Brooklyn

Clarence Eckerson sends these shots of DOT street safety improvements taken on a recent ride near the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Above is the newly traffic-calmed intersection of Joralemon and Hicks -- part of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project -- which now sports two sidewalk extensions. (According to the Post, a third corner was slated for a curb extension, but DOT changed plans after residents said they were worried about how fire trucks would negotiate the turn.) Says Clarence: "I am sure the speed reductions will be dramatic, the equivalent of a chicane."

With extremely low turnout expected for tomorrow's mayoral election, Bill Thompson and Mike Bloomberg canvassed the city over the weekend trying to drum up some enthusiasm for their candidacies. For Thompson, the itinerary included a stop in Bedford Stuyvesant this Saturday to protest plans for improving bus service along Nostrand Avenue.

Chalk up more bikeway innovation to the folks at the NYC Department of Transportation. Nearly complete, the Sands Street approach to the Manhattan Bridge is now safer and more enjoyable thanks to a New York City first: a center-median, two-way protected bike path. The facility is a perfect solution to counter the dangers posed by a tangle of roads and highway on-ramps that burden the area. Dramatic before-and-afters tell the delicious story.

We've got another dispatch from the ongoing bike lane drama that is Kent Avenue. At Wednesday night's information session hosted by Brooklyn CB1, the DOT team gave a short presentation [PDF] outlining their plan to address truck traffic changes caused by converting Kent to one-way flow. Then the public was invited to comment.

A reader sent this photo to Streetsblog soon after we reported that Park Slope restaurateur Irene Lo Re had asked for the Fifth Avenue bike lane to be removed. According to Lo Re's theory, which few other merchants seem to buy, the bike lane was causing delivery costs to rise. We saw this photo and thought there might be some sort of detente on the horizon. Maybe someone had reasoned with Lo Re and convinced her that a nice environment for pedestrians and cyclists is great for business at Aunt Suzie's.

Cyclists riding across the Manhattan Bridge have had about a month to try out the new Sands Street bike path, and based on the reviews so far, two major kinks are marring an otherwise sterling project. First, motorists, especially delivery vehicles, can't resist using the mountable section from Navy to Gold as a double-parking zone. And second, the two-phase crossing from the Sands Street path to the Manhattan Bridge path encourages cyclists to make some risky diagonal movements.

A cyclist was struck this morning at around 9:30, riding on Jay Street near the Manhattan Bridge. Reader Dave Abraham emailed this report about the scene of the collision.

A bit more background on the generous neckdown at Smith and Bergen spotlighted earlier today: This pedestrian amenity never would have been built without the long-term organizing for the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project. Street protests and advocacy campaigns stretching back more than a dozen years are bearing fruit now.

Since the spring, DOT construction crews have been building out traffic calming improvements all over the neighborhoods near downtown Brooklyn. When the years-in-the-making Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project wraps up, pedestrians will have safer crossings at dozens of intersections. The sidewalk extension at the northwest corner of Smith and Bergen, shown here, is especially impressive. Several hundred square feet of street space now belong to pedestrians instead of cars.