Bicycle Advocates Call for
Pilot Enforcement Program
By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN -- Bikers by the hundreds are making use of the new, dedicated bike lanes leading to and from bridges and major arteries in Downtown Brooklyn – but drivers of cars, trucks and buses haven’t yet learned to stay out of the lanes, say biking advocates.
Caroline Samponaro, director of bicycle advocacy for Transportation Alternatives, rides her bike along the Jay Street bike lane – which continues along Smith Street in Boerum Hill – twice a day. While she applauds the Department of Transportation’s initiative to “support sustainable transportation and make it safer,” she says the lane is constantly clogged by double-parked cars.
“Double parking on Jay Street between Tillary and Fulton streets is a perennial problem,” she told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Wednesday. And it may have gotten worse since the new bike lanes have arrived: “Now drivers feel there’s more space to double park.”
The Jay Street lane is “one of the most popular bike routes, going to and from the two bridges. There’s been a 95 percent increase in ridership in the last five years,” she said. But “it’s virtually a double-parking lane. It puts everyone on the road in danger. The cyclists have to go out into the bike lane, and buses weave in and out of other lanes.”
Cyclist Kate Pennell takes the Jay Street path southbound almost every day. “There are so many more bike lanes now – it’s great. I feel it heightens driver awareness and encourages bikers to be more responsive – if there’s a bike lane, you bloody well better be in it.”
But the Jay Street path is frequently “a mess,” she says. “Scaffolding on the southbound side, at Jay Street where the A and F stops are under construction, forces pedestrians out to the curb, and there are always buses in the lane. They sit there and wait; it’s the first stop on the B65 bus line.”
The Lanes Are Great;
Now Enforce the Laws
What is called for is enforcement of the traffic laws, Samponaro said. To that end, she met with the 84th Precinct Tuesday to ask that a pilot enforcement campaign be started for the Downtown Brooklyn segment of the Jay Street bike lane.
“New Yorkers should call the precinct and let them know it’s a problem. We’re trying to foster a new style of enforcement that meets the demands of these new street designs. If there’s no enforcement, that sends a message to keep doing it.”
Community Board 2 District Manager Rob Perris is on the same page as Samponaro. “I’m hearing nothing but positive feedback from the cyclists,” he says, “but it’s a matter of enforcement, of the Police Department finding the resources to enforce the rules often enough for people to realize they have to respect the bike lanes.”
Perris said that, in the past, the 84th Precinct had an officer permanently assigned to another bike lane, the Adams Street bike lane running past the Marriott to the Brooklyn Bridge. But the officer “is no longer at that post, and they’ve gone back to parking on the bike lane on Adams Street.
“In essence, the Adams Street bike lane has ceased to exist,” he said.
“DOT sometimes does some really smart planning, but has no enforcement arm. If the Police Department doesn’t back up this planning, it doesn’t work.”
Completion of the city's 1,800-mile bicycle master plan is scheduled by 2030.
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© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2008
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Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
