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The DOT unveiled its latest plan [pdf] to resolve Brooklyn's Kent Avenue bike lane wars at a packed community meeting Wednesday night, and guess what? Not everyone is pleased about the proposal, which would turn part of Kent, a heavily-trafficked two-way truck route, into a one-way, northbound street. Business owners and residents have decried the bike lanes ever since they were installed last fall because they came at the cost of precious parking spots, and members of South Brooklyn's Satmar Jewish community who were said to chafe at the influx of immodestly dressed female cyclists.
Now the bike lane's former opponents are embracing the new proposal, which would return up to 200 parking spaces to Kent, and cyclists are happy because part of Kent would feature a protected two-way bike path, bringing them close to a Brooklyn Greenway connecting north Brooklyn with Sunset Park. Even former anti-bike lane gadfly Leo Moskowitz—who you'll recall from the phony detour sign saga—is on board, telling Brooklyn Paper, "It’s the city and you’ve got to give and take. If the bikers and the business owners are accommodated, it’s a win-win."
But the DOT has found new opposition from Williamsburg residents further inland who are none too pleased about the tractor trailers that would be rerouted through their neighborhood. The plan calls for southbound truck traffic to be diverted off Kent Avenue at North 14th Street, then south on Wythe Avenue for three blocks to North 11th Street, where signs would direct the trucks to barrel east toward an existing truck route on Union Avenue. (See map above.) Wiley Norvell at Transportation Alternatives, which supports the changes, tells us, "It’s going to be important to monitor and enforce [the truck route], and make sure trucks don’t go off-route on Wythe."
Stephanie Eisenberg, an outspoken opponent of the high-rise condo explosion in Williamsburg, was just one resident who derided the new plan as "mayhem! With all of these new residential communities, how are you going to reactivate a truck route? If the bike lanes are the tipping point, you should get rid of one of them." Some day this bike lane war's gonna end, but today is not that day.
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Am I the only one who thinks those 'floating' parking lanes look incredibly dangerous? If there is just one car parked in the lane it looks like someone just abandoned their car in the middle of the street. That's got to cause accidents.
Well, actually what would be the cause of an accident in that case would be some idiot driving in a parking lane. But entropone has it right, the chances of there ever being just one car parked there are pretty small.
when is there ever only one car parked somewhere?
9th Ave and 8th Ave in Chelsea. Usually early on weekend mornings.
The What - is that you!?
i see lawsuits on the horizon....
i ride down kent quite often.
there's almost never any cars or trucks on it, or pedestrians for that matter.
i don't see what the fuss is.
Next the Satmars will demand that the street be closed to traffic from sundown Friday for their Sabbath.
kent will probably be nice for bikes, but i'm not so psyched about trucks being routed over n10 and 11.
n10 has a good deal of new development, those residents will not be excited about living on a trucking route all of a sudden. n11 is frequently packed with visitors to the bklyn brewery, kcdc, beacon's, soundfix, and has new residential development as well.
furthermore, trucks will be crossing the ped-heavy berry, bedford, and driggs aves.
N10 and N11 are already truck routes. That isn't changing.
Hand us all a violin for the new residents in the new high rises. The new residents' only complaints are about noise, while cyclist have legitimate concerns about safety and business owners have concerns about their livelihood.
Heh. I can't find a way to get the actual link, but check this out: go to maps.google.com, and search for "132 kent ave, 11211." When the map opens, click "Street View" in the popup balloon.
And check out that highrise!
I found it first in Google Earth, where it stay that way as you navigate all the way down Kent until just past that point. Suddenly then the sky is cloudy and the building looks normal. Anyway, some of this street view stuff is just amusing.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=132+kent+ave,+11211&sll=37.509726,-95.712891&sspn=34.406531,67.5&ie=UTF8&ll=40.721063,-73.961914&spn=0.008083,0.016479&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=40.720164,-73.961882&panoid=0Ju8MZdON3auo1fG34Jhaw&cbp=12,247.9,,0,5
I can't park my minivan , if we let the trucks come down the more direct and parallel route of Wythe avenue.
this is the most blatant railroading of a stupid plan ever. The kent ave bike lanes was an ok idea as ONE lane with everything the same traffic wise, but now this plan SUCKS. Ive lived in the northside for 25 years we finally have residential zoning, and NOW they want to give us 20 semi trucks an hour down North 11th street? NO FKIN WAY. It is not going to happen. I m a cyclist and this whole thing stinks.
I went to the CB1 meeting last night. Vincent Abate confirmed that it is "a done deal".
I think a class action lawsuit against the city, the DOT, and our own community board 1 , would be a good place to start. Why wait for the first fatality from this dangerous plan?
These streets won't hold a stopped fully loaded 18 wheeler because McCarren Park IS a swamp barely under the surface. The big condos that went up hit the water table at 15 feet. I see disaster on the near horizon , if the plan comes to be. Bloomberg can only see his myopic "legacy' in completing greenways and bike paths and not the safety of residents.
I am now losing faith in the new initiatives coming from the Dept of Transportation under Janette Sadik-Khan. This closing makes about as much sense as closing the westside highway southbound.
Kent avenue is an established truck route that fits naturally into the community. Closing it will spew southbound truck traffic all over the place. As a cyclist I like having more bike lanes but truck traffic is a very important part of the city even if it's not my means of commuting.
I commuted over kent avenue from grand st to flushing st for 8 months and I really don't see what the problem is, although for southbound bicycle traffic Wythe is much better. But I guess now Wythe will be used for trucks southbound.
Everybody has such petty interests, the local community wants their parking spaces, the Edge wants to move a truck route away from their condos, the dept of transportation wants to build their precious floating parking lane / bike path streets (which suck btw) and the end result will be a mess.
Has anyone mentioned that there is a skate board shop on N11th and dozens of kids (tweens and teens play there). It would be very dangerous for them. Also it is often nearly impossible to get through on N11 because construction ie cranes etc. is often blocking. This is not ending anytime soon. Trucks would be backing out, as I do a couple times a week, and to look for alternate routes.
I wonder if Rabbi Leib Glanz , in one of his three closed door meetings with Deputy Mayor Sheekey, at the end of last year, were about this project. Stu Loesser himself declared that they were meetings about housing and transportation. They amount to Bloomberg currying favor with a big group of voters for his third run. The Satmars will put aside the red herring of scantily clad bicyclists zooming thru south Williamsburg , if they can get their parking back PLUS the bonus of getting less trucks rolling thru. Bloomberg's myopic vision for a Greenway in his legacy will be accomplished at any cost to communities. Some of us have a more valuable currency to exchange in how it is put in place. Votes.
Someone using their brain on the problem. http://www.brooklyn11211.com/archive/2009/06/better-kent.html