subject: Brooklyn Cars Taking Bike Lanes Up: Fair Or Unfair? [print this page] Brooklyn Cars Taking Bike Lanes Up: Fair Or Unfair?
In Brooklyn, New York, where street construction seems to be a 365-day-a-year thing, where traffic is as common as the hip-hop dancers on the subway and public transportation is as unpredictable as a Las Vegas blackjack table, one of the biggest issues being discussed and debated throughout the Borough has to do with bicycle riders and Brooklyn cars.In Brooklyn Heights, there's currently a battle between the cyclists interested in using the bike lane on Henry Street and the First Presbyterian Church. The place of worship, which does not have enough parking to provide suitable space for all of their parishioners, has told those taking their Brooklyn cars to the church that they should park on the street.... Blocking the bike lane.After receiving complaints from several cyclists, Assemblyman Joan Millman offered up a "compromise." And what were the rules of this compromise? That those church-goers who felt compelled to drive would park their Brooklyn cars on the bike lane only during church hours.This is a ridiculous compromise for a series of reasons, most notably that no one ever did park their Brooklyn cars in the bike lane when church wasn't going on. And yet, that is now the "law," though it's technically not in the books anywhere. Citizens of Brooklyn Heights can now block an entire bike path and get ignored by the police officers being compensated to enforce the laws, just by writing "church business" on a piece of paper and placing it on their dashboard.However, those Brooklyn citizens involved in local politics are likely aware of the loudest voice against Brooklyn Bikers and Bike Lanes has been the Borough President, Marty Markowitz."Nobody asked for this," said Markowitz, in reference to the bike lanes on the Prospect Park West. "This is the vision of the DOT! Their belief! Their ideological approach!"In actuality, this statement by Markowitz couldn't be farther from the truth. Over 1,300 people signed the Park Slope Neighbors petition which was created solely to create and install a two-way protected bike path on the PPW. Not to mention, the Brooklyn Community Board requested DOT study the two-way bike protected path system possibilities back in 2007, even before the petition was created.Of course, Markowitz having his own perspective of reality seems to be a reoccurring theme."I lived on Prospect Park West for eight years! My windows faced it, and I rarely saw speeding," said Markowitz. "I rarely saw it."Markowitz may want to get a doctor to make sure he's not suffering from serious memory loss. Anyone who spent more than thrity seconds on the PPW was witness to all the Brooklyn cars cruising through it at dangerous, illegal speeds. At the very least, he should consult an optometrist.
