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When we made a quick re-ignite of BRBR just over a week ago, this is not the kind of news that was expected.

Once again, we offer our condolences, this time to the family and friends of Devra Freelander.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/07/01/fifteen-now-cyclist-killed-in-bushwick/?

 https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-cyclist-killed-cement-truck-brooklyn-20190701-77nwf7q2lzbj5g2vinv5yjlrha-story.html

Robyn Hightman & Ernest Askew

Robyn Hightman & Ernest Askew were two additional cyclist killed in NYC this week.

We knew Robyn.

Condolences to Robyn's and Ernest's friends and family.

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/06/28/end-legal-murder-in-nyc-hundreds-mourn-cyclist-robyn-hightman-in-memorial-ride/

https://www.facebook.com/supermintusa/posts/this-is-not-the-story-we-wanted-to-sharewhen-we-created-our-teams-ambassador-pro/1809263149177100/

https://bklyner.com/cyclist-death-brownsville-ernest-askew/

https://nypost.com/2019/06/28/brownsville-cyclist-fatally-hit-as-cyclist-deaths-soar/

https://pix11.com/2019/06/28/man-fatally-struck-by-car-in-brooklyn-second-cyclist-killed-in-nyc-streets-this-week-police/

 https://gothamist.com/2019/06/28/cyclist_brooklyn_death_nyc.php

Robyn Hightman.  Photo from the Hagens Berman Supermint Pro Cycling Team.

Location of Earnest Askew's fatality, Sutter Ave & Chester Street, Brooklyn.  Photo from Google and Gothamist.

Welcome to 2019!

Hello and welcome to the concluding months of the second decade of the 21st Century!

It's been about 9 years since Community Board 10 last heard a consolidated push from DOT and the cycling community about improving bicycling connections in the neighborhood.  Similar improvements were voted down in 2010 and 2011 by CB10, and it was largely voted down again by CB10 in 2019. Though this time, DOT and our elected representatives are saying they will ignore the CB10 vote and paint the routes anyways.

Perhaps because in the first 4 months of 2019, 4 of the 8 cycling deaths in all of NYC occurred in South Brooklyn?

Maybe because a decade of street improvements and traffic calming methods being used throughout the city still have not been widely implemented in Bay Ridge, resulting in repeated reckless driving?  The driving ignorance is higher than BRBR has ever seen.  As one example of its worst, we've first-hand witnessed a car blow through 3 red lights in a row along 3rd Ave: Marine Ave, 99th Street, and Shore Road.

We're looking forward to taking a step towards joining the rest of NYC's present-day street design methods and policies.

Map of the expanded bicycle route network.  Image from Streetsblog.

Bay Ridge Parkway Markings

Bay Ridge Parkway has a new coat of paint.  It is placed at a point wide enough to accommodate a parallel parked car and a bicycle turned sideways (shown bike is 5.5' long).  If there was one more stripe at the edge of the parked car, the street would have a true 5' wide bicycle lane!

For reference, see page 59 of the DOT Street Design Manual - an on-street, standard bicycle lane is 5' wide.

The community has been aching for a bicycle lane here for over 5 years but it's still not being marked.  The only limit is perception, not physical dimension or street geometry.

Bay Ridge Parkway's new stripe with parked car and bicycle

"It's opener, out there, in the wide, open air." says Bay Ridge Parkway, channeling Dr Seuss

Fall 2015 South Brooklyn Bicycling Status

The continual improvements and expansion of New York's bicycling infrastructure in recent years has made little impact in the neighborhood of Bay Ridge.  However, 2015 brought some significant new bicycle support: bicycles can be loaded onto buses crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and new sharrows have been placed on Marine Avenue and Ft Hamilton Parkway.  Last month, a presentation was made to Community Board 10 for a plan to link Second Avenue and Owl's Head Park with a connecting segment of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway. 

Wakeman Place is a narrower street and its real world function has it serving as an extension of the off-ramp from the Belt Parkway.  Providing an effective connector is crucial here.

Second Avenue is a very wide street and can easily accommodate the greenway's bicycle and pedestrian path. The currently proposed plans indicate a loss of on-street parking along Second Avenue.  This stems from both the addition of the greenway and providing additional lane markings for through traffic and turning lanes.  Currently, there are no distinct lane markings on Second Avenue and the street acts as if it had one very wide lane each way.  Parking along this stretch of Second Avenue and the nearby side streets have very limited use; the loss of some on-street parking as the plan proposes would be a very small burden to absorb.  DOT can certainly manage to develop a reasonable plan to implement.

View the full DOT presentation here.

As an additional improvement to the greenway, it would be a good idea to provide an on-street bicycle markings extending along Second Avenue to 67th Street, and west on 67th to Owl's Head Park.  For practical daily riding, this is the best and safest route to navigate.  67th Street is a quiet, low traffic road and the intersection with Colonial Road contains an all-way stop.


These improvements are long overdue in the area.  The bicycling network in South Brooklyn is very small, with limited connectivity to other portions of the Borough.  There is one zig-zagged on-street marked pathway leading from the vicinity of Ft Hamilton and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into central Brooklyn, and none lead east from the harbor.  Sharrows were placed along 5th Avenue in 2013, leading northward to a dedicated, marked lane in the 20's.

It's good to recall that Brooklyn was once envisioned to have a green network of park and pedestrian spaces criscrossing it's neighborhoods.  This plan at Wakeman and Second Avenue is directly adjacent to one of those linear parks, which now only serves as a vehicular connector from the Belt Parkway to Second Avenue and Fourth Avenue.  This article posted at Hey Ridge documents some of that vision.  The Brooklyn Greenway is an opportunity to gain back some of those ideas lost decades ago.

South Brooklyn Bicycle Network, November 2015, Google Maps

Cross the Verrazano with a Bicycle!

It's finally here - Bicycle racks on MTA buses crossing the Verrazano bridge.  The press release states service will not begin until Sunday, September 6.  We've seen many of the S53 and S93 buses in Bay Ridge already setup with racks on  their front bumpers, though yet to see a bike taking a ride.  We're definitely going to put the racks to good use.  NYC has finally begum to catch up with most every other city in North America.  This is a game changer for cycling in South Brooklyn and Staten Island.

MTA Press Release

Daily New Article

Hey Ridge Article and how-to-use video

Bicycle Rider Icons on Marine Avenue

Painting the bicycle rider icons on a rainy Saturday morning, marking the new shared bicycle route.

Finishing touches on the bicycle route along Marine Avenue, Brooklyn.

Bicycle Sharrows on Marine Avenue

This week, Sharrows began to appear along Marine Avenue between Ft Hamilton Parkway and Oliver Street.  The markers run both northbound and southbound providing connection between the long-existing on street bicycle lane from Oliver + Colonial Road and the well used basketball courts and playground at Ft Hamilton Avenue.

These sharrows might be the first new bicycle pathway markings of any kind to be introduced to the neighborhood since 2009 when a dedicated lane was introduced on 7th Avenue.

Perhaps this is the first installation of a series of upgrades decided upon in 2012?  See our prior post here.

BTW, what's a sharrow? "A shared-lane marking or sharrow[1] is a street marking installed at locations in Australia, Canada, and the United States. This marking is placed in the center of a travel lane to indicate that a cyclist may use the full lane."

Here they are with some of the northbound sharrows in place and the southbound ones are marked and awaiting final painting:

From the basketball courts at Ft Hamilton Ave, looking up Marine Ave to 4th Avenue.

Marine Avenue at 4th Avenue.

Marine Avenue at 3rd Avenue.

Marine Avenue near 98th Street

Marine Avenue at 95th Street and Ridge Boulevard.

Marine Avenue at 93rd Street and Oliver Street, leading to the Colonial Ave Bicycle Lane.

Plumb Beach Connector Repaved

After many years of delays, a short section of the paved bicycle lane at Plumb Beach has finally been repaved.

It was in poor condition until 2011, then Hurricane Irene partially wiped away large sections of the pavement.  In early October 2012, huge mounds of fresh sand were delivered to the area, likely a part of the beach and inlet's stabilization as part of the ongoing Belt Parkway reconstruction work.  But on Oct 29+30, 2012, Hurricane Sandy Sandy moved those sand mounds and parts of the beach dunes across the entirety of Plumb Beach and the highway.  This segment of the pathway became a 1/4 mile long sand pit.

It has now been replaced, along with  some adjacent dune and beach grass stabilization.  Welcome to the new 2015 Plumb Beach!

Verrazano 50th

In case you missed it, the Verrazano Bridge turned 50 years old this week and received a subtle request to provide bicycle and pedestrian access across its span.  Brilliant.


The activists, Right of Way. organized the airplane and banner flying across the sky during the formal ceremony.

More news:

New York Post

Daily News

Pix11 video (minute 1:30)

Beautiful, Glowing Bikes

DOT, NYPD and Mayor Bill de Blasio, how about bringing this material to NYC as a part of Vision Zero?  

 

If you happen to be near Eindhoven in the Netherlands, you can walk or bike down a glowing path modeled after Van Gogh’s masterpiece. The one kilometer lane is the work of Daan Roosegaarde, the same designer responsible for the glowing stretch of nearby smart highway.  Read more at Wired.

Bush Terminal Piers Park to Open Soon

For years, BRBR has occasionally bicycled the desolate streets of First Avenue, knowing that a future park was being built along the waterfront but perplexed about how to actually find the place or access it.  It looks like there has been some significant progress on the "public" aspect of this park.  First, EDC has announced that various permits, the management plan and Memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NYC Parks have been finalized.  An opening should be scheduled in November.  Second, there is actually a pathway to enter the place!  See our pics from a Sunday foray along the water.

The new entrance is at 1st Avenue and 43rd Street

The entrance is a part of a truck gate into the warehouse area

There is a small pedestrian gate to the side of the truck gate

Follow the path to the building with a statue of Mr Irving Bush and take a left

Park entrance.  There is a small parking area to the left.

The main park entrance gate

A view through the gate to a pathway leading to the park

Pedestrian Lane Sought for Verrazano-Narrows Bridge - NYTimes

Now, on the occasion of the Verrazano’s semicentennial, a group of cyclists, transportation advocates and residents on both sides of the bridge are leading a grass-roots-and-pavement campaign to add a pedestrian path. Their hope is to reverse a half-century of four-wheeled favoritism and persuade the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to include the path among its planned upgrades on the bridge.

Read the full story at the New York Times.

And don't forget about coming out the rally Saturday, October 17 at 11am at the Alice Austen House on Staten Island.

More Info here at the Harbor Ring.

Bicycle Lane on the Verrazano!

October 18, 11am at the Alice Austen House on Staten Island - come out and give some support to provide a bicycle lane over the Verrazano Bridge.  Event organized by the Harbor Ring.  Visit their website or on Facebook for more information.

Where Cyclists Ride

Here's an interesting tidbit: GPS heatmaps showing where cyclist ride.   Screenshot below is of the NYC area taken today, March 2, 2014 as mapped on the Strava Global Heatmap. .

The most striking element is the concentration of red.  Central Park and Prospect Park are burning red, linked by a network of fine red and blue arteries between the two.  But take a closer look - the entire south shoreline of Brooklyn is also burning red from Bay Ridge to Coney Island and eastward to the loop around Jamaica Bay.  There are some fine blue veins connecting to central and northern Brooklyn.

Heatmap for Brooklyn and NYC

Spring is Near (sorta)

Last summer, the bicycle lanes around Owl's Head Park were fading into oblivion.  In case you missed it under this winter's slushy wrath, those lanes were repainted and refreshed around October 2013.  Thanks, DOT!

The re-painting of Wakeman Place

Who is the Bike Candidate?

This story from Brooklyn Magazine compares the crop of NYC mayoral candidates on their attitudes and stance for bicycling in the city, meaning all of the city, not just Manhattan. Who is their pick?  Sal Albanese. 

Disappearing Lanes near Owls Head Park

It has been 2 years since any of the bicycle lanes in Bay Ridge were repainted.  Shore Road and Colonial Road were repainted back in the summer of 2011.  However, it has been longer since other lanes were restriped in the area.

These pictures show the current conditions of Wakeman Place and 68th Street.  At both, the outer marking of the bicycle lane has been worn away and vanished.  Both of these routes provide access to and from Owl's Head Park and the greenway surrounding the north side of the park.  These roads are also the final connector streets in the neighborhood for traffic entering and exiting the Belt Parkway, meaning vehicles are frequent and fast along these roads.

These lanes need to be repainted for safety and traffic calming around the Owls Head Park area.

The Disappearing Bicycle Lane of Wakeman PLace

Wakeman Place Bicycle Lane Vanishes

The Disappearing Bicycle Lane of 68th Street

5th Avenue Shared Bicycle Lane

Here it is, the unbelievable and amazing appearance of the 5th Avenue bicycle route, extending from 50th Street to 23rd Street.  Within a 15 minute time span, we saw at least 20 northbound and southbound commuters riding along this road just before 8am.  Men and women, families with children were out on this morning using the freshly painted bicycle route!

This newly designated route doesn't quite extend all the way south to 65th Street and into Bay Ridge, but it is very close.  Perhaps it will be extended when the roadway repairs between 50th and 65th are completed?

The southern-most section of the route between 49th and 50th Street

Along Greenwood Cemetery, a woman passes a man pulling a child-carrier

Continuing northbound near 27th Street

At 23rd Street, the new lane connects with the existing 5th Ave route.

Call Stephen Hawking! 5th Ave Bicycle Route Emerges from the Ether!

There is a new connection developing across the space-time continuum where none existed before - a marked bicycle route along 5th Avenue in Sunset Park.  BRBR saw it this morning, extending from 36th Street to 50th Street as a freshly painted line of sharrows along this commercial corridor in Sunset Park.  It looks like it will extend farther north, along the edge of Greenwood Cemetery.  Maybe it will extend all the way to 23rd St, where the 5th Avenue Bicycle lane currently ends?

Physicist Stephen Hawking in 2007 inside of a zero-gravity jet airplane.