The explosion of tourism in New York is something to behold. Back in October of 2002 or 2003 I took a vacation to New York and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. While there were people on it, there weren’t many of them. I in fact remember it as it a bit wind-swept and forlorn.
Fast forward to today and epic tourist hordes jam the walkway up completely. The picture at the top of this post was taken a couple weeks ago and gives a feel for what it’s like.
You’ll notice people crammed onto only half the walkway, one partially obstructed by an NYPD cart. That’s because the other half is given over to a bike lane that every time I’ve been there has been lightly used.
It makes no sense to allocate 50% of this space to bicycles when pedestrians outnumber bicycles 50 to 1. It’s unpleasant and unsafe for everyone involved. With people constantly stopping to take selfies, it can be hard to even move.
Fortunately there’s a simple solution to this problem.
- Eliminate the bike lane on the promenade.
- Carve out a lane using some construction zone type Jersey barriers and give one of the current traffic lanes over as a new bike lane.
This could be done in a day or two, easy. The city make it happen stat. It’s only a matter of time until somebody gets hurt. And the current setup creates a terrible impression for visitors.
from The Urbanophile
http://www.urbanophile.com/2015/11/11/the-brooklyn-bridge-bike-lane-is-a-disaster/
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