Monday, August 17, 2009
News Williamsburg Waterfront Getting a Little More Bike-Friendly
Posted by Benjamin Sutton on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Finally, The Brooklyn Paper reports that the city is moving forward with plans to make Kent Avenue in Williamsburg slightly less treacherous for cyclists and unpleasant for pedestrians. Work begins today on phase one of an ambitious plan to transform the road — which runs from Greenpoint to Clinton Hill — into a one-way street for cars with two-way protected bike lanes and more parking spaces. The first phase will transform the stretch between Broadway and Clymer into something resembling the cross-section below, with future plans to the North and South aimed at creating a continuous protected bike lane from North 12th Street all the way to Flushing Avenue (which, oddly, covers about 2/3 of several L Mag staffers' daily commutes).
The bike lane has been a contentious issue for a while now, with local residents claiming the new plan represents too extreme a reduction in parking spaces, and companies making deliveries to the Brooklyn Navy Yard complaining that trucks will have to make difficult and time-consuming detours (likely along Wythe Avenue) as a result. I guess we'll have to see what happens at the end of the week.
Comments (4)
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It is a dumbass plan, by a lame DOT that is trying for Bloomberg to leave a green stain as his legacy. Try putting in some bike lanes where they have NONE ; instead of a neighborhood that is already well mapped with bike lanes. The idea of spreading out instead of reducing truck traffic shouldn't be the DOT's methodology. Sadik-Khan is a bike rider and seemingly her only qualification as a transportation planner. Not good enough.
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Put some bike lanes south of Park Slope please, not in a neighborhood already saturated with bike lanes.
Indeed! Let's not repeat the same Manhattan/North Brooklyn bias that exists with public transportation when allocating bike infrastructure. For instance: what about an easy bike route to the beach?
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