Thanks! I appreciate it.

Someone threatened our lives today on the UWS (again).

Man, I thought the neighborhood was safe. But apparently if you look like a specific religion you'll get people yell slurs at you and threaten to hurt you.

It just sucks. Why does this happen in 2023... question - any good places to buy legal mace in case one of these guys actually get physical? I understand it's legal to carry but not to order.

I see your point now - agree with your take. Thanks for taking the time to explain!

You mention most of NYC lines being built in 1904 as if that's a positive.

It's not. There are areas of NYC that have never seen a train station (southeast Brooklyn, swathes of east Queens) and have been waiting for over a century.

Improvements could have been made in the last 119 years, but no. That's where the MTA has failed.

Wake me up when I can get from Brooklyn to Queens in less than 2.5 hours.

The weird part is that if you look at actual studies, talc being a link to cancer is very mixed. I am by no means a fan of J&J but it does look like fear-mongering away from talc - at least from a scientific standpoint.

> 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.

I'm with you on all accounts, but I don't think it would be implemented in a reasonable way.

We have infrastructure issues way beyond lawlessness. Transforming Ocean Parkway like I mentioned in other comments would be a great start.

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.

Why would reduced road supply reduce the amount of driving? In transit deserts (there are plenty of them in NYC), you need to drive to get anywhere.

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

Agreed on both points. I'm just thinking that the bike lanes they have between the main lanes and service roads already solve half the battle.

It could also be spun as avoiding fatalities altogether. It would definitely need investment for the bridges (and restructuring the service road into a ramp) but honestly not much compared to other highways out there.

You can definitely have pedestrian crossings. Just have them go over the highway like every other highway out there.

"30 minutes drive into the city" is a powerful attractor. Every single building on Ocean Parkway is an apartment building, not a house.

I agree with you. Paper plates are a big one though and not caught by cameras.

I agree, but the whole point is to stop congestion. This does little to help it.

There's already lines of cars 5 roads deep in transit deserts in Brooklyn. "Respect" isn't going to do anything to help.

Not only that, they enforce fines in ways that make them the most money. Just like that camera they put right off the ramp of Shore Parkway to catch everyone who was actually doing highway speed.

And similarly, putting school zone cameras in effect 24/7. There is no good reason why anyone needs to be going 15mph on Saturday at midnight.

So to reduce car demand you suggest... Eliminating roads?

That's the most backwards way to look at it that I can imagine. Why not knock down every residential building in manhattan to reduce rent if you're going down that route?

I don't like what you're suggesting. The Jewish people there would love to have an actual highway instead of a 25mph crawl.

It's not even Jewish until like Ave J.

The Belt doesn't even go into Manhattan.

Exactly my thoughts. Or at the very least turn the 6 main lanes into a highway, and have the service roads as entry/exit points.

Ocean Parkway is one of the only outbound paths for Brooklyn, travels through over half of Brooklyn, and has a 25mph speed limit.

It's a 6 lane street (in addition to 2 service roads). There's a good amount of potential to turn that into a highway. Leave the service roads at the lower speed limit and have entry points into the the main 6 lanes (highway).

The infrastructure is already there.

Fines for bus lanes are fantastic, but don't solve car congestion, they solve bus congestion (which is worthy in its own right).

Improve? Why not create a second one for Brooklyn lol.

Ocean Parkway is 25mph throughout, that doesn't count.

This is not true in outer boroughs.

The reason there is traffic on the belt, 10 times out of 10, is because of a car crash. There is a total of one (!) Highway and when a crash happens all outbound traffic is slowed to a standstill.

Not everyone lives in Manhattan.

Maybe DOT could design more than one highway for 2.2 million people? It would be a start.

Clearly fines in the past have solved congestion. Right?

I wouldn't be surprised if the city did it anyway to raise funds. Just like putting school limits into effect 24/7 for... what reason again?

Yep, but they continue downwards - not east.

This is how KGH has no train access.

E train, right?

Unfortunately the train basically stops after Forest Hills. I remember commuting from KGH and it was a 1hr+ nightmare every time.