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March 23, 2007
In defense of Glenmore Avenue
In his weekly column, Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzman takes "a swing at" "fellow Park Slopers" for being dreadful hosts at last week's Community Board Six meeting, giving concerned residents hell by calling 'em "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners!"
In defense of fellow Brooklynite and DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia, Kuntzman cited the Cobble Hill resident's claim that "statistics [which] show that a 1998 (boo!) conversion of then-two-way Glenmore Avenue in East New York (boo!) resulted in 16 percent fewer total accidents and 22 percent fewer injuries."
If Kuntzman had sent a reporter to East New York, or ventured there himself, he might have figured out the one fact that Primeggia didn't share, that Glenmore Avenue: * starts off life as a one-way street running westbound for one block, * then reverts to eastbound for 12 blocks, * until it switches to one-way westbound for 27 blocks, * only to finish off its run going eastbound for the last 16 blocks.
If you don't have access to a car or bike, you can check it out at Mapquest.
What we have here is a classic traffic-calming measure. Either Primeggia didn't understand this or didn't think anyone would bother to check (credit for checking goes to Brooklyn Views blogger, "J. Co"). There are a whole host of additional traffic-calming measures (like turning one-way streets into two-way streets) that residential neighborhoods in Brooklyn have been clamouring for (Third Ave, for instance).
Kuntzman also mentions that "Primeggia also cited a Federal (boo!) Highway (boo!) Administration report that concluded that one-way streets (boo!) are safer (boo!) for pedestrians." We're not sure if Kuntzman set eyes on this mysterious Federal study, because there are a whole host of studies that indicate otherwise. Links for actual studies were posted by Aaron Naparstek over at StreetsBlog.
All "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners" (boo!?) want is for the DOT to stop patronizing them and make traffic better, not faster.
Posted by lumi at March 23, 2007 2:21 PM