Proposal for southeast Queens greenway

Hi Queens Crapper,

My name is Daniel Solow and I am working on a campaign to extend the NYC Greenway into South and East Queens. I enjoy reading your posts. Thank you for giving a real perspective of what life is really like here.

Do you or anyone you know run or ride a bike in Queens? If you do then you know what an utter disaster the experience can be in Jamaica and communities north of JFK and along the Nassau border. My hopes are to give these communities a route that is fun, safe, away from car traffic and tackles widespread health and sedentary issues in Queens.

Currently I am building a coalition to partner with groups that work in Queens and address community needs. It would be great to work together to see this vision come to fruition. Please let me know if you are interested.

Southern Queens Greenway
http://southernqueensgreenway.wordpress.com/

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Warm Regards,

Daniel A Solow

Greenway meetings coming up

From the Ridgewood Times:

The Department of Transportation (DOT) will hold a series of interactive workshops, with two in Queens, on the Jamaica Bay Greenway implementation plan beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 30, it was announced.

The Greenway is a proposed 28-mile biking and walking path with sections already active in parts of Brooklyn, Howard Beach and Broad Channel.

Eleven miles of the Greenway are already complete and visited by more than 100,000 people each year, according to the DOT.

The first workshop is scheduled for the end of the month and will be held in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Following meetings will be held Oct. 7 in Howard Beach at the Old Mill Yacht Club, and Oct. 16 in Broad Channel at Scholars Academy. Both are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

These workshops will be the second in a series of three held by transportation officials to hear from residents on the plan. At the meetings, residents will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear ideas on the Greenway from their neighbors.

The Greenway, when complete, is envisioned as a continuous recreation loop that roughly follows the Belt Parkway through many parts of Queens and Brooklyn.

DOT & Parks acknowledge problem with Astoria Park bike lanes

From the Queens Gazette:

Community Board 1 officials and members of the Astoria Park Alliance were shocked last fall when they realized newly-installed lanes at the park were too narrow to accommodate bicyclists and people out for a stroll in the park.

The lanes were constructed as part of the $3.4 million Queens East River and North Shore Greenway designed to connect the shoreline from Newtown Creek in Long Island City to the Flushing Bay Promenade, but the shared Bicycle/Pedestrian lanes measure a measly 4-feet wide – far too narrow to accommodate those sharing the paths, CB1 officials said.

Community Board officials reached out to the city Department of Parks for resolution of the condition, saying the crowded lanes are sure to cause collisions between bicyclists and visitors to Astoria Park – and that the lanes have already become a problem for area residents who view the symbols as “an eyesore.”

CB1 Parks Committee chairperson Richard Khuzumii said the city Department of Transportation and the Parks Department responded to the board’s inquiry by submitting a three-point proposal listing changes slated for the lanes.

The proposal calls for removal of “redundant” Greenway signs in tight spaces and a focus on locations where the bike paths diverge from pedestrian areas, attaching metal reflectors on barrier fences where the paths run alongside lanes of traffic and creation of wider shared lanes by removing some markings that separate pedestrian and bicycle lanes.

Khuzumi said anyone experiencing problems or collisions between bicycles, pedestrians, motor vehicles, “or visual pollutants,” should call 311 to report the condition(s).

Actually, if you're in a collision, 911 might be more appropriate...

Poorly planned bike lanes installed at Astoria Park

From DNA Info:

Parks advocates say the new bike lanes that the city installed in Astoria Park are too narrow and will be ripe for collisions between cyclists and pedestrians once the weather gets warm and the park is crowded with visitors.

They also say that the placement of the lanes on grass inside the park, instead of next to the waterfront on Shore Boulevard, will invite pedstrians to stroll on them, creating a dangerous situation.

"It's just too narrow — it doesn't seem to be big enough for pedestrians and bikes," said Martha Lopez-Gilpin, co-chair of the local group Astoria Park Alliance.

She said the group was originally thrilled with the idea of bike lanes being installed in the park, part of the city's Queens East River and North Shore Greenway, a $3.46 million urban trail project to connect the Queens waterfront.

But they were surprised this fall with the Parks Department's placement of the 4-foot wide lanes on park land, contrary to earlier dicussions that hinted they would be on the other side.

"It's where a greenway belongs — it belongs on the road," said Jules Corkery, the Alliance's other co-chair.

"By putting a bike-way into the park, you’re inviting bikes into the parkland," she said, saying it will inevitably lead to standoffs between cyclists and strolling pedestrians, or even between two bikes.

"You cant leisurely ride with a friend in the bike lane, side by side, the way you would in a park. It's too narrow," she said.

A spokesman for the Parks Department said the new bike lanes are intended for cyclists only, and that pedestrian lanes were added to the parts of the path that bordered the park's pedestrian walkways.

The bike-only lanes have been stenciled with a bicycle symbol to let pedestrians know to stay off, the spokesman said.

But Lucille Hartmann of Community Board 1 said that even with the markers, it's likely the lanes will be used by pedestrians making their way from inside the park to the waterfront.

"You're going to have people walking with carriages. They're not planned well," she said. "It doesn’t look like it's going to be safe for the bikers or for the pedestrians."

Let's blow more dough on bike lanes!

Here's yet another example of a Bloomberg administration press release regurgitated as a news "article." The gist of it is, "Hey, we have some money to throw down the toilet and don't feel like making improvements that will actually benefit anyone, so we came up with a 'greenway' that doesn't actually go along the shore (because there's powerplants and stuff there) or connect anything that anyone would want to go to."

Just read the first 3 comments on the Daily News piece and you'll understand what a joke this is.