Streetsblog

Anyone Biking Over the Brooklyn Bridge With a Camera This Evening?

A truck fire has shut down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in both directions around DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. I just biked back to Brooklyn from the Open Planning Project office in Lower Manhattan and, wow!, I have never seen a traffic jam as bad as the one that is currently underway in and around Downtown Brooklyn. From the Brooklyn Bridge, down Adams Street, into Boerum Hill, along 3rd and 4th Avenues, up Union Street into Park Slope -- virtually every intersection is gridlocked, drivers are pissed out of their minds and the horn honking is unbelievable. A fender bender on the BQE has, it seems, shut down a good portion of New York City's automobile transportation system.

By Aaron Naparstek

5:25 PM EDT on October 6, 2008

A truck fire has shut down the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in both directions around DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights. I just biked back to Brooklyn from the Open Planning Project office in Lower Manhattan and, wow!, I have never seen a traffic jam as bad as the one that is currently underway in and around Downtown Brooklyn. From the Brooklyn Bridge, down Adams Street, into Boerum Hill, along 3rd and 4th Avenues, up Union Street into Park Slope — virtually every intersection is gridlocked, drivers are pissed out of their minds and the horn honking is unbelievable. A fender bender on the BQE has, it seems, shut down a good portion of New York City’s automobile transportation system.

If anyone happens to be biking home over the Brooklyn Bridge with a digital camera, snap a few photos for us. If ever there was an advertisement for bike commuting and mass transit, this is it.

Aaron Naparstek

Aaron Naparstek is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek's journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.

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