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Biking Notes

Promoting the Brooklyn Greenway

The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative is conducting traffic monitoring to study traffic patterns on the planned greenway route. You can help by counting cars/users of the bike lane, etc. this weekend!

We need volunteers Saturday April 4th for the following shifts:
Flushing Ave: 8-9a, 12-1p, 6-7p
Kent Ave: 8-9a, 12-1p
Contact Kevin Vincent: guerilla42@yahoo.com

Installing New Bike Racks

This project seeks to identify locations for new bike racks in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. You can help with outreach to local business owners, as well as technology (online mapping, making an informational film, etc). Contact Kevin Vincent: guerilla42@yahoo.com

Make a Safer Pulaski Bridge

This project is advocating for a protected bike lane over the Pulaski Bridge. You can help with outreach to local community organizations, by writing letters of support to local elected officials and the DOT, and by attending a rally walk/ride at the bridge on May 15 from 6-8pm.
Contact Marin Tockman: marin.tockman@gmail.com

Bike Share Coming to North Brooklyn in June

The Forum for Urban Design will bring a bike share demonstration project to the neighborhood during the first two weeks of June. You can work as a paid supervisor at a station for multiple days, volunteer to staff a station, translate promotional material, or sponsor a location for the bike share.
Contact Loreal Monroe: loreal@forumforurbandesign.org

Guest Post: Safe Biking in North Brooklyn

Because building safe on-street bicycle facilities is being debated hotly in the community, we invited Andrew Barwick, the biker in the limo-bike crash last week, to weigh in with his view of how to make biking safer in our neighborhood.

(Since there is a tendency for "flame wars" to break out over bike-related issues, I would urge you to read our comment guidelines in the sidebar before posting a response)

To those unaware, Community Board 1 is currently in a debate over whether or not to install a bike lane on Kent Avenue. According to bike lane foes, Williamsburg is already saturated with enough bike lanes running North-South, and that to earmark more road space on Kent avenue would be overkill. Teresa Toro's (Committee Chair of CB1) very logical argument against this reasoning is, that because Kent Avenue is the shortest, most direct route between north and south Brooklyn, it is naturally favored by cyclists and motorists alike. I myself rarely use the lanes on Wythe and Bedford/Berry, unless I am forced off of Kent by a glut of construction vehicles. I won't go into the various advantages of Kent over neighboring streets (less intersections, scenic waterfront views, etc.) in the interest of space.

As a cyclist who uses Kent to get to and from work everyday, I am well aware of the dangers in using it, and I exercise the additional requisite caution and respect. And yet still on Tuesday morning, while cycling to work northbound on Kent Avenue at N 7th Street, a south-bound Northside Car & Limo sedan made a left-hand turn on to N 7th Street directly across my path. The driver neither yielded nor slowed even though I was presently crossing the intersection. To avoid going up onto his hood, I had to slam on both brakes, the sudden stop flipping me over the handebars, and throwing me directly in front of his bumper. Reckless driving habits aside, this driver might have been more cautious had there been a bike lane present to alert him to the possible presence of cyclists.

Personally I believe a bike lane on Kent Ave would underline to motorists, that YES, this is a multi-use roadway and not a freeway. It would encourage motorists to anticipate the presence of cyclists and other users, even if none are immediately visible. This would do a great deal towards preventing accidents. A bike lane would also encourage cyclists to ride on the correct side of the road, as well as in the correct direction by accommodating a piece of roadway in which to do so.

I will be the first to admit that while the burgeoning bike culture in New York is a great thing, it has brought with it terrible road etiquette and behavior exhibited by new cyclists and those that simply can't be bothered. Bike lanes are a reminder to cyclists as well, that like motorists, they themselves have a responsibility for their own decisions and actions on the road.

We all share the same streets to get to where we need to go, conveniently and safely. Sometimes we give a greater priority to getting someplace quickly over using our common sense in certain situations. It is my hope that through better roadway design and markings, driver/cyclist education, and activism; that bicycling will someday soon gain widespread acceptance as a viable mode of transportation in the city for those that choose it.

Andrew Barwick

Bikes, Bike Lanes and Bike Love

Bikes and bike safety have been a big topic around the neighborhood lately. In early September, Simon Wiesser of Community Board 1 voiced opposition to a proposed bike lane on Kent Avenue that was approved back in April.

According to the Brooklyn Paper, Weisser wants further review of the Kent Ave lane; he is also proposing shutting down the bike lanes on Wythe and Bedford when the Brooklyn Greenway is finished. Since the meeting, the issue has received much media attention due to complaints that the bikers are an affront to Chasidic religious ideals, as they are often women who don't conform to religious dress codes. (Apparently men can bike in whatever they want.)

However, before you assume that the Chasids are all behind this argument, check out the discussion on the Yeshiva World website. There are many viewpoints expressed, including several urging that the group work with the rest of the community to promote safety for everyone.

Then, a few nights after the community board meeting, a biker was injured while biking along Kent Avenue. A witness alleges that the cyclist was thrown over his headbars when he hit the brakes to avoid colliding with an oncoming Northside Car Service car that was turning onto North Seventh. Gothamist says that the biker has met with Northside and received compensation for his injuries, but a friend of the cyclist is calling for a boycott of the car service.

A great place to read about issues like this is the CB1 Transport email list, run by the amazing Teresa Toro, member of CB1 and head of the transportation committee. You can join it here. Responses to current events have included asking that the police conduct bike safety seminars so that bicyclists are more aware of the rules of the road; requesting a DOT review of the situation on the Pulaski Bridge, where cyclists and pedestrians must share a narrow lane; lobbying for more bike lanes using census data; and many others. The group discusses more than just bikes—mass transit, trucking, and more all come up.

Finally, has anyone seen this guitar-shaped bike rack? Urbanite says it's on North 6th and Bedford. Designed by David Byrne, which is nice, but couldn't they have found an artist who lives here?


Photo by Sawung Gue, via a Creative Commons License