Traffic & Transit » Bay Ridge Odyssey News Blog

Restore The B37 Rally This Sunday

By Brian Hedden on May 17, 2013 Miscellaneous, Traffic & Transit

May 172013

This Sunday (May 19, 2013), a few hours before the Norwegian Constitution Day parade, you can make your voice heard and join a rally to bring back the B37 bus on the full length of Third Avenue, from Bay Ridge to Downtown Brooklyn.

Officials and groups taking part in the rally are Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, the new-ish Riders Alliance, the Bay Ridge Community Council, Lutheran Family Health Centers, the Transport Workers Union and more.

We recently published an opinion that the effort to restore the B37 would be better served by including an extension to St. George, improving the poor transit connection between Brooklyn and Staten Island, but hey – any additional transit helps, and the B37 served as a key connection to businesses and organizations along Third Avenue in Sunset Park.

The rally will begin at 10:30am at 3rd Avenue and Senator Street.

Fourth Avenue To Get Pedestrian Barriers Near 86th Street

By Joe Teutonico on May 16, 2013 Featured story, Traffic & Transit

May 162013

A flier from the Fourth Ave safety workshop. (Image source: NYCDOT).

If city Department of Transportation officials have their way, Fourth Avenue could soon be receiving some Herald Square-style pedestrian barricades, writes Will Bredderman for Brooklyn Paper.

The latest version of a safety proposal first unveiled at a March 21, public forum would include the following changes: Continue reading »

REALLY IMPORTANT REMINDER: No Overnight R-Trains This Week

By Brian Hedden on May 6, 2013 Traffic & Transit

May 062013

Reminder to everyone who planned on going out to happy hour with coworkers this week: the R-train will not run during overnight hours (10pm-5am), Monday through Thursday night/Friday morning.

Shuttle buses will replace trains between 36th and 95th Streets along 4th Avenue. Riders can transfer to/from the D-train at 36th Street.

N-train service between 36th Street and 8th Avenue is suspended during this time, and there is no shuttle between 59th Street and 8th Avenue. Riders can take the D-train to 62nd Street/New Utrecht Avenue to reach the segment of the N-train (8th Avenue to Coney Island) that will operate all night. The B9 and B4 buses (60th and 75th Streets, respectively) can also be used as alternatives.

The closure is caused by Fastrack, a relatively new maintenance program from the MTA where the agency completely suspends train service over a segment of a subway line in order to give workers uninterrupted access to tracks, signals, cables, lighting, third rail components and platform edges.

Another Pedestrian Struck On 4th Avenue, Highlights Need For NYPD To Rethink Approach To Traffic Safety

By Brian Hedden on May 1, 2013 Traffic & Transit

May 012013

An elderly woman was struck by an SUV while crossing 4th Avenue at 82nd Street last night. While speed doesn’t appear to have been a factor – highlighting the limitations in proposed speed enforcement cameras – the incident and the subsequent statement by the NYPD to local reporters highlights a blind spot in the police department’s perception of its mission.

The woman - in her 70s or 80s, depending on reports, was in the crosswalk going across 4th Avenue when she was struck by a Cadillac Escalade made a right turn from the westbound 82nd Street to northbound 4th Avenue and collided with her.

The police department said that speed did not appear to be a factor, but that statement was met with skepticism. Maureen Landers, an activist who helped found BRAKES (Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe), told Helen Klein of the Home Reporter, “If the woman was in the crosswalk with the light, how is speed not a problem?” Continue reading »

Heads-Up: No Overnight R-Trains Next Week!

By Brian Hedden on April 29, 2013 Traffic & Transit

Apr 292013

Take note, subway riders – the MTA’s Fastrack maintenance program is coming to Bay Ridge, so you better be tucked in early those nights. For four weeknights from Monday, May 6 through Thursday, May 9, there will be no R-trains between 36th Street and 95th Street starting at 10pm. The shutdown lasts until 5am the next morning.

The transit agency will provide shuttle buses along 4th Avenue during these hours.

There will also be no N-Train service between 36th Street and 8th Avenue, and there is no shuttle bus service to the 8th Avenue stop. Riders coming from Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn are encouraged to take the D-train to 62nd Street-New Utrecht Avenue and transfer to the shortened N-train segment, but riders going to or from Bay Ridge… I don’t know. Take the B4 or B9 buses, I suppose. Or find something else to do those nights.

Fastrack is a relatively new maintenance program from the MTA where the agency completely suspends train service over a segment of a subway line in order to give workers uninterrupted access to tracks, signals, cables, lighting, third rail components and platform edges.

MAKE THIS HAPPEN: B37 Bus To St. George, Staten Island!

By Brian Hedden on April 26, 2013 Featured story, Traffic & Transit

Apr 262013

Local transit advocates want the MTA to restore B37 bus service down 3rd Avenue (light green). But the poor transit options between Brooklyn and Staten Island is a much more glaring need… any revived B37 should be extended to the transit hub at St. George (dark green).

My friends – I think Bay Ridge transit advocates are making a huge mistake. There is a glaring transit need that they are ignoring. And this article is my way of pleading with them to change course before it is too late.

Transit advocates citywide have been making their cases for the best way for the best way to spend surplus funds for the MTA in this year’s state budget ($40 million by some accounts, $20 million by others). Locally, an effort spearheaded by Councilmembers Vincent Gentile and Sara Gonzalez has circulated a petition aiming for the following three actions:

Restoration of the B37 bus, which used to run up 3rd Avenue from Bay Ridge to Downtown Brooklyn prior to 2010 “doomsday” cuts,
Restoration of station agents at now-empty southbound booths along the R-line, and
Installation of elevators at stations along the R- and N-lines.

The elevators are a good idea. These will open up the subway – the backbone of the city’s transit system – to those who face difficulty with the system’s staircases, like the elderly and disabled. On the other two points, I see two huge errors: Continue reading »

School Zone! New 20mph Speed Limit Coming To Ridge Boulevard

By Brian Hedden on April 22, 2013 Traffic & Transit

Apr 222013

A new school-zone speed limit is being introduced to a six-block stretch of Ridge Boulevard, according to a statement from Councilmember Vincent Gentile.

The speed limit – typically 30mph on city streets – will be lowered to 20mph from 84th Street to 92nd Street. “This much-needed zone will cover four schools in an area that desperately needed traffic control,” Gentile said in a written statement. “As your Councilman, my number one concern will always be for public safety and I continue to work closely with the Department of Transportation towards making our streets a safe place where pedestrians, cyclists and motorists can all co-exist safely, peacefully and responsibly.”

The Department of Transportation, which approved the new speed measure, will install the “School Slow Zone” signs as soon as practical. Within the next two months, the DOT will also install flashing beacons to indicate what times of day the 20mph limit will be in force. Once installed, they will flash Monday through Friday from 7am to 9am in the morning, and again from 2pm to 4pm in the afternoon (the 30mph limit will be in force at all other times).

The beacon installation should be complete by this summer.

R-Train Riders Say Court Street Station Could Use Post Sandy Cleanup

By Joe Teutonico on April 16, 2013 Traffic & Transit

Apr 162013

James-Motivational-R-Train-590x472

While R-train riders in Bay Ridge have to put up with messy local stations that let in the elements, commuters say the conditions at one Downtown Brooklyn stop remain downright disgusting – as well as overcrowded – more than six months after Hurricane Sandy flooded the platform.

Brooklyn Heights Blog reader Justine Schwartz, who sent the site a photo as evidence, was quoted by BHB as saying:

“Hurricane Sandy closed Court Street for months due to flooding and subsequent clean-up and repairs. I took this picture today. MTA needs to clean up its act. Trains are more crowded than ever. People fight each other for seats and wind up sitting on each other’s lap. I have been used as an arm rest by big beefy guys a number of times. The MTA must put more trains in service thus reducing wait times and overcrowding.”

As someone who has used the station several times since Sandy, I’d have to agree with this assessment.

Once Willing To Trade, Golden Resumes Firm Stance Against Speed Cameras

By Brian Hedden on April 8, 2013 Traffic & Transit

Apr 082013

A traffic enforcement camera (Image source: Wikipedia Commons).

Only a couple of weeks ago, State Senator Marty Golden was willing to agree to speed limit enforcement cameras in exchange for city funding to a growing constituency. But in the face of a traffic-safety rally outside of his Bay Ridge office, Golden has restated the principles behind his opposition to the camera program.

In reporting on Mayor Bloomberg’s surprisingly public admonition of Golden’s role in killing the camera initiative, Michael Powell of the New York Times revealed that Golden’s support could have been bought, politically speaking, in exchange for city funding that would benefit private schools. Continue reading »

The Best Laid Schemes: Did you know the R Train was originally supposed to go to Coney Island?

By Joe Teutonico on April 2, 2013 Traffic & Transit

Apr 022013

If city transit officials in 1906 had their way, the 95th Street station might never have existed. Instead, R-trains would have turned east at 86th Street to Coney Island. Another 1912 plan extended the line to Staten Island (Photo: Brian Hedden/Bay Ridge Odyssey).

Speaking of good ideas that have yet to reach fruition – Did you know that city officials voted over a century ago to extend the R-train all the way to Coney?

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, on March 22, 1906 “the city’s Rapid Transit Commission had approved an extension of what was known as the “Fort Hamilton Line” (today’s R train) to Coney Island.”

Trains would have turned east at 86th Street and Fourth Avenue, where they would presumably continue along the West End Line [now the D-train] to Stillwell Avenue.

Instead, when money for the project dried up – along with a similarly ambitious 1912 plan to extend the R to Staten Island – the West End Line and the Sea Beach Line [now the N-train] “were rebuilt and connected to the Fourth Avenue trunk line at 36th Street and 59th Street, respectively.”

Wikipedia notes that “The service that later became the R was the BMT 2. When it entered service on January 15, 1916, it ran between Chambers Street on the BMT Nassau Street Line and 86th Street, using the Manhattan Bridge to cross the East River.”

An older 19th Century elevated line, known as the 5th Ave Bay Ridge El, that ran down 3rd Avenue to 65th Street [via 38th Street and 5th Ave] would remain in operation until 1940.

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