Bollards

Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson was at Town Hall on Saturday night for the New Yorker Festival's "How New Yorkers Ride Bikes," hosted by former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Clarence wasn't allowed to film the event so he published a nice write-up on StreetFilms. Some excerpts:

Last week, we saw the sorry condition of the new on-street bike route in Times Square and thought to ourselves how much better things would be if only bikes had some truly protected turf in the Crossroads of the World. Alas, just a half-mile south, our idealistic thoughts were quashed by this depressing visage:

In the wake of yet another gruesome killing of a pedestrian walking in the crosswalk with the right-of-way -- this time, a 4-year-old boy run over by a guy driving a Hummer -- Transportation Alternatives is arguing that these kinds of deaths can be prevented or, at least, made less likely, with the following five street design measures:

With all the talk about high level personnel changes at the DOT, let's take it back to the streets for a minute, shall we? As we have already noted, Chinatown has gotten a buffered bike lane on Grand Street, which is fantastic, and would be even more fantastic if it wasn't treated as a car parking lane. But that is not the only recent change to the Chinatown streetscape.

A sacrifice we were willing to make: Until 1922, much of Park Avenue was, in fact, a park. Looking north on Park Ave at about 50th Street. That's Saint Bartholomew's Church on the right.

On the evening of Saturday, January 10, 2004, Peter Hornbeck, 26, stepped off the curb at Park Avenue and 96th Street and was struck by a Chevy Suburban traveling 74 miles per hour. The SUV, being driven by a 26-year-old man from Queens who had had his license revoked years earlier, dragged Hornbeck for a block as Hornbeck's friends cried out in horror. The driver, Gurpreet Oberoi, sped off, ditched his SUV and continued by bus to Atlantic City, where he spent the night gambling. Oberoi's friends stayed in the city, went to the police and called Oberoi on his cell phone to urge him to turn himself in. Oberoi was arrested (NYT Select, 2nd item) days later and sentenced (NYT Select) to up to nine years in prison for second degree manslaughter.

Guess what Transportation Alternatives' Brooke DuBose and Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson found in Downtown Brooklyn's physically-separated bike lane on Tillary Street this morning? Cars and trucks, of course. Four of them driving, parking or unloading in the "protected" bike lane in just ten minutes of filming. Streetsbloggers who have been debating bike lane design and enjoying Bollard Porn, will appreciate Clarence's video:

Anyone who is upset about cars driving on the Hudson River Greenway or has doubts that New York City's bus rapid transit experiment will work without physical barriers to prevent motorists from driving and parking in bus lanes will find profound satisfaction in this video from Manchester, England.

The green circle with the red dot in the middle marks the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Glenwood Road where, between 1995 and 2001 there were 23 pedestrian injuries and one fatality. More recent data shows the intersection to be one of the most dangerous in New York City. Source: Crashstat.org