Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is good for business — if you run a bike shop. Commuters around the country are dusting off their old two-wheelers — or buying new ones — to cope with rising fuel prices, bicycle dealers say.
Hey, if the Parisians can do it, why not New Yorkers? Look how much fun they’re having!
Michael Brewer, an accountant who had always driven the 36-mile trip to downtown Houston from the suburb of West Belford, said he had been thinking about switching to the bus for the last two years. The final straw came when he put $100 of gas into his Pontiac over four days a couple of weeks ago.
“Finally I was ready to trade my independence for the savings,” he said while waiting for a bus.
His *independence*… wow!! Personally, I love the independence of letting someone ELSE do the driving while I read, listen to podcasts, look out the window…
Our neighbors to the north at Hawthorne Street blog in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens (part of Flatbush? You decide…) have been discussing the horrifically dangerous entrance to Prospect Park at Ocean and Parkside Avenues for some months now, and have formed a local Livable Streets group called PLG Public Works to address this and other traffic-related issues. Today they provide details on an upcoming public meeting to discuss potential re-design ideas for the dreaded intersection:
Some help may be on the way for the Ocean & Parkside intersection at Prospect Park: park reps have informed us that the entrance will be redesigned as part of a massive Park development project due to begin next year.
Of course, how it will be redesigned remains to be seen. We’d urge anyone and everyone concerned about the Park entrance to attend the upcoming public meeting: Monday, May 19, 6:30 p.m. at Wollman Rink.
The current situation is a nightmare for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike, and Transportation Alternatives has lobbied for improvements here in the past. But new opportunity for change exists due to an upcoming project called Lakeside Center, which will be replacing Wollman Rink. While the green design principles described on their website sound nice and all (LEED Gold buildings, rainwater retention basin to irrigate landscaping, passive ventilation, recycled and local materials, native trees and shrubs), for starters I’d be happy just to be able to get across the street and into the Park without risking my life! Once again, the public meeting is on May 19th at 6:30, Wollman Rink.
When I attended last year’s Brooklyn Blogfest at the Old Stone House in Park Slope, Sustainable Flatbush had been online for only a few weeks. Most of the names and people and language of the blogging world were very new to me, everyone at the event seemed to be from Fort Greene or Prospect Heights, and covering Atlantic Yards was the primary reason for many of the blogs’ existence.
This year’s Blogfest (held at the Brooklyn Lyceum) was much larger and more diverse, and the one topic we could all agree on was that the word “blog” has become inadequate to describe the many different forms an online journal can take. Brooklyn blogs range from highly trafficked sites that specialize in real estate trends to painfully personal virtual diaries, and everything in between. Text, drawings, photos, and video are all part of the expressive palette, and Brooklyn bloggers wield these tools with great expertise, creativity, and humor. It’s a pretty impressive bunch. Did I mention that I had a great time?
Like a true sustainability geek, I was thrilled to meet the Chair of Brooklyn’s Solid Waste Advisory Board and chat briefly about anaerobic digestion. But mostly it was great to get introduced to new people/blogs such as Brooklyn Ron, CyclechicNY, and Gardenfork; to see the faces behind recent favorites like Clinton Hill Chill Blog, BedStuy Banana, and Flatbush Pigeon; and to hang out with the folks from Reclaimed Home, Fading Ad Blog, and those perky youngsters from Supervegan. A lovely evening, and an inspiration to continue with this adventure of blogging.
This afternoon I received word of a petition supporting a re-design of Vanderbilt Avenue (Prospect Heights) to include separated bike lanes. By providing designated space for cars, bicycles and pedestrians, this design would meet what the Department of Transportation calls the “gold standard” for safety.
Full disclosure: I am a huge fan of separated bike lanes. I was signature #21.
If you think this is something we need here in Brooklyn, you can add your name to the petition here. And do it quick — rumor has it that if there are enough signatures by Monday this plan will get extra support from one of the elected officials below.
Physically Separated Bike Lanes, courtesy of Streetfilms
[Full text of petition]
To: Councilmember Letitia James, Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries, State Senator Eric Adams, Community Board 8 Chairperson Robert Matthew, Councilmember David Yassky, Councilmember Bill deBlasio, Councilmember John Liu, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz & Rohit Aggarwala:
On Monday April 28th, NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan officially launched the City’s Sustainable Streets plan. It kicked off with Safety, and as the plan articulates: “Safety is the first priority for any transportation system.” In her presentation, she also discussed Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue Class I protected bike lane, and called it “the gold standard.” That protected bike lane is safer for bicyclists, motorists, and pedestrians alike.
Simultaneously, Brooklyn’s Vanderbilt Avenue is undergoing a complete renovation from Atlantic Avenue to Grand Army Plaza. The design has been approved by the City and by CB8 and the renovations are underway. We are gracious (sic) that bike lanes were included in the design. However, these are on-street, unprotected bike lanes. In other words, these are dangerous and thus NOT the gold standard.
We, the undersigned, therefore demand a redesign to include protected bike lanes (either on opposite sides of the Avenue, or immediately adjacent to each other, on one side of the street.)
We realize that a redesign to include protected bike lanes would delay the project. However, considering the painfully slow rate for infrastructure repair and upgrade, we believe it is worth the wait.
We respectfully ask you to do all that you can to ensure that Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn has the safest bicycle lanes possible. We deserve no less.
May is Bike Month! So many great events, so little time… check our calendar for a somewhat Brooklyn-centric assortment of great stuff to do on a bike this month. Look for the events marked “BIKE MONTH”… can’t say we don’t make it easy!
Don’t forget to register for Tour de Brooklyn on May 25th!
Have I mentioned that I’m a huge fan of New York City’s Department of Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan? (Answer: yes, you’ve mentioned it.) She’s more like a rock star than a public official. She bikes to work, is a great speaker, and has traveled to cities all over the world in search of best-practice ideas for improving our streets and transportation systems.
Yesterday Sadik-Khan gave a talk at the Municipal Arts Society to unveil a new strategic plan for 2008 and beyond called “Sustainable Streets”. Many people were unable to attend because the reservations were at capacity a week before the event (it’s that rock star thing). Fortunately Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms was able to wangle entrance for himself and his camera to record the event for posterity:
Several weeks ago I was filmed for an episode of A Walk Around the Blog, a series that profiles Brooklyn bloggers as part of the news magazine program Brooklyn Review that airs on Brooklyn Independent Television. We checked out the neighborhood (by bike, of course!), spoke about some of Sustainable Flatbush’s past, present and future exploits on Cortelyou Road, and visited the Gardening Committee’s planning meeting.
Here’s something I love to see: ordinary people cycling in the snow, photo courtesy of Copenhagen blog Cycleiciousness.
When discussing the possibility of New York City becoming a truly bike-friendly city, one of the most common reasons offered for why This Could Never Happen Here is “The Weather”. Well, check it out, folks:
I maintain that NYC’s biggest obstacle to becoming a Bicycle Utopia has nothing to do with temperature or precipitation. As our Copenhagen biking blogger friend points out:
“Snow isn’t slippery when you’re just riding straight. And on a segregrated bike lane, you don’t have any other traffic to worry about.”
YES. It’s The Bike Lanes. Give Us Real Bike Lanes With NO CARS In Them.
Flatbush Gardener has a piece on Making Brooklyn Bloom, this Saturday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden…
Streetsblog, Brooklyn Junction and Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens on transit upgrades proposed in the recent State of the MTA address. Of particular interest is the idea of converting a “lightly used Bay Ridge freight line into a subway service that would run in an arc from southern Brooklyn to Queens to the Bronx”… yes locals, those are the tracks down by Avenue H…
This video illustrates why so few plastic beverage bottles get recycled in New York State, and why we need to update the Bottle Bill to change it…
Reclaimed Home on being Cheap and Green or, How I Learned to Get Past the Green Hype and Love Craigslist…
Streetfilms brings us more Livable Streets lessons from Bogota, Colombia: pedestrian-friendly streets, miles of bicycle paths, and free outdoor recreation for all…
A slice (and a sketch) of NYC subway life from Ami Underground…
I just signed a petition urging the folks at Google to include “Bike There” directions in their Maps:
The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route.
I have often wished for this very thing when using Google Maps; including cycling directions is also a great way to promote bikes as a mode of transport.
Folding Bike at the bistro; photo by Keka
My signature was number 6872, and they’re coming in from all over the globe. Add yours to the list!
Sustainable Flatbush provides a neighborhood-based forum to discuss, promote and implement sustainability concepts in Brooklyn and beyond. This blog is maintained and moderated by Anne Pope. She promises to keep real estate and politics out of the discussion. (Well, maybe a little politics.)
Subscribe To Our Email List
To receive news about Sustainable Flatbush events and activities, sign up here.
Check Out Our CALENDAR!
This somewhat Brooklyn-centric collection of events and activities will help you get your Green on. Most are cheap or free! Have a look!
Upcoming Events
Tue, May 13
7p - BIKE MONTH - Ladies' Night at Recycle-A-Bicycle
