Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
Streetsblog Basics
What If There Were Tolls on the BQE?
The state Department of Transportation announced yesterday the cancellation of plans to rebuild 5.3 miles of the BQE and the Gowanus Expressway. It wasn't a new round of freeway revolts that killed these projects but the state's busted transportation budget.
November 30, 2011
Fixing the Ditch: Planning a Less Awful BQE Trench
Between 1950 and 1964, Robert Moses gouged a path across two boroughs to build the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, the BQE slices through the urban fabric in the form of a below-grade trench, which has given many residents of those neighborhoods hope of covering that section of highway. As more people have moved to the west side of the ditch, the pressure to do something has mounted, but the BQE trench won't get capped any time soon.
May 13, 2010
StreetFilms: Bay Ridge Bus Commuters Talk Congestion Pricing
StreetFilms joined up with Transportation Alternatives' Executive Director, Paul Steely White to talk about congestion pricing with express bus commuters in Bay Ridge. Bus riders told White that they'd like to have more buses and a faster commute. One commuter pointed out that virtually every automobile on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway carries just one person.
November 19, 2007
Brian Ketcham Proposes a “Simpler, Cheaper Traffic Fix”
In an op/ed piece in Monday's Daily News, Brooklyn-based transportation consultant Brian Ketcham proposed some changes to Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan. Ketcham, who has been pushing for some form of congestion pricing since his time working for the Lindsay Administration more than 30 years ago, argues that New York City should:
November 14, 2007
They Come to Bury the BQE, Not to Praise It
The Brooklyn Paper reports that there's talk brewing about seizing an opportunity to bury the section of the BQE that runs underneath the Promenade, rather than simply repair it (right, the Atlantic Ave. overpass where the roadway rises near the site of the proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park and the One Brooklyn condo development):
April 20, 2007
Streetfilms: The Defeat of the Mt. Hood Freeway
In the midst of his reign has New York City's master-builder, Robert Moses proposed building a network of massive expressways through the middle of Portland, Oregon's inner-city core. One part of Moses' plan was to replace a stretch of vibrant, healthy neighborhoods with a 40-foot-deep trench that would have been called the Mount Hood Freeway.
July 5, 2006