Markowitz: Advocacy Groups Distorted Bike Lane Data

January 21, 2011 9:05 PM

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. (credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

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NEW YORK (CBS 2) — Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz reacted angrily Friday after a study by a Park Slope neighborhood group found a huge numbers discrepancy on the usage of controversial bike lanes in Prospect Park West.

A study by Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes calculated that on an average weekday, 523 people used the two-way bike lane from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. That is in comparison to the 1,087 figure compiled by the Department of Transportation.

“I don’t believe a word coming out of that department. Not a word,” Markowitz, a noted opponent of the lanes, told CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer.

“The Department of Transportation will use any way to justify their action, distort and manipulate anything they have to justify their action,” he said.

Markowitz charged that the DOT got higher numbers because bike advocacy groups somehow knew the days they were counting and showed up to pad the numbers.

“It’s amazing that suddenly they knew when to use the bicycle path in line with when they took the count,” Markowitz said.

The DOT refused to make Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan available for an interview with CBS 2. Her spokesman issued a statement, saying the counts by Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes were “taken from one extreme end of the bike path.”

“As you may understand, you can’t measure the number of riders on a subway line by how many are still on the train at the last stop,” spokesman Seth Solomonow said.

The DOT argued that removing the bike lane would cost three times the amount it did to install.

On Friday, the bike path was not shoveled, leaving some Park West bikers to use the road or sidewalk.

“I walk in the park quite frequently and I rarely see people in the bike lane. Maybe one or two now and then,” Park Slope resident Elaine Basinger said.

But others said they loved the bike lanes.

“It’s great to have a safe, convenient way to get around by bike so we appreciate it. We also feel like there’s a lot less speeding,” Aaron Naparstek said.

Markowitz: Advocacy Groups Distorted Bike Lane Data

stevef

Marty, If you prefer, I will go back to riding my bike on the PPW sidewalk.
In 1982 I used the sidewalk to bring my son to day care near GAP via the child seat on my bike, then continued on to work. There still is no safe street to ride between central Park Slope and GAP – particularly with a child. If the bike path goes, I would be riding my grandson on the PPW sidewalk, just like I did with my son 30 years ago.

Marty and Marcia want cyclists to give up their safety for a bit of motorists convenience. It’s not going to happen.
oliver

Capacity induces demand.

It’s kind of funny that people expect that bike lanes should be full the day they open. As if there were a line of cars stacked 3 deep in a dirt lot the day the first road was built.

Besides, I’ve lived in New York, Manhattan actually. Owning a car there is crazy, I know, I DID. I’ll not go into the price I paid for the garage spot, because it’s irrelevant (insanely irrelevant, but nonetheless)

There is simply nothing that can be done to accommodate more cars no matter how much whining people do about the bike lanes.
diehipsters

I knew these spoiled yuppies and hipsters would pull something like this to beef up the numbers. This city never used bike lanes and still doesn’t need to. I can’t stand these nasally yups.

mike

They are totally false accusations.

Bike lanes are indeed necessary and beneficial.

As for your personal issues and your anger problem, no comment.
Chris

I concur with Mike — your issues seem to have nothing to do with bike lanes and more to do your perception of those advocating for better biking solutions. As if only yuppies and hipsters ride bikes. C’mon – really?

Rich T

Yeah, like the bike lanes are going to get a lot of use 1/2 of every year. This isn’t San Diego where it’s warm and sunny all the time. How about the very young, the old and the handicapped who have to get around? How about Moms with strollers? How does a Mom with 2 kids and a stroller get on a crowded bus? These people should struggle more or not use private vehicles so that healthy people of a certain demographic have a nice place to ride when the weather permits?

I still see 1/2 the bike riders in the traffic lanes anyway. They go where they want and don’t follow stop signs, traffic lights, etc. So what did we go to all of this expense and trouble for?

Russell D.

There really should not be so much discussion about this. The reason bike lanes in NYC are a problem is because they have been implemented poorly with little or no practical thought to how they are used. For example, the newest bike lane on 1st Ave is basically a death trap. 1st Ave runs up the east side of Manhattan so 90% of the cars who turn off of 1st Ave have to turn left (west). The city installed the bike lane on the left side of the road so all the cars turn INTO you to make their lefts. Most bikers now avoid 1st Ave and go up 3rd instead.

There is also little-to-no enforcement in the bike lanes. They are right next to the sidewalk and the street vendors, tourists, and deliverymen all use it as their own personal corridor. Whomever thought it was a cute idea to put a bike lane straight through Time Square is a moron. If someone wanted to use it as it should be used, they would be riding their bike straight into a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of 500 people. When there IS enforcement in the bike lanes, it is almost always the cyclist who is ticketed. It is as if the cops want to make cyclists pay for the privileged of having the bike lanes installed.

Wilson Sheffler

Russel, I take it you are someone who rides. The PPW bike lane is perhaps the best thought-out bike lane in the entire city, and the DOT has done numerous studies on how to best implement it. The latest included suggestions for tweaks and design changes to improve it.

The issues have everything to do with enforcement and, in some cases, design. But bike lanes are necessary, and so are traffic calming projects. Sometimes they’re the same thing.
D.J.

Russell, the DOT clearly put more thought into the lane than you did into your comment. The protected bike lanes that run on 1st and 2nd Ave were, for the most part, put in at the same time the new SBS bus service was also added to the street. As we all know, NYC buses have their passenger doors on the right; therefore, the bus lanes are required to be on the right side of the street.

With the bus lanes on the right side of the street, the only side left for the bike lane is the left side, regardless of whether that is north, south, east or west. Otherwise, the bike lane would be filled with buses pulling over and stopping. That’s why on 1st Ave the bike lane is on the west side of the street (the left side because it is a one way street going north), and on 2nd Ave the bike lane is on the east side of the street (again the left side because it is a one way street going south).

It makes sense.

James Donohue

All roads need Bicycle Lanes. When more side-streets and connecting roads have bike lanes, more people will ride bicycles. There should be a network of connected bike lanes. Right now, the bike lanes are just here-and-there, but they don’t connect with each other.
Cars are too big, they pollute and go to fast. They best way to travel is by bicycle.
FYI-A person on a bicycle can travel five time the distance he or she could walk.
Chris

I’m a Park Slope resident who bikes occasionally, mostly in warm weather. I am by no means a bike activitst, but Marty Markowitz’s strong advocancy against the bike lanes and outrageous use of his bully pulpit are pushing me to get involved. How can I get more active in supporting the bike lanes and opposing Markowitz and his strong-arm tactics? I’m ready to get active!

As Boro President, Markowitz should represent ALL Brooklynites and diplomatically bridge disparate groups, not inflame the discussion. He’s failed miserably in his role and should step aside for a more worthy leader.
Dylan

It’s pretty shocking that Aaron Naparstek and others featured riding on the sidewalk seem to be so cavalier about it. When roads were unsafe to drive on, did drivers just take to the sidewalks? Of course not. Cyclists are the most selfish and blindered road users we have in the city. Who else would use the excuse of unplowed roads to ride on pedestrian pathways? Only cyclists. Crazy that they don’t recognize the danger and inconvenience they pose.

Aaron Naparstek

Dylan,

I pretty much agree with you. One of the main reasons why Park Slope Neighbors, the Park Slope Civic Council, Transportation Alternatives, the Grand Army Plaza Coalition and other individuals and organizations have spent the last five years working to get this redesign of Prospect Park West done is because we were all sick of having bikes on the sidewalk on PPW.

So, it was pretty disappointing on Friday to ride up to PPW after picking up my 3-yo son from school and find that PPW’s roadway was plowed and clear and it’s sidewalk was plowed and clear, yet the bike lane was inexplicably still full of snow.

If you find it outrageous for cyclists to use sidewalks (even big, wide, empty ones like PPW on Friday), you should be aware that Marty Markowitz has proposed biking on the sidewalk as his alternative to the PPW bike path.

My family owns a car. We are not just “cyclists.” If bike lanes are going to go unplowed, I’ll probably end up doing the Friday school pick-up in my car. My question for you is this: Do you really think that having one more car on the road in Park Slope, driving around, looking for parking in front of a school (where there are, inevitably, five cars double-parked and blocking hydrants), is safer and more convenient for everyone? I don’t. I think it’s a lot more convenient for everyone else if I can leave the car at home and use my bike to do the school pick-up.

The bottom line is that me and my 3-year-old son did not endanger or inconvenience anyone on Friday on our bike ride home from school.
Tom Rorb

Dylan,

From the horse’s mouth (Marty Markowitz) being inteviewed by Andrea Bernstein last year – commenting on cyclists not able to legally ride the opposite way on PP: “I must tell you, the sidewalks are enormous. They are. Enormous. There is almost zero usage of pedestrians on Flatbush Avenue. Zero. There’s hardly any pedestrians that walk up and down Flatbush Avenue on the park, there’s no question about it. The sidewalks are wide enough for bicycle use and they pose no threat to the few people that walk up the street and I just believe we have the condition for those that want to use bicycles to be able to enjoy the park.”

So essentially Marty said even in non-snowy conditions riding the wrong way on the sidewalk isn’t a big deal.
Wilson Sheffler

Dylan, cars double park, run red lights, and do all kinds of illegal things in every type of weather. I won’t excuse sidewalk riding like Marty Markowitz does – I bike and I’m against it – but I think the plague of sidewalk riding cyclists is a tad less pervasive as cars running red lights. Let’s focus on the real dangers that have actually killed children, the elderly, and just about every demographic in this city. Cars. I’m sure everyone in NBBL never double-parks.

mike

Once again, Marty proves that he’s unfit for office, and Marcia Kramer is unfit to call herself a journalist. This is not journalism, it’s trash. She and WCBS should be ashamed of themselves.
Aaron Naparstek

Though… I will also say that Marcia Kramer does New York City a major service by simply letting Marty talk and talk and talk and hang himself with his own rope. In this interview he comes across as unfit to hold public office.
Aaron Naparstek

I don’t understand how Marcia Kramer could allow Marty Markowitz to level this absurd accusation against the local advocacy groups who have worked so hard to make Prospect Park West a safer street and then not bother to give a phone call to any of those local advocacy groups and allow them to respond to the accusation.

Park Slope Neighbors, Transportation Alternatives, the Park Slope Civic Council, the Grand Army Plaza Coalition are advocacy groups that have all been involved over the last five years in the grassroots, community-driven effort to redesign Prospect Park West. Why not give one of those groups a call and ask for comment about Marty’s accusation? This is Journalism 101. This is basic fairness and professionalism.
tombovo

The bike lanes are part of Bloomberg’s idea of turning New York into a giant european city. The bike lanes are under utilized, and its becoming far too difficult to drive in parts of Brooklyn.

The DOT has distorted the reasons for building the bike lanes–yes, I am accusing them of lying. Now the DOT is saying to forget changing it back because it will cost too much.

Wilson Sheffler

No, the DOT is saying that it should not be changed back because it’s a success. Car speeds are lower, pedestrians are safer.

If you had attended the meeting you would know that the DOT only mentioned the cost because an opponent asked how much it cost to install these lanes in a time of budget crisis. The answer was that the PPW bike lane cost about $300,000, with 80% of that money kicked in by the Federal Government. Removing it and repaving the street would cost about $1,000,000 and none of that money would be reimbursed by the Feds. Those are facts, not lies or opinions.

The street is safer with or without a bike lane, and even if no one is riding a bike. Two lanes of traffic versus three speeding lanes. What’s wrong with that?
Aaron Naparstek

No, Tom. The DOT is not changing Prospect Park West back into a three-lane expressway because the data shows that the redesign has made the street safer for everyone and isn’t hurting motorists. And Councilmember Brad Lander and Steve Levin’s survey showed that the project is extremely popular and well-liked by a majority of the community — even a majority of PPW residents.

http://bradlander.com/ppwsurvey

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Markowitz: Advocacy Groups Distorted Bike Lane Data

January 21, 2011 9:05 PM

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