Hasn’t the Department of Transportation had enough headaches on Prospect Park West?
The new bike lane was at the center of the bicycle backlash over the past year, even leading to a lawsuit against the city (an appeal was recently filed after the city saw the case soundly dismissed). Obviously, the Department of Transportation is attempting to tweak the plan and make it less controversial, but really, it just seems like the new proposals, for pedestrian islands with relocated walk signals, is picking at a fresh scab, as The Brooklyn Paper makes clear:
“Why do it?” said James Bernard, a longtime bike lane opponent and board member. “We’re supposed to be preserving the street’s character — and we’ve already been the guinea pig enough.”
And lane supporters joined Bernard, though for a different reason: The bike lane has been so successful in reducing accidents, that making changes to the “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs is “unnecessary.”
The board — which proposed the controversial bike lane as a traffic-calming measure in 2008 — did ask the Department of Transportation for some minor tweeks such as rumble strips to alert cyclists to slow down, a Ninth Street drop off area reconfiguration, more light signals along with raised pedestrian islands.
Just look at the big plans for Times Square, plus all those filled potholes. Maybe Janette Sadik-Khan is addicted to shovels in the ground.
