Community Boards

I'll have a longer post later today, but for now, here is the numerical recap from last night's public hearing on the Prospect Park West redesign. The overall headcount was somewhere around 400 people. Transportation Alternatives handed out pro-bike lane stickers to 330 people before they exhausted their supply. Among the 100+ people who signed up to testify, support outweighed opposition by nearly an eight-to-one margin.

Okay, if you're a little hesitant about speaking in front of a packed community board hearing tonight, don't worry. You can still register your opinion about the Prospect Park West redesign -- if you show up.

Opportunities to make your voice heard on the city's transportation policy don't get much bigger than tonight's Brooklyn Community Board 6 hearing about the Prospect Park West re-design. Your presence and testimony can help make this pivotal project permanent and show the press that local support for traffic calming and safer cycling runs deep. The well-connected bike lane opponents who are suing the city to reverse the redesign are making noise about slowing down bike projects citywide, so a strong showing will also have an impact on safer streets beyond Park Slope.

In last year's landmark pedestrian safety study, the Department of Transportation found that three times as many crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians involve left turns as right turns. To respond to the heightened danger of left-turning vehicles, DOT promised in its action plan to "daylight" all left turns on a major Manhattan avenue, removing parking spaces near the intersection to improve visibility.

I make no guarantees about the ultimate accuracy of this headline, but you've got to admit that next week's Brooklyn Community Board 6 forum on the Prospect Park West redesign is shaping up to be a showstopper [PDF].

The parks committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 restated its support for shared bike/pedestrian paths through Riverside Park and Central Park last night. In Central Park, the shared paths would create new east-west routes through the park, while in Riverside, the community board is fighting against the Parks Department's surprise imposition of dismount signs on what was once a part of the greenway system.

Tonight, Community Board 2 will vote its recommendation on DOT's plans to make Astor Place more accommodating and inviting to pedestrians.

If you can't make it to Brooklyn for the Prospect Park West forum tomorrow, there's a Manhattan livable streets effort that needs a show of support.

Even if city transportation staff, empirical data and public opinion are all pointing in the same direction, livable streets projects are notoriously prone to snags at the community board level. When, for example, a neighborhood where 75 percent of residents don't own cars can muster only a 55 percent vote in support of safer walking and cycling, it's a pretty clear indication that something is off.