Tuesday’s Headlines: Bridge to the Future Edition

A bunch of Streetsbloggers and Streetsblog-adjacent fans of car-free streets flocked to the newly reopened Carroll Street Bridge in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn last night to bask in the city’s decision to keep cars off the restored span.

Hundreds showed up to stroll and dance and appreciate the Department of Transportation’s work in restoring the 135-plus-year-old wooden drawbridge, which has seen its share of very disgusting things rolling underneath it since the late 1800s.

But one disgusting thing that won’t be rolling over it is cars. As you can see from the new paint job, eastbound Carroll Street becomes a dead end just before the bridge:

Drivers will scream, but the bridge was out for repair for almost five years — and car owners found other routes; the DOT told Streetsblog there was no new congestion and a member of the community board told us last week that no one complained (and if you know anything about community boards in Brooklyn, someone certainly would have).

If you’ve never seen the old bridge, now is a great time to check it out. Click here for a map. And here’s a slow-mo view of how the retractable bridge works:

In other news:

• The top story in our world is a new report from the Center for an Urban Future (and leaked to amNY) that claims that residents in low-income neighborhoods of color are disproportionately at the greatest risk from traffic crashes — and that those neighborhoods have gotten fewer street safety improvements. The report runs counter to the city’s own analysis, released last year, that showed crashes are not disproportionate and that the city has made more road safety improvements in those areas. We’re going to dig into this today because our own prior analyses of these very issues have been inconclusive over the years.
• The World Cup has been a great spectacle already, but today is the first game at the FIFA-branded “New York New Jersey Stadium” to take place on a weekday, not to mention around rush hour. The Post is predicting carpocalypse … so how about ditching the car?
• Former TLC Commissioner Matthew Daus opines in amNY about the shortcomings of the “Billy Never Idles” program, but he’s shilling for bus companies, which fight idling fines every step of the way. Yes, buses are better than cars — so just turn off the engine or get proper battery-powered electrical systems.
• Here’s a sad story about a statistician whose number was up when he went for a walk in a rainstorm. (NYDN)
• The city wants to build a better bike lane in the placard epicenter of Downtown Brooklyn (as we reported), but the increasingly Postian folks at Gothamist would rather quote upset drivers.
• The City Reporter offered a guide to Thursday’s Knicks parade.
• Wrestle with this: Carnage on Long Island. (NY Post)
• The Albany Times Union followed our story about the nearly $2-billion economic impact of the Empire Trail.
• And, finally, here’s a great use of the word “dingleberry.”