Protected Bike Lanes

The Upper West Side is offering the city a lesson in what a mature and constructive response to bike lane growing pains looks like.

Cross-posted from Brooklyn Spoke

The Brooklyn Paper has the quote of the day, from Norman Steisel, opponent of the bikeway in front his house his neighborhood and denier of the data showing that the new Prospect Park West is safer:

The loudest applause at last night's Brooklyn CB 6 meeting on the Prospect Park West bike lane went to DOT Assistant Commissioner Ryan Russo, after he wrapped up his presentation documenting the redesign's effect on safety, bicycling rates, and traffic. The brief summary: injuries are down, cycling is up, and speeding has been tamed while travel times and traffic volumes are the same as before. The project has been a success so far and DOT will be moving ahead with further tweaks, like installing raised concrete islands in the pedestrian zones between the bike lane and the traffic lanes.

The city has released its final findings on the redesign of Prospect Park West [PDF]. With the data showing it a success by most any objective measure, DOT is recommending a few tweaks to further improve the design.

At tonight's Brooklyn Community Board 6 meeting, NYC DOT will present its final report on the re-designed Prospect Park West. The Brooklyn Paper has the latest safety stats from the city, and they show what one would expect from a project that has substantially reduced speeding: crashes and injuries are down across the board.

We talk a lot about windshield perspective on Streetsblog, so with his latest salvo against safer cycling and walking, CBS 2's Tony Aiello has done most of the work for us.

This dispatch from last night’s meeting of Brooklyn Community Board 6 comes to us from reader Doug Gordon. You can follow Doug at his blog, Brooklyn Spoke.

On the heels of Brad Lander's survey showing that a whopping 78 percent of interested Brooklyn residents want to keep the traffic calming Prospect Park West bike lane, DOT has released still more data [PDF] showing that the new street design keeps New Yorkers safer and helps them get where they're going.