A Novel Plan to Fix One of New York’s Worst Highways: Remove Lanes. The proposal to shrink the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is the latest effort to reduce congestion that is strangling the city.

New York Times ^ | January 30, 2020 | Winnie Hu

[karpov]

As worsening traffic has put a stranglehold on New York, the country’s largest city has moved to squeeze out cars, taking away street space to make room for bikes and pedestrians, and all but banning vehicles from a major Manhattan thoroughfare.

Now, New York is considering an even more startling step: eliminating one-third of the lanes on one of the city’s busiest highways.

That is the key recommendation from a panel appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio that was tasked with coming up with a rescue plan for a key stretch of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which is rapidly falling apart under the weight of 153,000 vehicles a day, more than three times what it was built to handle.

Without an overhaul, parts of it could become unsafe and unfit for traffic within five years.

The idea of shrinking the highway to four lanes from six is a remarkable shift for the city, which like the nation, has been shaped by a car-centric culture and is now wrestling with the consequences, including gridlocked streets, polluted air and rising pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Some elected leaders and policymakers are increasingly recognizing that the future health of the city depends on making it less accommodating to cars.

The notion of eliminating highway lanes is realistic because of another ambitious effort to move cars off the road: congestion pricing. Next year, New York will become the first American city to charge a fee to drive into the busiest areas of Manhattan.

The panel’s recommendation would still have to be adopted by the city’s Transportation Department.

Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio, said city officials were reviewing the findings. “This is a thorny problem that defies easy solutions,” she said. “The external panel has put fresh ideas on the table.”

[ml/nj]

De Blasio’s supporters do not use the BQE. He could shut down the Plaza Hotel and it wouldn’t effect them either.

ML/NJ

[EinNYC]

I got sick of it, and the stress of only being able to use my car if I felt like putting up with:

*a 10 minute ride to the grocery being turned into a 35 minute bumper to bumper 10 mph ordeal (NOT KIDDING!)
*shortened parking meter times from 15 to 12 minutes
*returning home to find no parking and therefore having to circle the block, sometimes multiple blocks, to find a space or waiting up to 30 minutes for a space to be vacated
*people parking so as to take up 2 spaces
*the Chinese buying up every property for sale and then parking long vans (a lot of them drive commuter vans for a living) on the street which take up 2 spaces, etc.

Impossible and unbelievably stressful. One of the big reasons I moved out of NYC. The stupidity of DumblASSio, the City Council collection of loons and the satanic governor Cuomo were the other reasons. I knew there had to be life beyond the pale imitation it had become under this tyrannical and insane triumvirate. I moved quite literally to save my life.

[proud American in Canada]

Wow. I don’t blame you in the least. I’ve always wanted to visit New York City, because I’ve only been there for layovers on airplane trips. I believe I’ll take the Subway or whatever and just walk around by foot. LOL they must have public transportation coming out of the airport. They certainly do in Chicago.

Funny story: I went to the University of Chicago and there was a bike path by the river there excuse me by the lake. And I knew there was a bike path up north. So I assumed it would continue all the way around.

It did not.

It stopped at the ghetto. As I was cycling along I suddenly had to turn into the middle of the ghetto, and I passed these guys like five of them, sitting on the front porch, shower caps on, drinking Colt 45s, and one of them said, as I cycled by, “hey snow!”

I have never cycled that fast in my room life. But then what was I thinking: 1. I wasn’t drunk, 2. I was younger and healthier than those guys, and 3. I had wheels whereas they just had their drunken feet. L0L

[EinNYC]

I’ve always wanted to visit New York City, because I’ve only been there for layovers on airplane trips. I believe I’ll take the Subway or whatever and just walk around by foot.

Take the subway? Get ready to get groped, pushed in front of a train, have a bunch of ferals board the train with a boom box and proceed to use the straphanger poles as gym equipment. Watch their flying feet come within inches of kicking you in the face. Prepare to act busy as the day's beggars shuffle down the aisle with some sob story and ask for a hand out. Don't reveal the location of your wallet. Don't fall asleep on the train, as you could well be robbed or have a rat scampering over your inert body. Don't get into an argument with anyone, as they might well stab you. And then, with the new no-bail law, the perp would simply be turned loose to do it again to someone else.

Walk around by foot? Don't give to beggars and thereby reveal the location of your wallet. Make sure you walk down the street like you OWN it. Don't look around like a tourist--it makes you a target. Be prepared to nimbly dodge in and out of openings instead of just being able to walk normally---it's that crowded. Don't flash expensive jewelry, phones, or money.

Enjoy visiting DumblASSio's NYC, where the BEST view is the one in the rear view mirror!

[Alberta's Child]

"Just make it wider."

Notice that the image below only shows ONE direction of travel. They already built this road as a cantilever section where the northbound lanes run over the top of the southbound lanes because they can't fit a side-by-side alignment through this area under its CURRENT configuration.

[Alberta's Child]

The BQE rehabilitation isn’t being held up over money. It’s a very complicated process that has a lot of legal/property aspects that go back over a hundred years, and has many political landmines as well.

[daniel1212]

Rather, a radical design of cars must be implemented.

Just on a larger yet standardized scale. Drastic reduction in insurance claims (at least for the vehicle) and lane width requirements, while making "fighting to get to work" a literal reality.

[proud American in Canada]

Wow thanks for the advice. When I lived in Chicago, there was this guy who was constantly asking me for money to “buy food”... I knew that this guy was going to take the money and buy drugs or alcohol with it not food. I said so you’re hungry? He said yes. I said okay and I went into the hospital at the McDonald’s right there and bought him a trio. Here you go I said, and he was a bit flustered LOL