Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

kolt54321 t1_j34gxc4 wrote

Reply to comment by cdavidg4 in Traffic study by former head of NYC DOT reveals what he says is ultimate cause of congestion by HEIMDVLLR

The 6 lanes are already in use. The only thing that would change are pedestrian crossings.

1

cdavidg4 t1_j34jdvg wrote

And the cross streets. And any bus routes that cross it.

And of course it's ONLY the pedestrian crossing. Who cares about those pesky poor people walking. Just add bridges and have them go up stairs to cross the freaking street.

2

kolt54321 t1_j34nnkx wrote

There are no bus routes on the entire stretch, per the city map.

There are significantly more people driving through Ocean Parkway than walking across it - which is serviced better? Those "pesky poor people" live in a multi-million dollar area, you cannot get a house there for under $2M, minimum.

Again, if you took a look at the road, you'd see that walking down and up Ocean Parkway would be completely preserved by the wide sidewalks between the main lanes and service roads. It's only crossing it that will be different.

I say that as someone who bikes and walks more than I ever use a car.

2

cdavidg4 t1_j34paok wrote

Bus routes across. Do they go up and over? Or do you still have to have the signals for cross traffic? If you need the signals for cross traffic what's the point of this?

And okay, we make Ocean Expressway a thing. It can process a lot more vehicles. Those vehicles get to the Prospect Expressway/Gowanus interchange. Now what? It's already congested. Now there's just more cars sitting around looking at each other in traffic. What an improvement!

1

kolt54321 t1_j35m2b3 wrote

> Bus routes across. Do they go up and over? Or do you still have to have the signals for cross traffic? If you need the signals for cross traffic what's the point of this?

These are all good questions, and I can't claim to know the perfect answers here, but it seem like ramps to get on/off the highway from the service roads would help. There would still need to be one to cross traffic travelling the other way, and I'm not sure what would be the best way to handle that.

If anything, reducing signals from every block to 3-4 intersections along half of Brooklyn would solve most of these issues too. Not to mention all the fatalities that plagued Ocean Parkway to begin with - now it can be a scenic walk/bike route, without having to worry about cars flying across on every street.

> Those vehicles get to the Prospect Expressway/Gowanus interchange. Now what?

Also a fantastic point. That stretch is congested, but nothing near the amount of time it takes to travel through southern Brooklyn. Getting to the Prospect Expressway takes upwards of 20 minutes alone.

I'm not exactly sure what could be done about that, but it seems like this would be a first step. There's a lot of traffic funneled through Exit 1/Fort Hamilton, and I wonder (as someone who's really not familiar with this stretch) if there's a better way to handle the bottlenecks. It seems lots of trucks go there, but not sure if truck-only hours would do the trick at all.

1