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Last night's Department of Transportation presentation to Park Slope's Community Board 6 brought out hundreds of residents. Streetsblog has excellent coverage, noting that CB6 rejected the plan to turn Sixth and Seventh Avenues into one-way streets and residents want comprehensive planning, versus "secretive, top-down, traffic engineer-driven planning." 
Streetsblog also has a bootlegged copy of the presentation that lacks many details.
In this plan you will find nothing about traffic calming, pedestrian counts the numerous activities that take place on the streetscape beyond the movement and storage of motor vehicles. You will find no attempt to measure street performance and neighborhood impact beyond the counting of cars and trucks. You will find no discussion of the transformative development curently underway in and around Downtown Brooklyn and the goals of the Bloomberg Administration's Long-Term Planning and Sustainability initiative. And if you are looking for any response to long-standing community concerns or acknowledgement of the forward-thinking, pro-active planning that our community has undertaken over the last couple of years, you won't find that either. All you will find here is a traffic engineer's monomaniacal focus on moving motor vehicles through a dense urban environment.Yes, there are many parts of the city where one way streets are a way of life. But why not try to save the ones that aren't?
Photograph by Aaron Naparstek for Streetsblog
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What's the penalty for stealing street signs? Cause the kid in the pix just incriminated himself. Great parenting!!!
haha - you can buy those signs legitimately.
"were one way"
you're missing an H.
Question: What do bored nimbys do when they don't have horrible monsters (tall buildings) to henpeck?
Answer: Stand in line to bitch about streetflow direction.
these will be the same people up in arms that the DOT did nothing to make the streets safer when a kid get mowed down at an intersection when he failed to look in all directions.
So, ho-mee, what do you suggest as a better option? Not be involved in decisions affecting their community?
i agree with shadri. i find it odd that people are so riled up about this. i live here. fifth and sixth avenues are dangerous, and it seems they will be safer as one way streets. pedestrians can and do get hit in this neighborhood. there are tons of kids here. most strange is that it seems to be the stroller set that is so up in arms.
aem
get the facts straight first of all. It's 6th and 7th that are being discussed, not 5th. 2 way streets are much better for supporting an active retail life on the street as people come from both ways. A one way street becomes simply a way to get cars through as fast as possible. It fails to think of all the other users of a street: pedestrians, retailers, etc. The DOT plan is horrendous and ill-considered.
Getting cars through as fast as possible is a laudable goal, as long as it's done in a way that doesn't injure anyone. Most of the major avenues in Manhattan are one-way and the retailers there aren't hurting. Is seventh avenue in Park Slope going to dry up if traffic was one-way, or might it be beneficial as more cars will pass through and have a chance to patronize the local stores?
ho-mee, i guess people should just stay home and watch "the office," right? not all concerned citizens are nimbys. living in a neighborhood where people actually care about the streets, the character of place, and each other does not make one a nimby.
It fails to think of all the other users of a street: pedestrians, retailers, etc. The DOT plan is horrendous and ill-considered.
How is one way street bad for pedestrians?
Park Slope Brooklyn IS NOT Manhattan! Stop trying to make into a mini-Manhattan with your streets and your over development. While a one-way street in Manhattan works (hello large volume) that is not the point of streets in of all places Park Slope!
Shadri - People are getting killed when they have the right of way and are looking where they are going. Your comments are frankly disgusting. Motor vehicles driven recklessly are a weapon.
spudly- do you actually know anything about traffic engineering or urban planning?
Most of the people I see almost get hit by cars are crossing against the light. I see hundreds of people literally wait on the sidewaklk until the light changes AGAINST THEM and then they step out into traffic. Maybe they literally just moved here from towns where traffic is held in all directions to allow people to cross so maybe they thought when the light turned it would be red in all directions.
Stop blaming everything on the drivers.
LMAO... you have to be kidding me right? One way streets benefit pedestrians by keeping everyone looking in one direction for oncoming traffic, especially children who have a tendency not to look at all or cut out from between parked cars. It also stop the double parking (which we all know happens in front of stores) from causing cars to have to divert into oncoming traffic to pass. It seems totally reasonable to me.
i live on 4th avenue and i must say the 2 way traffic is less than ideal. i've almost gotten hit a couple of times when i had the right of way crossing the street north/south. the problem with 4th ave, as i see it, is the median island: when making a left turn, cars have too far to go before they clear oncoming traffic --and if a pedestrian starts crossing the street at the wrong time (even if they have the right of way) the turning vehicle must either stop in the way of approaching cars-- or worse (?)-- not. what 4th avenue needs are left-turn lights. but, of course, no one cares about 4th...
I live between 7th and 8th Avenue in Park Slope and, as a bike rider, I have to say I'd rather ride on 6th Ave or 7th Ave (both two way) to 8th Avenue (one way). On 8th Avenue the drivers are racing the lights and basically ignoring pedestrians and bike riders. I nearly got smacked by a bus mirror on 8th Avenue last year. Even though I'm a veteran NYC rider and have had my share of close calls, it freaked me. These aren't wide Manhattan one way Avenues, they are narrow streets with FAST traffic.
Shadri,
Glad it seems reasonable to you. The only credible public health journal citation on the matter actually says that children's injury rates are 2.5 times higher on one-way streets than two-way streets.
What they need to do is widen [7th. Avenue . [6th. Avenue could be changed into a one-way . It's a secondary street to [5th.,& [7th. Avenues . Also, [6th. Avenue goes as far as [24th. street where it dead ends into the cemetery . The other end of [6th. Avenue towards Fort Hamilton PKY that's fine !
Two-way streets are safer because the value of only having one direction to look is dwarfed by the value of having vehicles more more slowly. I'm not a traffic engineer but urban planning is an avid reading topic of mine. It's been demonstrated in many studies in different countries that placing the onus on drivers to worry about pedestrians (e.g., slower limits, two-way streets, traffic enforcement stations, winding streets, no curbs, etc.) always saves more lives than placing the burden on pedestrians.
And one-way streets reduce neighborhood retail incomes because it reduces the overall amount of time people want to spend on streets. One-way streets work on people too. They don't want to wander as much. They don't stroll. It encourages them to get from A to B as quickly as possible. Dawdling and strolling increases the time customers have to make an impulse purchase decision.
40% of all NYC commuters use the train, 14% take the bus and 8% walk to work. Last year over 5 millions people used the subway system every weekday. Over 50% of us don't even own a car (75% in Manhattan), because this is the one of the few places where a rapid transit system can actually compete with expressways. We get almost 19 billion miles of travel that didn't need to happen in a vehicle. San Francisco, with 1/4 of our metro population, only gets 1/9 of those miles out of their system.
This isn't cause to think we can 'stand' more traffic. We should be proud of being the most energy-efficient city in North America, and of our flagging pedestrian culture. NYC was recently ranked 39 of the top 100 walking cities. We should fight to reverse this.
It's of paramount importance to not choke commerce, but this isn't the choice before us. We actually live in a city where average vehicular rush hour is 2 hours (6 vs. 8) less than most major cities. This is not as serious of a problem as people might think. The real problem is that people see a potential issue, and look at solutions that arise first and easiest to do. It's easy enough to change street directions and feel something's been resolved.
I'm just curious: where did this assumption that people drive faster on one-way streets originate?
I'm not following that. Assuming that the frequency of traffic lights is the same, why would someone (want to or even be physically able to) drive faster on a one-way street?
you'll never get a straight answer to that question... these are people with an agenda. they claim safety of a two way street which is underly ridiculous.
It's the Roadrunner" complex "Anonymass" . Remember those cartoons were the coyote would plot ways to catching the roadrunner ? (Roadrunner being the green lights ahead, or a point of distination)( Red lights being the coyote) Well the same premise exists here . The traffic is going in the same direction so driver's feel they don't here much to worry about . I'm a driver myself, and I can't figure out what the hell the difference is ! I'm just zoning here . Lol
In Park Slope, Brooklyn this "assumption" that people drive more like a-holes on one-way streets comes from 8th Avenue and Prospect Park West which are engineered and treated by drivers as speedways. All you need is a pair of eyes to get it.
I'm not familiar with the driving conditions on 8th Avenue and Prospect Park. Are there traffic lights at every second or third intersection? Maybe you should be lobbying for more lights on 8th Avenue, because it makes no sense that one would or could physically drive faster on a one-way street than a two-way street if the distribution of traffic lights were the same.
Anonymass, 8th Avenue is indeed heavily lighted. It's definitely easy to see the difference in how drivers treat the avenue, too, despite the traffic lights.
The two-way traffic on Seventh and Sixth -- and even the double-parking -- actually slows motorists down. (For the record, I'm a driver in the neighborhood myself.) Having all traffic move in one direction gives the impression of having less to need to pay attention too -- after all, there's no oncoming traffic. It may be a fallacy of perception, but it's true. Add in the fact that these streets are directly connected to a major, multi-lane thoroughfare (they all run off of Flatbush), and it's easy to understand the fears of the residents against the plan.
Ok, I understand now - thanks for the explanation.
"RoadRunner" complex !!!!!! They see "GReen" time to speed . They see "RED" your dead !