More Transportation Thoughts

If you haven't seen it yet, please read Ward Dennis's very thoughtful thoughts about Kent Avenue in response to Wednesday's community board meeting. An excerpt:

All of the problems with the Greenway are problems of implementation, and they are indicative of a complete lack of comprehensive transportation planning on the part of the City. Which really should not be a surprise to anyone. CB1 Transportation Chair Teresa Toro has been calling for a comprehensive transportation study for years. CB1 requested this during the 2005 rezoning, and was told it was not necessary. Every time the issue is raised, DOT says that existing transportation policy and infrastructure is adequate to meet our needs.

Chicken, meet roost.

The problem with Kent Avenue is not the Greenway. The problem is that DOT is asking Kent Avenue to do too much. They want Kent to be a two-way truck route, with existing manufacturing users on the east side of the street and new residential/commercial uses on the west side of the street. Add to that the temporary bike lanes (or the future Greenway), and there is just not enough room.

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Transportation Meeting Monday, Nov 24th

It seems like having a Town Hall Meeting is the thing to do these days! Come and tell your elected officials what your transportation needs are on Monday, Nov 24th, then join NAG to take action on Thu, Dec 4th for our follow up to our meeting last month (details TBA shortly).

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

Is the L train the best in the city?

Photo: sarahnw

According to the latest Straphanger's Campaign State of the Subways report, it is!

They write:

"The best subway line in the city is the L with a MetroCard Rating of $1.40. The L ranked highest because it performs best in the system on two measures—regularity of service and announcements—and well above average on three other measures: frequency of scheduled service, delays caused by mechanical breakdowns and the percentage of dirty cars. The line did not get a higher rating because it performed well below average on: a chance of getting a seat during rush hour. The L runs between 14th Street/Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and Canarsie in Brooklyn. The previous top-rated line—the 1—dropped to a fourth-place tie."

If you want to read an indepth report on the L, plus links to L-related forums and and contact info for the L line superintendent, visit Straphanger's L Train Home Page.

Are you as surprised as I am by this? The L has gotten a little better, true, though it is still sorely inequipped to deal with the rapid growth of our neighborhood. But is it really the best?

—Mikki