Bridges

After years of planning and advocacy, an effort to improve the dangerous, ugly asphalt expanse on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge is set to take a big step forward tonight. Community Board 2 is meeting to vote on a resolution in support of a plan to expand space for walking and biking, realign car lanes, and add trees [PDF] that cleared its transportation committee with a unanimous 7-0 vote last month. Construction on the first phase is on track to begin as soon as the end of this year.

Many commuters on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge this morning noticed new markings going in on First Avenue for a short but critical extension of the protected bike lane between 59th and 61st Streets. The changes, part of a plan supported by Community Boards 6 and 8 last spring, bring safer connections to both First Avenue and 59th Street.

The Harbor Ring Committee, a coalition working to complete the missing link in a route around New York Harbor with a bicycle and pedestrian path across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, has released a map of the bike route, a 50-mile loop across four boroughs and Hudson County, New Jersey. Meanwhile, advocates are trying to get the MTA to firmly commit to a feasibility study they hope could pave the way for building the bridge path.

After news broke that the east and west drives of Central Park will be car-free for two months this summer, this seemed like a fitting installment from the vault of Clarence Eckerson this week: The Transportation Alternatives 1997 Earth Day ride, which held up the goal of a car-free park Central Park as a symbol of environmentally-friendly transportation policies.

Clarence has been rifling through the vault for old footage as he prepares a montage for Transportation Alternatives' 40th birthday bash. He's turned up some classic clips going back to the mid-90s, and we'll be sharing some of them this summer on Friday afternoons.

After clearing Manhattan Community Board 6's transportation committee, 13-1, CB 6's full board voted on Wednesday to support a DOT proposal to improve bicycle safety near the Queensboro Bridge. CB 6, which covers the area south of 59th Street, joins Community Board 8, which voted to support the plan last month. With community board resolutions in hand, DOT could implement the project by the end of the year.

A DOT proposal that would extend protected bike lanes and add shared lane markings to First Avenue and 59th Street received a 13-1 supportive vote from Manhattan Community Board 6's transportation committee last night, moving improved bike access at the Queensboro Bridge one step closer to reality after three committee meetings on the topic.

Last night, Manhattan Community Board 8 voted, 23-6 with four abstentions, to support DOT's plan to improve bike access to the Queensboro Bridge. Meanwhile, Community Board 6's transportation committee, which has yet to consider a resolution supporting the proposal, will host its third meeting on the topic next month.

At the end of its second meeting on a DOT proposal to improve bike safety on the Manhattan approaches to the Queensboro Bridge, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 reached a conclusion. The committee needed more time to make up its mind.