Iris Weinshall, the city’s former transportation commissioner and a member of the taxi commission’s board, cast the lone vote against the new roof-light rules on Thursday. The goal of the change was to curb “cherry-picking fares,” she reasoned, and regardless of the policy, “it’s still going to go on.”

“Why mess with it?” she said in an interview. “I’m also a traditionalist. My father was a cabdriver.”

Weinshall’s father’s cab probably didn’t have airbags, anti-lock brakes, and many other modern innovations.  If her grandfather had driven a hansom cab, would she have opposed motor engines?  Lamenting the loss of something because of tradition is just fine — I cherish the subway tokens I still have but still love my MetroCard — but opposing something because of tradition is wrongheaded.  And yes the “cherry-picking fares” is absolutely going to continue no matter what kind of light adorns a taxi’s roof, but if this can clear up some measure of confusion why not approve it?

Photo: Brownstoner

Brownstoner notes the opening of Juice Pedaler, a combination juice bar and bike shop located at 154 Prospect Park Southwest in Windsor Terrace.  It’s a full-service bike shop which also offers rentals, which is a smart move for a shop right across from the park.  It’s a great development for the neighborhood.

If you want more evidence of Brooklyn’s ongoing bike shop boom, a store called Redbeard Bikes just opened in DUMBO.  They sell Brompton folding bikes as well as Lynskey and Parlee road bikes.  I’ll have more on Redbeard later.

Am I missing any bike shops that have opened in the last few months?  Let me know in the comments.

Ben Fried brings it to the city’s diminishing number of pro-car-lane radicals:

The only people on the record claiming that narrower roadways increase risk are, to the best of my knowledge, the exceptionally well-connected cohort who wanted to turn Prospect Park West back into a three-lane speedway by getting rid of a safe-for-all-ages two-way protected bike lane. They advocated for the opposite of safety.

Like a climate-change-denying Republican standing knee deep in Sandy flood water, eventually reality smacks everyone in the face.  NBBL has had years now to be proven right, yet I can’t think of one dire prediction about the new street design that has come true.  Can you?  So unless the group suffers from a collected case of confirmation bias, can NBBL leadership still believe that that the bike lane is dangerous?  Did they ever?  And if they know that it isn’t, all that is left then is a desperate need to cling to their former status as members of the city’s elite.

Below are some findings from the NYU Rudin Center’s survey on transportation impacts from Hurricane Sandy:

Average post-Sandy commute lengths ranged from 43 minutes (walked on Nov 1/2) to 115 minutes (drove, or took subway and bus). Frustration levels ranged from 2.3 on the lower end (walked) to 5.7 on the higher end (drove). Commuters who drove, or took a subway and bus combination, had the greatest difference, with travel times at nearly triple their typical lengths. As expected, they were also among the most frustrated commuters.

Walking and biking commuters were, on average, the least frustrated. Commuters who biked to work Nov 1/2 had the fewest delays in their commutes, as they were only 9 minutes longer than their usual commute. Telecommuters ranked their level of frustration on a similar level as transit commuters, 3.7 to 3.8, perhaps due to communications difficulties of connecting to work.

When you consider that this reflects people who switched from “their usual commute” to bike commuting, the fact that frustration levels were so low is remarkable.

Marty Markowitz doth protest too much, methinks:

Mr. Markowitz said his proposal demonstrated the wrongheadedness of “erroneous claims from critics that my office doesn’t advocate enough for the bicycle community.” But the Planning Commission concluded that requiring additional bicycle parking was beyond the scope of the zoning changes that were being considered.

I think the borough president is to be commended for his support of lower parking minimums and zoning changes for Downtown Brooklyn.  But come on, Marty!  There’s really no need to pretend that you are a friend to the “bicycling community.”  After all, most good advocates don’t go to the press with paranoid conspiracy theories or submit dubious affidavits in support of a bike lane’s removal.

So don’t give Marty that lifetime membership to Transportation Alternatives just yet.  It’s not exactly a display of Lander-esque moral courage to recommend that currently unused space be given another dedicated purpose.  Advocating for more places for people to store their bicycles is not at all the same as advocating for more places for people to ride them.

A good way to start advocating for the “bicycling community” is to not have a history of  paranoid conspiracy theories about the DOT and eleventh-hour, he said/she said affidavits about bike lanes.

Photo: Dmitry Gudkov

Artcrank profiles Dmitry Gudkov and his ongoing #BikeNYC project.  Dmitry highlights the photo above as one of his most memorable, and I agree.

One that I always think of is Isaac, whom I saw riding on the then-very controversial Prospect Park West bike lane. I asked him for a portrait, and he agreed. This was during the period when the bike haters were suing the city and decrying the lane for taking away a lane of car traffic to cater to “hipsters” who would just ride for fun in the park. And here is this working class guy, an office cleaner, riding home from work in the PPW bike lane on a rusty little girl’s bike with his broom tied to the frame. And he has such a dignified bearing. I feel like everything about him refutes the caricatures of the NIMBY anti-bike people and reminds us that we have a real interest in expanding good bike infrastructure in New York.

Elsewhere in the profile, Dmitry gives one of the best descriptions of what it’s like to bike in New York City that I can recall.

First and foremost, I would call it a liberating experience. It changes your relationship with the city. Getting around New York, you’re often held up waiting for a train or a bus. With a bike, you just hop on and go. It’s like discovering a cheat code to the city. I’d rather ride my bike 45 minutes to get somewhere than wait for a 20-minute subway ride. It makes you feel independent and self-reliant. Also, it’s fun!

You may have noticed the above change to the Prince Street bike lane between Mulberry and Lafayette during your crosstown commute recently and wondered what’s happening.  I contacted a source at DOT and the good news is that there is no long-term change in store for this block; the shift to the left is due to the impending construction of a commercial building “which will temporarily close the curbside bike lane.”

DOT will also build a pedestrian walkway, presumably where the green bike lane is right now, so it looks like bikes and cars will share space on just this one block, which is one of the quieter stretches of my morning ride.  Expect it to return to normal in about ten months.

Bicycle Habitat is having its annual Trade-In to benefit Recycle-A-Bicycle this weekend at their Soho and Park Slope stores.

Donate your old bike at the collection table run by our friends from Recycle-A-Bicycle, and receive a voucher for a discount at our store! The voucher offers $50-$100 off a new bike or 20% off any accessory.

> Nov 17th @ 11am-3pm, Bicycle Habitat Soho (244 Lafayette St)
> Nov 18thSunday, Nov 18 @ 12p-3p, Bicycle Habitat Brooklyn (476 Fifth Avenue)

Recycle-A-Bicycle helped a lot of New Yorkers get to work while the trains were down after Sandy and is always in need of your used bike or bike parts.