City Moves to Stop Tour Bus Congestion at Fulton Ferry

By on January 18, 2011 10:55 am in brooklyn bridge park, DUMBO, Environment, Government, Parking

The City’s Department of Transportation and NYPD are taking action to alleviate what was a serious problem in the Fulton Ferry area during the warmer months last year:

New York Post: The city is moving to stop droves of double-decker tour buses from idling and clogging the foot of Old Fulton Street during the summer — a traffic debacle that’s reached a breaking point since Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park opened early last year.

Actions planned include installing “no parking” signs near the entrance to Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park and building a raised concrete median barrier to rplace the painted median on Old Fulton Street, where buses have parked and idled. A long term solution to the problem, though, will have to await construction of off-street parking facilities.

Update: Matt Chaban at the New York Observer gets really snarky.

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  • epc

    It’s incredibly amusing to watch the tour buses jockey for position amongst the wedding photo limos while the entirety of Staten Island attempts to bypass the BQE by zooming down Fulton to Furman.

  • http://loureads.com Lou

    Is this really a problem that needed addressing? Is this going to stop Asian weddings, too? Or just buses? I guess I wasn’t there enough to feel bothered by the buses.

  • Lee

    @lou, what about the Caucasian weddings?

  • DrewB

    Finally. Those buses we a huge pain. I park at 360 Furman, and am often coming off the BQE at Fulton ferry to head down Furman. You are often forced to weave through buses and limos, sometimes blind into traffic to get through there. It is dangerous and pain in the neck. Traffic laws should apply to everyone, tour buses, limos and cars alike.

  • http://brooklyncomplex.net Josh

    Many of the buses were parking in the painted center median of Old Fulton and letting their passengers off directly into traffic. At the very least, it’s a huge safety issue.

  • http://loureads.com Lou

    @Lee – I don’t have stats for you on the Asian/Caucazoid wedding split but in my experience the Asiatic wedding % seem higher and are often noted for their promenant presence. I’m all for a rainbow coalition of weddings happening on the landing. But what if they come in a tourist bus? THEN WHAT?!??!11

    Maybe instead of banning tourist traffic make an official drop of place somewhere? I just feel like the city is ban crazy.

  • Heightsman

    I welcome the traffic to our Borough. Tourists are then more likely to return thus boosting the local economy. I agree that you just need to make a drop zone for buses/limos not a ban.

  • David on Middagh

    Oh, no. A raised concrete barrier where the painted median is? Isn’t it hard enough to walk across all those lanes as it is? Sometimes jaywalking is the efficient and safe solution! This could be terrible for pedestrians. And it is potentially incredibly ugly, to boot!

  • Remsen

    I think it is good luck in Asian culture to have your wedding photo with water in the picture, hence all of the activity at Fulton Landing…. No such traditions in Western Culture, hence the % imbalance

  • Ben

    Limos and tour bus traffic has been going on at Montague Terrace and the end of Remsen street at The Promenade since the 1950s when The Pormenade was built, along with movie crews, etc. and NOTHING has ever been done about the ideling buses, etc. and now at the new BBP this is a problem? Good luck with this one!

  • Reggie

    Rem’, here in America it’s supposedly good luck if it rains on your wedding day, but a three-day downpour still couldn’t save mine.

  • communitarian

    A concrete barrier?? What about trees and other plantings? At least this issue is finally being addressed, though.

  • David on Middagh

    Some reflective bollards might do the job while not ruining the free-flow of street-crossers.

  • bklyn20

    The red tour buses also go down Furman Street, then turn onto lower Joralemon and through Brooklyn Bridge Park to Atlantic Avenue. I saw this many evenings over the past summer and fall. Perhaps it’s publicity for the park, but it is also disruptive and — dare I say it? — very tacky.

  • Andrew Porter

    Underneath the paving at Fulton Ferry, it’s belgian blocks, aka cobble stones. *After* the area was made a historic district the city paved over the stones, and put those traffic lights in, including the ones that apparently control traffic turning into/out of the gas station, which everyone disregards.

    If any median plantings were to be done, they would have to be of the earth piled on top of a foundation kind.

    Traffic down there, I agree, is a mess, both for cars and pedestrians.