Greenpoint

Interest continues to grow in the Department of Transportation's slow speed zones, which place 20 mph speed limits on residential streets. One month after the application deadline for the program, community boards across the city continue to pass resolutions in support of slow zones.

Last July, the DOT announced plans to calm one of the most dangerous intersections in Queens, at the foot of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. Greenpoint Avenue is only two lanes wide on either side of the bridge, but as the road crosses Newtown Creek, it widens to four lanes and the bike lane on the Brooklyn side disappears, allowing traffic to speed up. When that fast-moving bridge traffic hits the confusing intersection of Greenpoint Avenue, Van Dam Street and Review Avenue on the Queens side, it's a recipe for disaster.

Here's a look at NYCDOT's plan for the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge [PDF], which would give cyclists traveling between Greenpoint, Brooklyn and Sunnyside, Queens a safer and more comfortable ride by installing bike lanes with extra-wide buffers. The project recently got some press in the Brooklyn Paper for attracting the opposition of local trucking interests.

Gothamist reports that Neil Chamberlain, a 28-year-old Williamsburg resident, was taken off life support today after a driver struck him and fled the scene in Greenpoint early Sunday morning.

The Pulaski Bridge's walkway has seen more cyclists use it recently, but there's not enough space for both cyclists and pedestrians to use it safely and effectively.

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.

The most telling answers at Transportation Alternatives' District 33 City Council candidates forum came after an audience member asked point blank for the debaters' stance on congestion pricing. "I can’t support a candidate who’ll support congestion pricing," said the questioner, Dave Reina. "I think it's punitive, and there are more creative solutions out there. Who’ll stand up against it?"

The Kent Avenue bike path was not the most hotly debated item at last night's Brooklyn CB1 meeting. That distinction belongs to the rezoning plan for the area known as Broadway Triangle. But DOT's team still encountered some skepticism from North Brooklyn residents concerned about truck traffic. The revised plan [PDF], which calls for a two-way protected bike path on Kent with one-way auto traffic, would divert southbound trucks along a different route.

Another Greenpoint resident has come forward reporting to have seen a police car, in violation of NYPD policy, chasing the speeding white mini-van that took the life of Violetta Kryzak in April.