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Posts tagged "Brooklyn"

StreetFilms Monday, November 30, 2020
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In NYC You Can Go By Bike on the Pedestrian Signal!

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So with a great "new" law on the books that allows bicycle riders to also legally use pedestrian signals (LPIs) to get a 5 to 10 second head start on drivers in NYC why did it take Streetfilms nearly a year to talk to the two people most responsible for it?

Well when it was passed council last year and slated to begin on December 20, 2019 it was the holiday season and freezing cold, and no one cares about watching videos end of year. We finally had scheduled to film it mid-March, but then Covid-19 prevented that.

I circled back around to the idea early this Fall after riding thru the NYC Summer Bicycle Boom™ explosion where I would frequently come upon LPI intersections where #bikenyc riders were frequently frozen waiting for the green light, ignoring the pedestrian beacon telling them, "Please go forth person on your bike with your walking cousins!"

So it's a good time to re-promote this great law that makes it safer for bike riders. Let those innovative who don't know it's legal to use the signals. Also, there are now so many brand new riders in the city that don't know all the rules of the road that frankly need enlightening. There are more than 4,000 of the lights.

We went to Brooklyn to the corner of Atlantic Ave & Smith Street and talked with Council member Carlos Menchaca and "The War on Cars" co-host Doug Gordon about what the law means and the journey to its realization.

StreetFilms Sunday, September 20, 2020
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100+ Bikes Upgraded with Care at Big Fix Day BK in East New York

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New York City Bike Mayor Courtney Williams provided the nucleus for Brooklyn's Big Fix Day, an event that brings out bike mechanics to the neediest area of the city, in this case East New York and the surrounding communities, to sponsor free bicycle fixing.

Notably this year, East New York, Brownsville, Canarsie and surrounding communities were hardest hit in Brooklyn by the Coronvirus epidemic. There has been a large toll economically in conjunction with the greater challenges of getting around via transportation and maintaining social distancing.

That's why Big Fix Day BK was so vital to bring mechanics and bike shop stores to the community to fix over 100 bikes for free for residents where every penny counts.

 

StreetFilms Saturday, December 14, 2019
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Oonee Debuts Bike Parking in Brooklyn

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A spectacular event in the pouring rain with major elected officials in NYC as Oonee pod debuted their first Brooklyn bike parking pod at Atlantic Center near Barclays Center.

The pod holds parking for 20 bikes which can serve about 150 members at a time. The structure is beautiful, solar powered and serves as a beacon for one day having a fleet of 100s of this sort of structures throughout the New York City area.

There has been a pod operating in Jersey City since September as part of the Journal Square PATH Train transportation nexus in partnership with the Port Authority of NY-NJ.

StreetFilms Monday, June 17, 2019
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Go Fourth and Ride: Families Celebrate Brooklyn’s 4th Ave Protected Bike Lane

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Another Streetfilms Exclusive!

The future is bright in Brooklyn. Children & families came out in a large bunch to ride the NYC DOT's first installed portion of the 4th Avenue Protected bike lane, a lane many community members have been asking nearly 10 years for!

It's hard not to get emotional seeing how if we build proper infrastructure and a bike network and people will come out. Brooklyn Spoke's Doug Gordon and friends organized a short ride to PS 118 and I was surprised to see so many happy faces!

StreetFilms Thursday, June 6, 2019
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TLC Gets Drivers on Bikes to Get a Different Perspective

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In a first event of its kind, NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission organized a bike ride thru the streets of East Williamsburg for some of its for-hire drivers so they could see what it is like to be a bicyclist on the streets of New York City.

Even though the Citibikes-riding group selected a route with many protected bike lanes and striped lanes, the route was frequently blocked by trucks, cars and delivery vehicles. And during the more industrial parts of the ride cars went by fast. Both bike advocates and drivers had a friendly discussion during and after the ride.

StreetFilms Monday, April 23, 2018
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2018 Bike-to-Work Ride With Brooklyn BP Eric Adams

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On Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hosted his fourth annual Bike-to-Work Ride, taking off from Prospect Park and ending at Borough Hall in Downtown Brooklyn. Besides having fun on a beautiful day, the goal was to show streets that need better infrastructure for biking and walking.

The first leg took on the speedway section of Flatbush Avenue next to Prospect Park, which is terrifying to bike on. NYC DOT is studying options to make the street safer, but it's clearly an ideal situation for a two-way protected bike lane, just like on the west side of the park.

Also on the itinerary: Ninth Street, which is in line for a redesign after a driver killed two young children last month, and a stop at Hamilton Avenue to meet with the young people in Red Hook campaigning for a safer crossing under the BQE.

StreetFilms Thursday, April 12, 2018
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A Year From L Train Shutdown, TransAlt Begins Series of Bike Trains

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It's now a little less than a year from the imminent 15-month closure of the L train which will impact at least a 1/4 million daily subway riders. So Transportation Alternatives kicked off their first of many "bike train" rides in order to educate, cajole and help residents feel safer in attempting cycling to work.

StreetFilms Wednesday, November 22, 2017
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Gawk at the Great New Bike Access to the Williamsburg Bridge From Brooklyn

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If your city says there's no room for better bike infrastructure to improve access to important bridge crossings, show them these street changes from NYC DOT. Parking spaces and traffic lanes have been converted to safe and comfortable two-way protected bike lanes on the approaches to the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn.

What's great is not only the safety of the protected lanes, but that the city took into account all the ways people on bikes approach the bridge. South 5th Place not only has a two-way protected lane, but a painted bike lane so cyclists can make convenient left turns.

People don't have to choose between riding a circuitous route and riding a direct route while going against traffic, because every street leading to and from the bridge path now has a legal two-way bike route. And that means no more ticket stings for people who are just trying to get where they need to go on a bike.

StreetFilms Tuesday, November 7, 2017
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2004: bikeTV Examines the dangerous Manhattan Bridge bike entrances

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Here's one from the archives from my bikeTV days (2001-2006) when we had a group of advocates strongly advocating for better safety measures for the access points to the new Manhattan Bridge shared bike-ped path on the south side.

I did an entire episode on entrance/exits to all five East River bridges in 2004.  Here you can see particularly dangerous conditions on Brooklyn side competing with 18-wheelers and fast cars coming off the ramp.  Some of the footage is scary as vehicles hit the curb.  On the Manhattan side it would be a little bit safer if NYPD vehicles weren't parked everywhere possible on the sidewalks surrounding the bridge access points. But a simple stop sign you will see does nothing to slow cars.

Of course these days for bicyclists the path is now on the north side and is pretty much wonderful after years and years of continued improvements. You can see many of those in this "4 Boro Protected Bike Ride" at the 2 minute mark of this awesome 25-mile tour!

StreetFilms Wednesday, July 26, 2017
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Transform Your City With Tactical Urbanism

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Tired of waiting for local governments to fix dangerous conditions, in many cities everyday citizens are practicing DIY traffic-calming to make streets safer for walking and biking. Some are forming “Departments of Transformation” to show others how to implement low-cost interventions, like traffic cones, to slow drivers down.

Often these installations are quickly removed by local DOTs, but in other cases, cities are embracing what’s come to be known as “tactical urbanism.” Some cities are making citizen-generated improvements permanent, while others are encouraging the movement by sanctioning, and even sponsoring, tactical urbanism projects.

Watch as we check in with people who are making this happen around the world!

StreetFilms Tuesday, April 18, 2017
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NYC 4-Boro Protected Bike Lane Ride

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I've been riding a bike in NYC for more than 25 years. When I started, there wasn't much in the way of good bike infrastructure, but in that time I've watched the bike network expand and slowly get safer.

With recent bike lane additions and enhancements on Jay Street, Chrystie Street, and First Avenue, NYC DOT has pointed out that you can now ride on protected bike lanes almost continuously from Brooklyn to the Bronx. Connecting to other segments of protected bike lanes, with just a few blocks exposed to traffic, you can do enjoyable, low-stress rides of 10, 20, 25 miles on city streets.

So I pitched the good folks at Transportation Alternatives about doing a small group ride from Brooklyn to Manhattan to the Bronx to Randall's Island to Queens and back to Brooklyn -- about 25 miles. After sketching it out, we estimated that 97 percent of the ride could be done on protected lanes, car-free bridge paths, and greenways.

Of course, New York still has a long way to go to make cycling safe for all ages and abilities throughout the city. But we are on our way. As recently as 10 years ago, I can remember the huge advocacy effort that went into gaining two meager strips of white paint for bike lanes here or there. Now we are building up to a useable network.

So come along for the ride, get a good look at the protected bikeways and bridge paths along our route, and meet some of the volunteers who've been working hard to make biking better in New York City. As the soundtrack (which the great Eric Bazilian and Mats Wester generously gave permission to use) goes, "That's a good thing!"

Also, if you want to see the details of all the turns in this journey, I compiled this map.

StreetFilms Sunday, November 27, 2016
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This Samsung Galaxy S7 commercial gives me hope for the future!

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Watching the fuel-injected, car commercial leaden NFL on a Sunday afternoon usually doesn't yield too many spots that gets a livable city advocate/filmmaker excited, but the last two weeks there's been an extended ad running in heavy rotation for the Samsung Gallery S7 that makes me swoon.

See it below, the spot "A Perfect Day" features teens rolling around Brooklyn neighborhoods (and a bit of Queens!) on their bikes integrating copious technology into their day. The montage has been garnering some attention because it contains a nice cover of The Pixies "Where is My Mind" by Nada Surf, but I love it because of how it showcases New York City as an increasingly better place for people to bike and have impromptu interactions on our diverse neighborhood streets.

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These young folks are happy. They have transportation freedom. They're part of their neighborhood, their city. They have adventure. And...there's no helicopter parenting going on here. I love this ad. It's the city I want to live in, and thanks to much of what has gone on in the past decade in NYC, this ad shows we are headed there.

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Yeah. I'll admit, this is a commercial shot on closed streets. Biking around New York City isn't quite nirvana yet, but evidence is out there as you see more kids on bikes all the time. But imagine this spot even being conceived in 2005? Yeah, I don't think so. The ad director would have been laughed at.

If this is the future, please dial me in.

Not to be too depressing, but let's end with a quick contrast. What was the very next spot? A Black Friday spot for Dodge. Two families dangerously race their SUV's down a commercial strip. It's titled, of course, "Duel Race".

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Any safety critic can hit the same notes here. The spot might be good for a cheap laugh, but gunning your SUV between two lights? Condoning racing for your scowling kids? Yeah, considering just how many people we've lost on our roads due to reckless driving Dodge should be ashamed. I guess they figure since they're only gunning it between red lights this qualifies as legal driving, but we all know it's not.

Just compare the two spots, which place do you want to live?

StreetFilms Wednesday, November 16, 2016
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Streetfilms and Streetsblog: The First 10 Years

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This summer, Streetfilms and Streetsblog celebrated our 10-year anniversary, and to mark the occasion, we created this film looking back at how our reporting and videos have changed streets in New York, the U.S., and cities all over the world.

This film showcases only a small portion of the work that thousands of volunteers and advocates have put in. It begins with the NYC Streets Renaissance, a collection of organizations that banded together in 2005 to rally people around the idea that streets can change, by showing best practices from other cities and photosimulations of what NYC streets could become.

You'll see clips from important Streetfilms like the series on Bogota's Bus Rapid Transit and Ciclovia, as well as recaps of how Streetsblog influenced transportation policy at City Hall, defended the work of transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and put pressure on Albany to stop raiding transit funds. Getting closer to the present day, we look at why Streetsblog's coverage of traffic crashes matters, the new generation of elected officials working for better streets, and what's next for advocacy in NYC.

A note: This Streetfilm runs over 12 minutes, but if we had the resources it easily be a 90-minute feature documentary. Apologies to anyone left on the cutting room floor and topics not addressed, but perhaps someday we'll be able to make that film!

StreetFilms Thursday, September 22, 2016
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NYC Buses: Time for a Turnaround

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New Yorkers take 2.5 million rides on the city's buses every day. While NYC's buses provide essential transit, especially in areas beyond the reach of the subway, they are among the nation's slowest and least reliable.

Now a coalition of transit advocates are promoting practical strategies to improve the performance of NYC buses systemwide.

Transit advocates knew something was wrong when they observed declining bus ridership despite increasing population, a growing economy, and record-high subway ridership. To figure out what could be done about it, they spoke to industry experts and researched successful efforts in peer cities to identify common sense solutions to NYC's bus problems. This research is summarized in their report "Turnaround: Fixing New York City's Buses".

The bus system faces big challenges, but these challenges have clear, proven solutions. By transforming how riders get on and off the bus, designing streets to prioritize buses, adopting better methods to keep buses on schedule, and redesigning the bus network and routes, policy makers in city government and the MTA can turn around the decline of the city's buses and attract riders back to the system.

We'll get to see how serious public officials are about tackling these problems on October 6, when the City Council transportation committee holds an oversight hearing on how to improve the quality of NYC bus service.

This Streetfilm was produced in partnership with TransitCenter, the second in a series of four films examining transit in American cities. If you enjoyed this one, check out the first film, "High Frequency: Why Houston is Back on the Bus."

StreetFilms Friday, May 6, 2016
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Is this the worst bike lane in NYC?

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Original title: "The Cars are Due on Jay Street" (Okay, they're already here.)

That title is just a fun take on one of my favorite "Twilight Zone" episodes. But the absurdity of cars constantly parking in the Jay Street bike lane is not fun. And it is dangerous.

Today while riding 26 miles collecting footage, amongst my missions was documenting a whole bunch of street conditions that NYC DOT is actively working on improving. One of them is Jay Street in Brooklyn which has seen chronic double-car parking (and worse) forever. The amount of disregard for the bike lane is nearly unmatched anywhere else in New York City. Luckily, NYC DOT is working on a plan to install 5 foot, parking protected lanes on each side of the street, a conduit that sees over 2400 cyclists per weekday!!

I intended to sit on all of my "before" footage to use in future pieces, but I just couldn't believe how bad it was so I just posted this. In fact, I only had to spend ten minutes filming before I was confident I had enough. I had budgeted about an hour, but as you can see (especially the first shot) the immediate yield was very high.

On top of it all, NYPD loves to hand out cycling tickets up and down Jay Street. But how many tickets do they write for these drivers? I'm not sure, but something tells me close to none.

We sure could use a fleet of Peatonitos in action, like here a few months ago attempting to clear the lane of cars. Watch here:vimeo.com/158135821

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