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Early Addition
Windsor Terrace residents were joined by Park Slope Assemblyman Jim Brennan and local community board members at a rally to decry a proposal that would completely bar cars from Prospect Park for three months next summer to study the traffic impact. Last month Transportation Alternatives delivered a petition to Mayor Bloomberg signed by 10,000 people who want the park to be totally car-free.
At Thursday's rally, Community Board 14 Chairman Alvin Berk told the Brooklyn Paper, "During the morning rush hour, it already backs up. Closing the park would create additional backups and additional exhaust." And according to Streetsblog, Community Board 7 chair Randy Peers, harshly condemned Transportation Alternatives: "We abhor the tactics of the bicycle advocacy group. They tried the same tactics when they tried to shove Residential Parking Permits down our throats. They're a well-financed advocacy group representing a minority view."
Transportation Alternatives spokesman Wiley Norvell counters, "Whenever Prospect Park has gotten more car-free hours, the same people have said that the sky is falling and here we are a generation later and the sky hasn’t fallen. But that hasn’t happened yet. Just because you restrict automotive traffic on one artery doesn’t mean that every single car will turn out on adjacent roads — that’s not the way traffic works." Of course, the opinion that matters most is that of the DOT, whose spokesman says, "We extended the hours of the park’s closure to vehicles last year, but we have no plans for a complete closure at this time."
Photo of Randy Peers (with green sheet), Assemblyman Jim Brennan (beige suit) and Alvin Berk (bearded) courtesy Streetsblog.
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you notice everyone is old, rich, fat and lazy in those pics. fuck them. VIVA LA BICYCLE!
you notice everyone is old, rich, fat and lazy in those pics. fuck them. VIVA LA BICYCLE!
whoever said americans are lazy? Just because we demand to drive our oversized vehicles through a public park rather than walk our fat asses one block proves nothing.
Go Mr. Peers! About time politicians stopped grabbing their ankles for the autophobes!
They say a picture says a thousand words. So look at the picture above, then click on the picture of the wild-eyed radicals those fine public spirited cigar chomping pols are fighting against.
http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/10/01/community-boards-step-up-opposition-to-car-free-prospect-park/
I want to see bicyclists ticketed who do not yield to pedestrians when the park IS crowded with cars and the only option to cross is to wait for the light... or maybe some piano wire would do the trick.
its simple they ought to just add in a toll to enter the park that would take care of the congestion!
i bet half the people in that picture just use livery cabs anyways... there are plenty of buses routes in that area.. no excuse!
TransAlt spokesperson:
"Just because you restrict automotive traffic on one artery doesn’t mean that every single car will turn out on adjacent roads — that’s not the way traffic works."
Hi kid, you're wrong! When your balls have finished descending, then you and the rest of these agesit punks who support you here can be treated like an adult.
That IS the way traffic works. Traffic will flow from the 3 lanes in PP to the narrow streets of the nabe, causing increased congestion. Duh!!
But, I forgot, you are from TransAlt, as the Windsor Terrace people say correctly, "a well-financed advocacy group representing a minority view." More adults own cars in NYC than bikes. So TransAlt is in the minority, like the rest of the biking lobby.
At least cars in PP don't run the red lights, unlike the arrogant cyclists who think they own the road in PP, and the sidewalks in the rest of the city.
I almost got run down AGAIN by a person on a bicycle the other day, they also look at you like "how dare you get in my way" when they technically have the red light and you have a walk sign. I ride a bike myself for errands but have really noticed this arrogance and entitlement a lot of cyclists have lately and it doesn't make me sympathetic to their cause at all. Please check yourselves, you're beginning to act like Mac users to PC owners. Arrogance = FAIL.
That's what happens when you don't treat bicycles as real vehicles. Most of the serious commuters and riders know what it's about. It's the casual riders who just jump on a bike without any preparation or knowledge that ruin it for everyone.
And lay off the "Mac users" garbage. Every time you write that, you point up your own arrogance and insecurity.
On the contrary, 76, you are the one who appears arrogant and insecure.
"That's what happens when you don't treat bicycles as real vehicles. Most of the serious commuters and riders know what it's about. It's the casual riders who just jump on a bike without any preparation or knowledge that ruin it for everyone."
That's it pretty simply.
Prospect Park is amazing, I don't think the world will come to a standstill if people have to take an alternate route in their cars.
As someone who lives in one of the neighborhoods around the park, does not drive or own a car, and enjoys riding their bike in the park, I can't tell you how many times I have nearly been run down by a car in the park. Drivers do not drive the speed limit and want to drive in the bike lane, which often has walkers and joggers in it. I have mostly stopped riding in the park during car hours due to fear of my personal safety. It shouldn't be like riding on the streets of NYC.
Yes, many cyclists in the park run the lights. Would you want to stop while flying down the hill or climbing the hill for that matter? If the cars were banned, it would be much easier to simply maneuver around the few pedestrians who cross. I have never been nearly hit by a cyclist while walking the park.
Here comes The Facts with completely false traffic expertise again. You know very well that traffic used to flow straight through Washington Square Park and when Jane Jacobs and her community friends proposed permanently closing it to traffic (because cars do NOT belong in parks), ornery grouches like you insisted that the traffic would spill out onto surrounding streets and destroy the neighborhood. Guess what? It didn't happen. The streets surrounding Washington Square Park are calm and peaceful.
You call yourself The Facts, but you never seem to have them. Maybe you have the Robert Moses view of the world and would prefer they build a freeway right through Prospect Park. You hate Summer Streets because, you say, it creates traffic problems in your neighborhood. Now you're posting comments to oppose traffic calming in Brooklyn. Why should you care whether or not Brooklyn motorists get to drive through city parks where children run and play? You are clearly just an auto-centric fool.
The CB 14 chairman has framed the problem accurately: "During the morning rush hour, it already backs up." But his traffic conclusion, seemingly drawn from nothing but his own common sense, is incorrect: "Closing the park would create additional backups and additional exhaust." Once you close the park to traffic, people will not continue to drive to the entrance to the park and line up like lemmings, stuck in gridlock. New Yorkers are smarter than that. They will choose a different way to get where they were going, and traffic on the surrounding streets will actually decrease. You can look it up.
http://www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/content/reading/disappearing-traffic/