There's a good story on bike lanes in the Gotham Gazette, that sounds like a case of poor communication between planners and citizens. The NYC DOT came in and said they wanted to build a separated bike facility, but until then they needed a temporary bike lane. The bike lane would remove about 500 parking spaces, but that nearby parking garages could easily absorb that. The community board voted overwhelmingly in favor.
The Department of Transportation insists it did all the outreach required when it addressed the Community Board on three separate occasions. "If any groups didn't know enough about what has been going on the past two years they should reach out to their representatives on Community Board 1 and ask why they haven't kept you properly informed."
Since the area is not well served by public transit, many families rely on cars, and the parking spaces in the basements of their buildings are beyond their means at about $325a month. Now, residents complain, street parking is hard to find, and the ban on stopping in the bike lanes means they cannot drop off or pick up family members anywhere near their homes.
And this is not the only place where bike lanes have run into opposition in NYC.
That case was typical, Norvell said, in that the opposition to the bike lanes was not so much about local issues but rather "a referendum on cycling as a form of transportation." About 80 percent of the negative comments about bike lanes, Norvell said, simply criticize bikers as jerks who don't follow the rules.
In other places, businesses owners have complained that separated bike lanes have narrowed the streets, making it harder for tour buses to turn onto them and thus driving away (pun intended) tourist traffic.
Of course, the New York Post takes its own view of the conflict "Hasid Lust Cause: Culture Clash Over Sexy Cyclists"
Well, I have to say the experience in Brookland shows the difference between broad planning principles, consideration of throughput issues, and what actually gets designed.
"Mistakes were made" that have had significant throughput problems.
It had to be explained to me by a driving friend, but a friend who believes in multi-modal transportation.
The problems weren't just with some ill-considered bike lanes.
By putting bulbouts at the major intersection, it prevented many right turns if cars were lined up to make left turns. If one of the left turn vehicles is a bus, delays cascade even more, because bus drivers are trained to not take chances with oncoming traffic.
When talking about bulbouts in the planning process, we didn't think they would lead to the full elimination of right turn lanes. Etc.
And we never saw drawings from the Design and Engineering process.
Even if we had, I'm not sure we would have anticipated such problems.
I hardly want to sound like a defender of drivers, but removing 500 parking spaces for dedicated bike lanes in NYC seems likely to engender a great deal of opposition...
Posted by: Richard Layman | March 12, 2009 at 12:20 PM