It's all over except the suing. Last night Community Board 6 voted to approve the DOT's modifications to the Prospect Park West bike lane, which has
irritated a handful of idle affluent retirees whose apartments overlook the park. In a unanimous vote, the Community Board approved modifications to the lane's design, including raised islands at intersections to keep cars from invading pedestrian space, "rumble strips" to make cyclists aware they're approaching an intersection, and narrowing the buffer zone near Grand Army Plaza to make more room for traffic.
The Community Board also requested that the DOT "search for ways to add on-street parking spots on PPW and side streets, and to monitor safety stats on the redesigned street for the next three years," Streetsblog reports. The unanimous vote to embrace the new bike lane, with modifications, shouldn't come as much surprise, unless you've been buying the tabloids' spin that the DOT rammed this tree-hugging bike lane down the community's throat. It's always worth recalling that the Community Board asked the DOT to put in the bike lane, in part because drivers on Prospect Park West were notorious for speeding.
And yet, the well-connected and vocal opposition remains entrenched and committed to suing the city over this. Before last night's meeting, attorney Jim Walden sent a rather derisive letter to the Community Board urging them to postpone the vote until "after a full and meaningful discussion about alternative configurations, which will include more pointed questions for DOT about the various decisions it made to 'sell' a dangerous bike lane to your community... At some later point, CB6′s actions, and inaction, will be judged against a broader context, including the evident problems with DOT’s data." And may GOD have MERCY on your SOULS! Blogger Brooklyn Spoke has this riposte:
I was struck by how, in effect, Walden disparages the good people and volunteers who serve on the board, especially in the closing passage. Essentially, the approximately 50 members of Community Board 6, Brad Lander, Lander’s entire staff, independent traffic engineers and urban planners, Howie Wolfson, 54% of New Yorkers, 78% of nearly 3,000 survey respondents, 69% of people in the Brennan poll, over 300 PPW supporters who attended the March 10 public hearing, and 750 people who showed up to Sunday’s family ride are all complete saps, easily duped by Janette Sadik-Khan and her minions at DOT who conspired with local acivists to “sell” the community a dangerous bike lane. Makes total sense.
But Lois Carswell, who incorrectly linked the MTA’s suspension of B69 bus service along Prospect Park West to the DOT’s installation of a bike lane on the same street? She knows the truth.
