Eyes on the Street: Plaza Street Bike Lane Goes Both Ways

Photo: ##http://brooklynspoke.com/2012/07/12/plaza-street-striping-begins/##Doug Gordon/BrooklynSpoke##

Well, the paint and striping aren’t all the way there yet, but there’s now room to bike in both directions on Plaza Street in Brooklyn. Doug Gordon posted a few pictures on BrooklynSpoke this morning, and reader Steve O’Neill sent in a few more. This DOT project will make it much more convenient to bike between the neighborhoods surrounding Grand Army Plaza while following the letter of the law, but lacks the physical protection of an earlier plan. Word is the implementation will wrap up pretty quickly.

Here’s how things were looking earlier today.

The view from St. John's Place looking towards Vanderbilt Avenue. Photo: Steve O'Neill
Drivers queue up at the intersection of Plaza and Union Street. Photo: ##Doug Gordon/BrooklynSpoke##
  • Anonymous
  • Anonymous

    Someday this will all seem so silly, caring up shared space with exacto knife precision.  A hundred years ago every imaginable vehicle mixed with every other including the pedestrians.  People understood their place and their responsibility to be safe.  

  • Kevin Love

    Emmily may wish to play tag with two-ton lethal weapons, but I do not.

  • Ben Kintisch

    So glad that this missing link is being completed in the Brooklyn bike network. Now let’s start to fill in more lanes linking the rest of the borough.

  • J

    I’m holding my judgement on this one. The design was changed specifically to accomodate double-parked cars. Therefore, I’m willing to bet that double-parked cars are going to be a problem here. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but without any changes to the parking regulations, and with nothing stopping drivers from parking or driving in the bike lane, I see no reason why double-parking would suddenly cease to be a problem here.

  • M m

    Ant prospect of plastic bollards?

  • @12bab81fa28e75801fea8d77ba122f7a:disqus No, because drivers need to access parking spaces.

  • Manasonic

    The bike lanes should have been moved alongside the curb.   

  • Manasonic

    ..maybe putting the bike lanes alongside the curb is in the final plan?

  • Anonymous

    This is way too dangerous unless the bike lane becomes physically separated. The turn is one big blind spot for cars. I am already very nervous about getting doored on plaza, which makes me ride in the buffer, which makes me paranoid about getting rear ended by some idiot taking the turn too tight, too fast. 

  • Uhh…. No thanks!

    I was there this weekend and found a car coming right at me at Plaza and Union (pictured last above) as I left the park.  Instead I went left on to Union and simply went to 8th Ave to Lincoln.

    I know its not complete but please remind me why DoT feels any of this is necessary?  The conventional alternatives of using neighboring streets adds such little extra time and are much safer.

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