Bikelash! Harvard Kenney School Presentation by Aaron Naparstek

Bikelash!

Aaron Naparstek at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

[email protected]

Prospect Park West: Lay of the Land

You are

here.


PPW

Grand Army Plaza


The north end of PPW: Mix of mansions and luxury high rises.


The south end of PPW: Four story row houses. More rentals.

Prospect Park West: Real Estate

It's an "exclusive"address!

Four PPW properties that happen to be on the market right now

Prospect Park West: Real Estate

The newly renovated Google Mansion

Prospect Park West: Inhabitants

Movie stars! Paul Bettany & Jennifer Connelly

Governor Hugh CareySenator Chuck Schumer &

Former NYC DOT CommissionerIris Weinshall

Literary stars! Jonathan Safran Foer & Nicole Krauss

Prospect Park West: Old Days

Historically: A pedestrian promenade and trolley thoroughfare.

Prospect Park West: The Tracks Are Still There

The trolley tracks are still there beneath the asphalt.

Prospect Park West: "Trolley Dodgers"

The Brooklyn Death-o-Meter at Grand Army Plaza, 1927.

PPW Before:Three lane speedway

PPW After: A More complete street

June 2010, DOT redesigns Prospect Park West. How did this happen?

Community Process

Park Slope Civic Council Forum on Traffic and Transportation, March 2006

Formation of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition

Visioning Workshops with numerous stakeholders.

We Engage Danish Urban Designer Jan Gehl

“If Frederick Law Olmsted could see how Grand Army Plaza is treated today — with all the asphalt and the little islands with pedestrians jumping like Eskimos from floe to floe — he would be rotating in his grave endlessly. - Jan Gehl, June 2006.

NYC DOT Starts to Respond With

Incremental Improvements

A Design Competition for Grand Army Plaza

GAPco partners with the Design Trust for Public Space

The Community is Now Heavily Engaged

People are really thinking about urban design. How would you like to improve public space?

But We're Not Getting Any Changes on PPW

The local Community Board votes for a two-way protected bike path on PPW.

Bigger Context: Janette Sadik-Khan at NYC DOT

Rapid Livable Streets Progress From 2007-2009

Car-Free Times Square

Bigger Political Context: 2009 is an Election Year(and the economy is melting down)

NYC DOT's projects are no longer flying under the radar.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Democrat William Thompson

The First Inklings of Bikelash Come During the Campaign

"I favor bicycle lanes, however, you are hearing the complaint all over the city of New York, because communities have not been consulted. Bicycle lanes have been dropped upon them and there has been no discussion."

-- August 27, 2009

Hipsters vs. Hasids! The Bedford Ave Bike Lane Massacre

"It's a major issue, women passing through here in that dress code. It bothers me, and it bothers a lot of people."

-- An Orthodox Jewish Community Board Member in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Neighborhood Activists Repaint the Bike Lane

"Scores of people in the Hasidic community are actually pissed about this bike lane being eradicated at the behest of traditionalists."

-- Baruch Herzfeld, owner of the Traif Bike Geschaft, the "Un-Kosher Bike Shop."

You Want Media Attention? Protest a Bike Lane.

"Bloomberg did these bike lanes not for environment or for people, but to get back at drivers. This is not Amsterdam."

-- Leslie Sicklick, opponent of the 1st and 2nd Avenue bike lanes in Manhattan.

Selected headlines…

STRANGLED BY BIKES TRANSPORT COMMISH IS OUT OF CONTROL

WRATH OF KHAN!

BICYCLE BIGWIG'S BLIZZARD BLUNDER

BLOOMBERG PUTS BIKES BEFORE COPS

TWO-WHEELER INVASION: A NEW CYCLE OF CRIME?

Bike Lanes = Terrorism

"A Second Avenue bike lane is next to the Israeli consulate, leaving many wondering what would happen if a man on a bike were a terrorist."

Editorial Cartoons

34th St. Transitway: A Major Bikelash Target

A two-way, separated bus lane running river-to-river on 34th Street.


This project would have revolutionized the way we think about NYC streets.


Substantial new public plaza between 5th and 6th Avenues

34th St. Transitway: A Big Bikelash Target

The Transitway solves this problem.

JANETTE'S BIG TRANSITWAY: A ROAD TO RUIN!

Is Janette Sadik-Khan, the psycho bike lady who helms the city's Department of Transportation, nuts?

Or maybe Khan, the hater of the internal-combustion engine, is just an incompetent, overpromoted, overzealous bureaucrat who wields power like a chain saw and fits her widely whispered nickname to a T -- Janette "Sadist"-Khan.

Either way, we're screwed.

At issue is a project bigger than the detested, dangerous bike lanes and despised pedestrian plazas that have sprouted up like a cancer...

It's called the 34th Street Transitway

NYPD Bike Crackdown

Tote bag on handle bar.

Not riding in bike lane.

Triathlete training in Central Park at 5:30 am

All-Time Greatest NYPD Bike Sting Operation

Block the bike lane with squad car then hand out $130 "Reckless operation of bicycle" tickets to cyclists riding outside the bike lane.

Positioning for the 2013 Mayoral Campaign

"When I become mayor, you know what I'm going to spend my first year doing?" Mr. Weiner said to Mr. Bloomberg, as tablemates listened. "I'm going to have a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your [expletive] bike lanes."

-- March 4, 2011

Remember this guy? Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Prospect Park West: The Mother of All Street Fights

NYC DOT redesigns the street in June 2010


Immediate Impact of Redesign:

- Motor vehicle speeding reduced

- Bikes off of the sidewalk

- Travel times are the same

- Decrease in crashes

- New populations using bicycles


Conflict between bicycles and pedestrians does not materialize


Conflict between bicycles and pedestrians does not materialize


Surveys show strong feelings but 75% approval.

Opponents Mobilize

Opponents Create a Facebook Group…

So We Do Too…

1,969 members

291 members

Not Your Typical Group of Neighborhood Activists

Former Deputy Mayor Norman Steisel

Former DOT Commissioner Iris

Weinshall

Weinshall Happens to be Married to Sen. Chuck Schumer

An avid recreational cyclist who lives at 9 Prospect Park West.

Gibson Dunn & Crutcher Takes Their Case "Pro Bono"

NYC DOT "didn't honestly present the data. They said crashes and injuries went down when, in fact, they went up. And most troubling… they were secretly in communication with bike lane lobbyists… As a former federal prosecutor I've never seen something like this." -- March 9, 2011

Neighbors for Better Bike Lanes

Dueling rallies on October 21, 2010

Seniors for Safety

The rallying cry of the aptly named Lois Carswell

We are Basically Demonstrating Against Our Grandparents

Supporters out-number opponents 300 to 50.

Smear Campaign Attacking DOT's Credibility

Video camera in the window of the mansion at 14 PPW

We Continue to Organize, Show Support, Be Positive

April 10, 2011: We Ride the Lanes. 700 participants.

We Win: Community Organizing Was Key to Victory

Community Organizing Was Key to Victory

• Community-driven process

• Institution-building

• Multiple stakeholders

• Work toward a bigger vision

• Incremental improvements

• Publicity and Education

• Find allies in government

Bikelash: Vancouver, British Columbia

The bikes have won.