Residents Fear Local Gridlock Following Proposed Brooklyn Bridge Park Traffic Changes

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — At a contentious meeting on Wednesday, staffers from Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) outlined their plans for road and sidewalk changes around One Brooklyn Bridge Park, which they said will rationalize traffic flow, protect bikers and pedestrians, and increase park space.

The proposals themselves, produced in conjunction with Sam Schwartz Engineering (SSE), are not new, having been released in April 2015. They also reflect some aspects of a pilot program that is already in place.

But BBP staffers said they wanted to hold the meeting to update the community on their work, and in anticipation of construction on the north end of Loop Road.

For sake of comparison, here is the current state of the northern end of Loop Road, as put in place during the pilot study:

Image courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge park and SSE. (Click to enlarge.)

And here is the road's proposed final form, as of next spring:

The work, once completed. One Brooklyn Bridge Park is at the far left. (Click to enlarge.)

At the meeting, BBP and SSE staffers also discussed the proposed changes that would come to the southern end of Loop Road, as well as the closure of the elbow lane currently used by vehicles headed back to Atlantic Avenue.

In the below rendering, the pink areas are roadways that have been repurposed, while the green line at lower-left represents a new bike lane. BBP staffers said Wednesday that the lane would be better for bikers (rather than having them dismount and walk their bike through the park, as they currently are supposed to do) and safer for pedestrians.

Rendering of proposed future changes, courtesy of BBP and SSE. (Click to enlarge.)

An additional rendering was also shown depicting the extension of the Pier 5 Uplands to the edge of the planned residential building (one of two) bordered by the elbow road. (Patch is attempting to obtain this rendering, and we'll add it to this post if we receive it.)

Construction on the two residences is expected to begin next year, and BBP staffers confirmed that the elbow road will serve as a staging area during the work's two-year duration. The question, they said, is what to do then, and whether to make the closure permanent. The BPP board will make that decision closer to the end of the construction period, the staffers said.

While the plans unveiled at Wednesday's meeting were by-and-large not new, plenty of community members still took the opportunity to vociferously object —specifically to the proposed changes on the southern end of Loop Road.

One spoke of "a lot of downsides for a slice of park space and a bike path we already have." Others warned of increasing traffic during the anticipated closure and rehabilitation of the BQE, and said the plan would force deliveries to the new residential buildings to take place on Loop Road, causing additional delays.

David Lowin, the vice president of real estate for BBP, said he thought the residents were overemphasizing hypothetical negatives while ignoring the plan's positives. And SSE engineer Daniel Schack said the firm's models found that the changes would send an additional 60 vehicles per hour, or one per minute, around Loop Road at the absolute most (in other words, during the busiest hour of the busiest day of the year). Shack also emphasized that pick-up and drop-off lanes have been built into the plan, and said fears of increased traffic weren't likely to materialize.

The BBP's next board meeting is scheduled for Oct. 5 at 11 a.m.

Pictured at top: the future Pier 5 Uplands. Image courtesy of Brooklyn Bridge Park.