Brad Lander Speaks Up for Safe Streets…Again
Via Streetsblog and Streetfilms. Hats off to Brad Lander for yet another strong display of reason, passion, and commitment to the safety of his constituents.
Prospect Park West Bike Lane Hearing
Photo courtesy Noa Cortes
This is what the so-called “grown ups” were fighting about today. Mark your calendars: the next hearing is scheduled for July 20th, which is plenty of time for this little girl to learn to ride without training wheels.
UPDATE: Here’s the statement from Mark Muschenheim, the city attorney:
“The petitioners have been unable to refute the key legal issues in the case. Their lawsuit was brought after the statute of limitations had expired. Even if it weren’t filed too late, the bike path was clearly a reasonable and rational response by the City to community concerns, the sole legal standard for this case. In addition to enhancing Brooklyn’s bike lane network, the installation of the bike path successfully addressed excessive speeding on Prospect Park West, as well as the high numbers of cyclists riding on the Prospect Park West sidewalks. The plan was revised several times with the input of the local community — and it was, from the beginning, a permanent project to address these concerns.”
“New York’s cycling momentum looks unstoppable.”
On a day that bike lane hysteria is reaching a climax of sorts with Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes finally having their day in court, Jason Gay at the Wall Street Journal offers a sane and funny look at what’s happening in New York as far as cycling is concerned. A few highlights from his piece:
The revival of urban cycling in this country follows a fairly predictable pattern: nervousness and ridicule, followed by the realization that the truth never matches the fear-mongering. The supposed choice between bikes and everyone else is a bogus choice. More bikes in a city doesn’t merely benefit riders; it reduces congestion, saves money, improves quality of life, elevates the experience. No one returns from a city and says, “Oh, it was great—except for all the biking.”
The biggest mischaracterization about the infamous New York Cycling War is that there’s a war at all.
Look all around you. The bikes have won, and it’s not a terrible thing.
It’s clear that those who sue or at least sow fear and distortions are simply fighting an inevitable progression that is in full motion right now, not just here in New York, but all over the world. In London rush-hour bike traffic now outnumbers car traffic on some of the city’s busiest thoroughfares. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel delivered on a campaign process and laid down the city’s first protected bike lane, with plans for more in his first year in office than New York City has in total. In a city known for its literal and figurative gridlock, Washington, DC’s Capital Bikeshare is a huge success.
Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes may very well win — the very fact that they sued took the process out of the community’s hand and into a courtroom for a single person to decide makes the outcome unpredictable — but they’ve already lost in so many other ways, and Gay’s article is a positive reminder of where we are right now as a city. Their actions have resulted in the delay, but not the destruction, of New York’s eventual and rightful place as a world-class city for cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists alike.
Prospect Park West Bike Lane Hearing – Press Conference
Council member Brad Lander and friends will be holding a press conference at 9am, Wednesday, June 22, in front of Kings County Supreme Court in support of the Prospect Park West redesign.
The press conference will take place at Cadman Plaza (a.k.a. Columbus Park — the big plaza behind Brooklyn Borough Hall) side of the courthouse. 360 Adams Street is the official address but we will not be on the Adams Street side of the building. Here’s a Google Streetview image of the spot where we’ll be.
Please, no signs. This is not a protest or rally, but a chance to focus on the lengthy, transparent, democratic and legitimate community-driven process that resulted in a safer and popular Prospect Park West.
Banned in Boston
I know New Yorkers hate looking to Red Sox fans for guidance, but as tomorrow’s court hearing approaches the experience of one Boston neighborhood offers some important lessons for Brooklyn. Via Boston Biker comes the story of Charlestown’s Main Street, where a set of bike lanes was installed by the city as part of its Boston Bikes program, a vision for the city not too dissimilar in concept to New York’s Bicycle Master Plan or Rahm Emanuel’s ambitions for Chicago’s bicycle network.
Last year, the city of Boston installed a bike lane through Charlestown’s historic commercial drag without much in the way of input from the local Charlestown Neighborhood Council. Needless to say, the CNC members were none too pleased when they woke up one December morning and saw a set of white lines running down “their” street:
…Mayor Thomas C. Menino promised to install 20 miles of bicycle lanes around the city by 2010. The lanes in Charlestown mark the tail-end of that initiative. But when they arrived in the neighborhood’s main business district in October, it was a surprise to local leaders.
Of course, PPW is proof that a years-long, community-driven process is no protection from the hysteria and legal machinations of a handful of cranky rich people, but not consulting the dozen or so neighborhood council members in historically insular Charlestown proved to be a fatal mistake on the part of the Boston Transportation Department. The CNC was so upset about being left out that its leaders demanded the Class II bike lanes be removed, striking a familiar refrain in the press:
“I don’t think anybody here hates bikes,” said Thomas Cunha, who heads the council. “But anytime we don’t get dialogue in the community about an issue, we’re frustrated.”
In January 20011 the city of Boston acquiesced and removed the bike lanes. Granted, unlike Park Slope’s self-appointed guardians of “senior citizens, people with disabilities, families with children and neighborhood businesses,” the Charlestown Neighborhood Council is made up of elected representatives. But the CNC’s failure to separate the personal from the political represented a supreme lack of foresight and a willful ignorance of the immense popularity bike lanes have in the larger community. As Boston Biker writes, “removing the lanes without any community process wasted a lot of money, and is exactly the kind of thing [bike lane opponents] were so upset about in the first place.”
But a funny thing happened in Charlestown. After months of phone calls, letters, and intense lobbying from residents, community organizers, and cycling advocates, the CNC tentatively approved a plan to return bike lanes to Main Street. Boston Biker’s reaction is not unlike my own thoughts on Prospect Park West:
So to recap, many dollars were spent to install these lanes, a bunch of “mistakes” were made and many more dollars were spent to remove them, and now additional many dollars will be spent to put them back…These might turn out to be the most expensive bike lanes in the history of Boston.
As I am not politically beholden to anyone (the glories of being a blogger) I think I can say what everyone else is afraid to. This was a massive cluster-fuck perpetrated by a very small group of “neighborhood leaders” who in no way reflected the views of the people they were supposed to represent.
They got in a tiff with the city because the city didn’t sufficiently kiss their ass before installing the bike lanes, so instead of thinking rationally and carefully they wasted a bunch of money and time throwing a tantrum. The end result being that…the same exact bike lanes [will] be re-installed.
I do not know what will happen at tomorrow’s court hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court, but lets say that despite most predictions the judge rules in favor of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes. Instead of installing concrete pedestrian islands the DOT is ordered to remove the Prospect Park West bike lane. Not only will the removal be in direct opposition to overwhelming community support, but it be done without the community-driven process that is central to the NBBL complaint.
If Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes is successful, PPW will revert to three lanes of traffic. The very conditions that caused concerned neighborhood residents to ask the DOT for some form of traffic calming that eventually resulted in a bike lane will return to the street. Cars will have the ability to weave in and out of traffic at dangerous speeds. Crossing distances will get longer, making it harder for seniors and children to get from one side of the street to the other safely. Cyclists will go back to riding on the sidewalk, causing another hazard to more vulnerable park visitors. No one will be safer than they were before, but it sure as hell will be easier for a tiny group of privileged area residents to double park.
In fact, one day conditions on Prospect Park West could get so bad that a group of concerned neighborhood residents might ask the DOT for some form of traffic calming, beginning a four-year, community-driven process resulting in a bike lane.
Quote for the Day
“But the truth is, pedestrians and cyclists not only feel safer, they are safer. Since ‘protected’ bike lanes were installed three years ago on Eighth and Ninth Aves. in Manhattan, we have seen a 56% reduction in crashes for everyone. Seniors, children, cyclists and, yes, drivers of automobiles all benefit significantly. Citywide, streets with bike lanes are 40% safer for everyone than those without. That means, controlling for other factors, 40% fewer pedestrians were killed or seriously injured on streets with bike lanes. It’s indisputable: Bike lanes keep pedestrians, drivers and bicyclists out of each other’s way and out of harm’s way.” – Mary Beth Kelly, in a must-read New York Daily News editorial.
Silent But Deadly
I’m still waiting for whatever bike-lane-related hysteria is about to emerge from the office of Jim Walden and NBBL headquarters in advance of this week’s court hearing, but for now I wanted to point you to this June 8 Newsday story you may have missed, “Bicycle controversies sweep New York City.” (Subscription required.) After explaining the threat posed to cyclists by suddenly opening car doors — a real danger that contributed to the death of cyclist Jasmine Herron last year and one that can be reduced by protected bike lanes — the article introduces bike lane non-expert Louise Hainline.
A threat to pedestrians crossing Louise Hainline’s street also is hard to anticipate.
“The thing about bikes is that they’re silent. People with kids, with dogs, particularly the elderly, are startled by them coming down the street,” the Park Slope, Brooklyn resident said. “It’s kind of terrifying.”
In fact, bikes are so silent, so stealthy, that not a single one of the pedestrian deaths they have caused on Prospect Park West, its side streets, or elsewhere in Brooklyn this year or last has been entered into any kind of public record nor reported on by the local media.
You can be sure that this incident — which sent seven people, including two children, to the hospital — was preceded by a fair amount of noise, including the rumble of car engines, honking horns, and screeching tires. It must have been kind of terrifying.
Another terrifying accident, in which an SUV destroyed the entrance to the Nevins Street 2/3, also involved the types of cars that make noise. (The incident only occurred yesterday afternoon, so you can forgive Seniors for Safety for not releasing a statement about it as of this writing. I’m sure they’re working on it.)
Hainline isn’t identified as a member of Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes until later in the Newsday piece, but when the group is introduced as one side in the “battle in the city’s bike lane wars,” here is how it’s described:
Community groups Seniors for Safety and Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes, a group that opposes bike lanes, filed a lawsuit in March alleging the city distorted cycling statistics to justify the bike lane.
Emphasis mine. This may be the first honest description of NBBL to ever make it to print.
The Future of #BikeNYC
Via Gudphoto. A little girl rides her bike with her doll on a toy bike seat in Greenpoint.
Racked
Via Brownstoner. The DOT is turning old parking meters into bike racks along 7th Avenue. What a great repurposing of these old meter stumps.
But Some of My Best Friends are Bike Lanes, Pt. II
The hits just keep on coming. Via a reader, here’s Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes member Seniors for Safety president Lois Carswell giving a statement that makes even the best anti-bike-lane doublespeak seem amateurish in comparison.
Despite the feelings of the biking community that our organizations are opposed to bike lanes, we are not opposed to bike lanes. We are advocates for what our name states, better bike lanes. While we are opposed to this bike lane, we would like to propose a solution which would satisfy everyone. This solution was proposed to us by two quite avid bikers and their reasoning was this: that they would be perfectly happy to bike in the park, go back to biking in the park, if there was only a safe way for them to get into the park other than biking on the sidewalk which was the situation before the bike lane went in. Therefore we propose removal of the present controversial and unsafe class I lane with its floating lane of cars – it’s really very unsafe, if you live close to it and experience it every day it’s awful. It should be replaced by a class II, one-way lane on the east, park side of Prospect Park West, plus a two-way bike lane in Prospect Park. Two lanes instead of one. With this configuration, bikers trying to enter the park will have a safe way to travel to one of the bike friendly entrances into the park where they could switch to a two-way lane. Prospect Park West would revert to three lanes of traffic with speeds controlled as on every other street in New York City with signalization and the addition of radar guns, signs posting speed limit and the other devices DOT utilizes throughout the city. And civility could return to Park Slope.
Shorter Carswell: We’re not against bike lanes, just this bike lane, which should be replaced with a bike lane that makes the street look exactly the way it was before there was a bike lane. The fact that she even mentions “two quite avid bikers” gives Carswell the distinction of almost literally saying, “But some of my best friends are bikers!“
Brooklyn Spoke 