Markowitz Calls For Bike Lanes To Be Relocated To The Sky

(Via PSFK)

Buried at the bottom of an article on a fanciful series of conceptual designs for "Downtown Brooklyn Commons Project," you'll find quite a gem from the hyperbolic treasure chest of Brooklyn Borough Clown-In-Chief Marty Markowitz. You'll recall that Markowitz can't stand the DOT's expansion of bike lanes throughout "his" borough, and he's previously sung songs mocking bike lanes, and branded DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan a "zealot." But Markowitz's new solution to the city's endless bike lane wars may be just the thing to forge a truce between the warring factions!

"Elevated bike lanes — that’s the answer," Markowitz the Visionary tells the Brooklyn Paper. Truly, King Solomon himself could not have adjudicated more wisely! This is an elegant solution which would return the roads to their rightful owners (cars) while keeping cyclists out of harm's way (unless they slip). Markowitz's comment—which is a joke like pretty much everything else that comes out of his mouth—was made in an interview about the Brooklyn Commons Project, which enlisted students from local colleges to imaginatively redesign plazas and parkland from Borough Hall to the Brooklyn Bridge. This is actually a pretty fun academic exercise; Brownstoner has photos of the designs, which are currently on display in Brooklyn Borough Hall.

Asked about Markowitz's cycling skyway scheme, Michael Murphy, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, asked, "When we can create safe space on our streets for bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians now with minimal disruption, why on earth would we pursue an expensive, unsafe boondoggle like elevated lanes?"

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By John Del Signore in News on May 24, 2011 5:10 PM

Comments [rss]

Cyclerock

I HOPE HE MARKOWITZ DOES NOT DO THE SEND OFF FOR THE 'TOUR DE BKLYN', BIKE RIDE, JUNE 5, LIKE HE USUALLY DOES..

randomtransplant

An elevated bike lane would be awesome, but not cost effective. If that ped bridge they want to build to the East River Park is estimated to cost ten million dollars and is less than a mile long...thats the same price as all the bike lanes in the city put in over the last several years put together, right?

MEDICNYC

How about we hurry up and fix the construction on Flatbush Ave and finish the Willoughby park/plaza instead of joking around with stupid bullshit like this

Think2wice

Yet another reason why we don't need him. Whenever he's not in Junior's, crying into his Egg Cream about the Brooklyn Dodgers, he's plotting to return Kings County to the Mad Men days.

Go rot all borough presidents. They're just another ineffectual segment of bureaucrats perked-up at our expense.