Today’s Headlines

  • Extortionist Cuomo Threatens to Nix Subway Work If New Yorkers Don’t Pay Up (News, WNYC)
  • If Cuomo Comes Clean on His Bridge and Tunnel Decorations, the Terrorists Win (Politico)
  • RPA Chair, RXR CEO Scott Rechler: NYC Needs Toll Reform + Transit Lockbox (Crain’s)
  • Trump Apologist Michael Goodwin Hates Road Pricing, Blames … de Blasio (Post)
  • Just What the Subway Needs: Frenetic Video Screens You Can’t Get Away From (Gothamist)
  • The MTA Bus Driver Coming Up Behind You Might Have Untreated Sleep Apnea (Post)
  • Assembly Member Pamela Harris Intros Bill to Keep Drivers Away From Protests (News)
  • Hit-and-Run Driver Kills Jose Gomez, 71, on Northern Boulevard in Corona (News, DNA)
  • Daily News Staff Responsible for This Headline Should Check Their Capacity for Shame
  • 19th Precinct’s Junked Car Lot Is Like an Exhibit on Its Failure to Enforce Speeding (DNA)
  • More Space for People on the Brooklyn Bridge Can’t Come Soon Enough (Bicycling)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • Guest

    I would take RXR’s Rechler more seriously if he weren’t adding so much parking at his new buildings at transit nodes.

  • Larry Littlefield

    I’ll say it again, the first thing that has to happen is Generation Greed has to come clean.
    By cutting taxes, fees, tolls and fares to the level required to provide benefits and services today.

    And paying for the costs of the past with a separate, highly visible, additional surcharge.
    Otherwise, the question is what is going on with the $billions we’re already paying? They’ll blame the workers, they’ll blame the riders, they’ll blame another level of government, they’ll create any kind of misdirection they can rather than honestly answer that question.

    And now in DC, another round of tax cuts for the rich. To be followed by cuts in Social Security and Medicare for those born after 1957, since they have “time to adjust.” And perhaps the legislature will push through more senior tax breaks and pension increases this year. All with lies that it all “cost nothing.”

    Hey Lhota, how much money did the city put in when you were Giuliani’s budget director, in the middle of a stock market bubble? Until at least psychological and reputational accountability is imposed, it will be more and more of the same leaving things worse and worse.

  • Vooch

    privatize privatize privatize

    interstates

    use the trillions raised to pay off gov‘t debts

  • Larry Littlefield

    Meanwhile, has anyone admitted that maintenance was cut on the subway? When? Why? How much? By whom? To spend money on what? With the same number of workers or as a result of fewer workers?
    Is no one going to make someone answer those questions?

  • Maggie

    My goodness, that DNA article on the smashed cars the 19th precinct parks on 66th between Park and Lex is really something. What a total shitshow.

    Maybe this block is a good one for de Blasio to visit, especially if/when he deigns to include a bike ride around NYC as as important in understanding and connecting with the city as, say, hitting up the Coney Island Mermaid Parade every year and having his chauffeur take him from Gracie Mansion.

    He’s got a great DOT commissioner in Polly Trottenberg, so I don’t mean to suggest he should be doing her job, but when NYC residents on bikes are getting run over by drunk drivers at stop lights on the NYC Century, the city 100% needs more from the mayor than a lecture on how he’s already done enough.

    I’m getting worked up again, but that was an embarrassing display of limousine-liberal haughtiness from BDB. Something’s very wrong when his answer on cycling is: it’s good enough, if you ingrates don’t like the half-built piecemeal infrastructure where people get killed, then go ahead and take a chauffeured SUV instead.

  • Vooch

    most amusing is the thinking –

    car storage is prohibited during the day here because it’s a dangerous off ramp to FDR, therefore this is where we’ll store car wrecks

    gov’t employees are always hilarious

  • Elizabeth F

    That horn guy is a total douche bag. Until/unless the BK bridge is widened, they should abandon the fiction of separate bike and pedestrian zones on that path. Instead, it should be a shared-use path with bikes having to yield the right of way. I say this as a daily bike commuter… we can and should use the Manhattan Bridge.

  • qrt145

    I agree, and I sometimes cross the Brooklyn Bridge on my bike for transportation purposes! “Fiction” is exactly right.

  • bolwerk

    Extortionist Cuomo Threatens to Nix Subway Work If New Yorkers Don’t Pay Twice

    [fixed your first headline]

  • JarekFA

    You’re not going to get me to take the Manhattan Bridge. I’d much rather tough it out on the BK bridge, going slow, being hyper-vigilante and aware (as I always am), and judiciously switching between my bell (which always break from overusage on the bridge, which is thus why I also have–>) and whistle.

    I’ve seen one real bad crash (which I blame myself for because I was directing the peds to get out of the bike lane, and a speeding cyclist hit the lady from the other direction as she fled to safety) but other than, just a ton of very minor bumping.

    My reason is straightforward. I’d rather deal with the BK Bridge then ride Pearl St under the BK Bridge. Pearl St is packed with cars and parked cars and it’s always a tight squeeze. And going under the BK Bridge at Pearl St is incredibly unsafe. You have cars coming from many different directions. Many of them speeding to get on or off the bridge. You also have the entrance to 1 Police Plaza there –> which means, and I’m not joking at all, less respect for the rules of the road and vulnerable street users.

    What you’re suggesting would make the BK Bridge completely unusable as a bike commuter route during the summer months or good weather.

    Honestly, it frequently isn’t that crowded — it’s just a matter of: (i) proper signage — you see the blitz they did re: the locks but they just don’t really care to properly indicate the risks of walking in the bike lane and (ii) NYC and it’s agencies actually giving a fuck. Right now you have DoT going across in pick-up trucks, you have cop interceptors at choke points. In other words, the various NYC agencies could try to assist and make it easier to reduce unnecessary conflicts. But they don’t. Because they’re not paid to care.

  • JarekFA

    95% of the peds stick to their side. They only cross over when it’s too crowded. I say only 5% walk on the bike side with their heads up their ass. It’s just crowded at times but for the most part, ppl do stick to their side.

  • sbauman

    NYCDOT supposedly initiated a study to widen the Brooklyn Bridge Promenade a year ago.

    http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2016/08/08/dot-will-study-widening-the-brooklyn-bridge-walking-and-biking-path/

    and here

    http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2016/08/08/brooklyn-bridge-promenade-expansion-could-start-in-2019/

    I wonder what happened to it?

    N.B. the Brooklyn Bridge cannot take any extra live load, that’s why trucks are banned and there were spacing requirements between elevated trains and trolley cars back before the 1950’s modification.

  • Joe R.

    Horn or not, it was still like being stuck in a traffic jam on the LIE. I don’t see why anyone would want to use the Brooklyn Bridge when there are that many tourists on it. Off-peak it’s probably great, but I’d get nauseous riding through a mess like that. It’s slow, it’s stressful, and you’ll probably need new brake pads once a week.

  • It’s more that if you have to take the Brooklyn Bridge, and many people do, you should take a deep breath and just not be a jerk. Go slowly and realize you’re on a major tourist attraction. It would be like going to the Statue of Liberty to run up and down the stairs for exercise, screaming “Outta my way” as you go. Don’t do that.

  • vnm

    The MTA Bus Driver Coming Up Behind You Might Have Untreated Sleep Apnea (Post)

    Or any driver of any car, for that matter.

  • Vooch

    The easiest solution would be to reallocate one motor lane to cycling.

    Motor traffic is down 20% from peak levels on the BB.

    Reallocating one motor lane to cycling would increase throughput on the BB significantly. As we all know, private cars are the least efficient method of mobility in the city.

    The cycling lane would have a capacity 7 times of a motor lane.

  • Toddster

    Here’s a thought. Is it time we start tolling tourists to access the bridge? When there is no space left for cars on congested roads, similar systems are set up and suggested, even in our own city at the moment.

    In the current conditions, yes, cyclists should expect congestion and yield to pedestrians, no matter what side they are on.

    However, it doesn’t sit right, that 1/3 of our Manhattan to Brooklyn bike infrastructure is more or less rendered useless so people from out of town can take a selfie, in a city with no shortage of alternate selfie-taking-spots.

    Since it’s pedestrian congestion, I say we implement congestion pricing for pedestrians. And just how Staten Island residents get a toll discount on bridges, New Yorkers from all boroughs would also get a toll discount here (a 100% toll discount).

    Just a thought.

  • Jeff

    I guess the problem people have is that they’re trying to use the bridge for utilitarian transportation purposes. So really the analogy would be like driving a car across the Brooklyn Bridge and expecting to not have to mix with pedestrians.

  • Larry Littlefield

    The question is, what barrier could the bridge support to protect the cyclists from the motor vehicles?

  • Vooch

    good point.

    A steel girder framework would be simple, strong, and light

  • Flakker

    No… cars should be banned from the Brooklyn Bridge entirely, as should cops, who dump pollution onto the path with their carts parked in the narrowest parts. This isn’t even a close call; why should we pay for yet another free route into lower Manhattan from Brooklyn when both ends are congested most hours of the day, when neither end even ends in a highway, when cars including illegally overweight SUVs are destroying the bridge itself at taxpayer expense?

    Hell, do it as an experiment for a month in the summer and see if anyone wants to go back to the old way. Traffic couldn’t get worse and it will be an actual tourist attraction as opposed to the $100 million+ “attractions” the geniuses who run the city keep concocting.

  • Larry Littlefield
  • Flakker

    re: Subway video screens: inane but as they say at least it’s not screaming at you like the taxi ones do. I don’t ride taxis or car services unless there’s no choice but my motivation to support medallion cabs is sapped by how incredibly unpleasant Bloomberg made the rides with those screens. Of course now the screens will be another thing to break down, which does present some small hope that the plan will collapse

  • JarekFA

    I have a partner at my law firm (hereinafter referred to as, “The Partner”) who every day, takes a car to/from Brooklyn Heights to/from our FiDi office . I’m like it’s probably quicker to take the 2/3? The Partner remarked that he hadn’t taken the train in 20 years. Toll the Brooklyn Bridge please.

  • sbauman

    Looks like that’s what was there when the center lanes were for rail.

    That was the intermediate longitudinal truss. It was an integral part of the bridge’s load bearing structure.

  • Larry Littlefield

    And now you have the same type of structure (perhaps the same exact beams?) on the outside of the bridge.

    What’s interesting is that these are not heavy steel beams, like those that hold up elevated subway lines. So perhaps the bridge could hold them. Perhaps the material to which they were connected below is even still there.

  • kevd

    why don’t we toll the cars on the congested roadbed of the BB, instead?
    then there would be less automotive congestion and a lane could be given to cyclists. we ain’t there for the view or for selfies. we’re trying to get where we need to go.

  • kevd

    the statue of liberty stairs don’t lead to 100’s of thousands of jobs.

  • Komanoff

    95%? More like >99%, at least on the rare occasions (late evening) I take the BB instead of the Manhattan. I’m in awe of their law-abidingness, esp’ly in absence of decent signage and in face of severe crowding.

  • Doesn’t change the fact that you don’t blare a horn at people on the Bklyn Bridge. You just have to be patient and not get upset.

  • Larry Littlefield

    Speaking of toll reform, the alleged reason for one-way tolls on the Verrazano was the Brooklyn bound toll backed up cars — and caused fumes — into Staten Island.

    Doesn’t cashless tolling make that no longer applicable?

  • kevd

    morning rush and late at night it ain’t bad.
    evening rush it sucks.

  • kevd

    I chalk it up to most of them being foreign!
    NYers are incapable of following simple signs and instructions, but people from countries (most of Europe, Japan) with more advanced cycling cultures are considerable less stupid.

  • Flakker

    Why even bother setting up tolling infrastructure? Think about it; There are 6 lanes each way on GWB, three on Lincoln Tunnel and two on Holland Tunnel. The Tappan Zee adds some cross-Hudson capacity but drivers on I-95 are directed thru GWB so let’s say it’s a wash. 11 lanes total each way.

    Two on Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, two on Queens-Midtown Tunnel, 4 1/2 on 59th Street Bridge, four on Williamsburg Bridge and 3.5 on Manhattan Bridge, three on Triboro to Manhattan. Let’s leave the other MTA East River bridges out of it; that’s 19 East River lanes each way. Not that the disparity means everything but if one of the central ideas is that we have to have cross-Manhattan driving, which we probably do in the immediate future, we’re still more than taken care of. Plus there’s enough disparity there to handle the Williamsburg bridge closing to cars temporarily if the DOT pulls their heads out of their asses. The cost will be near-zero if we can keep the damn cops from multiplying on it.

  • kevd

    no one should not do that.
    but, while they are both tourist attractions, one is also a major commuter corridor, so it’s a poor analogy.

  • Vooch

    nice find

    a quick interim solution would be to install the organe plastic jersey barriers ( empty )

  • Larry Littlefield

    Nah, toll the bicycles. And after a decent interlude, allocate space in proportion to tolls paid.

  • You win. Congrats.

  • sbauman

    And now you have the same type of structure (perhaps the same exact beams?) on the outside of the bridge.

    There were 3 sets of longitudinal trusses for each roadway. The inner, intermediate (or middle) and outer. Your picture showed the inner and intermediate trusses. The outer truss was was half the height. When the bridge was rebuilt in the early 1950’s, the outer trusses had to be the same height as the inner truss. Steel from the removed middle trusses was used to increase the height of the outer trusses. You can see where the additional steel was added, if you look at the outer trusses.

    What’s interesting is that these are not heavy steel beams, like those that hold up elevated subway lines.

    Take a look at the beams used for the circa 1870-1880 elevated lines. There were not exactly heavy.

    Perhaps the material to which they were connected below is even still there.

    The floor beams have not been replaced. They are original.

  • Wheely

    “The MTA Bus Driver Coming Up Behind You…”

    Quite the handlebar perspective there. You know, some of us are actually on the bus.

  • Jason

    With an entire car lane of 2-ton vehicles removed, it seems like you’d have plenty of extra weight allowance to work with.

  • AMH

    Fascinating. I’ll be sure to look for that next time I’m on the bridge, while standing in the bike lane. 😛

  • reasonableexplanation

    Correct.

    However, given that the PANY/NJ tolls are also one way (into NY), this will have the effect of routing people through Manhattan when returning to the 5 boros. So there’s no point to make the bridge tolled both ways unless MoveNY is implemented at the same time, or unless the Port Authority tolls are made both ways as well.

  • Andrew

    That would require federal legislation to undo that which was done in 1986: http://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/01/nyregion/one-way-toll-plan-voted-for-verrazano-s-travelers.html