Vanderbilt Ave. Bike Lanes, Landscaped XWalk, RAISED Median?

supreme_ian wrote: im NOT complaining because it takes longer im complaining because i DONT have an OPTION if im driving on vandy. where as in the past you could make perfect use of the 2nd lane. now if a delivery guy dbl parks and a biker has to swerve into traffic and thats WAYYY more dangerous.

I really disagree with you there. "Traffic calming" features like the narrower lanes and raised medians make streets safer because they force drivers to drive slower and be more "on their toes" about risks. It's counterintuitive, but wide, straight roads without obstacles that cause more (and more serious) accidents because drivers go faster and are more complacent about risks. So, yes, there's some inconvenience to drivers by making them have to be more attentive and drive slower, but it makes the street a whole lot more safer for peds and bikes. And I've always felt that Vanderbilt was particularly unsafe before these improvements. This isn't about trying to stop people from driving - it's about improving the safety and quality of life on the street.

As for trucks blocking the bike lane-- As a cyclist, I always signal and/or check behind me before moving out of the bike lane to go around a parked truck.. If you ever see somebody "swerve into traffic".. well that's just stupid and dangerous. But it's a fault of the bike rider, not the design of the street. Anyway, isn't there room to drive by if a truck unloads in the bike lane (rather than the middle of the traffic lane)? If not, they could always remove a couple of the hourly parking spaces and put a truck loading zone in.

eterpay wrote: It's counterintuitive, but wide, straight roads without obstacles that cause more (and more serious) accidents because drivers go faster and are more complacent about risks.

They could make traffic go slower by setting the traffic lights differently, and then enforcing the law, they didn't have to build a median.

eterpay wrote: Anyway, isn't there room to drive by if a truck unloads in the bike lane (rather than the middle of the traffic lane)? If not, they could always remove a couple of the hourly parking spaces and put a truck loading zone in.

This will never happen.

Look, the Atlantic Yards project will evetually be built. Now, people are going to drive to that no matter how godo mass transit maybe. Do you want those drivers to sit in you neighborhood, making noise, making pollution, etc.? Or do you want them to get out of it ASAP?

As I understand, the statistics on "traffic calming" are that it slows traffic down without reducing traffic flow (i.e., how many cars actually move through). And from what I've seen so far, traffic is flowing down Vanderbilt just as well as it was before. Letting cars speed doesn't actually help traffic flow.
The only real argument you have is that trucks can theoretically block traffic by stopping and unloading in the traffic lane, which I've never seen happen. (And besides, you have both a bike lane and short-term parking spaces for trucks to unload in.) If this were really a problem, you should bring it up with the community board and ask DOT to put in a truck loading zone. Vanderbilt is mostly metered parking anyway.

They could make traffic go slower by setting the traffic lights differently, and then enforcing the law, they didn't have to build a median.

Come on, enforcing traffic laws in Brooklyn? I've seen people pulled over for speeding maybe a handful of times in my >10 years in NY. I see people running red lights, speeding and driving with total disregard to traffic laws every day. The only way you can enforce traffic laws in NYC is by fixing the roads so people don't drive like jerkoffs.
Reducing vanderbilt from 2 lanes to 1 lane like they did a little while back helped a bit, but it was still pretty bad.

in my experience the traffic light at the corner of vanderbilt and plaza is one that cars regularly blew thru, 2, 3, 4 seconds after it turned red during rush hour. that resulted in many dangerous situations of pedestrians beginning to cross only to have some car speeding by them. the traffic calming has done a great deal to reduce the number of these instances, although i still consider that light dangerous.

MeredithB wrote: The proper thing is not to build concrete islands so that commercial vehicles wouldn't have to block the bicycle lanes. Traffic squezzing has it's consequences. One is being stuck behind a commercial vehicle parked in a bicycle lane while it makes a delivery for four minutes.

Wait, you're sitting behind a truck in the bike lane? Signal with your hand, merge into traffic and...the magic three words...

Take. The. Lane.

Pass vehicle, get back in bike lane, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Oh, daver, you're such a good diplomat.