Two-Way Furman Means No More Bike/Pedestrian Path

By on August 31, 2011 10:18 pm in brooklyn bridge park, Traffic, Transportation

The conversion of Furman Street to two-way traffic (which seems to be a long-term proposition, given that new striping is being painted) has necessitated the elimination of the combined bike and pedestrian path along Furman between Joralemon and Montague Streets, as described on the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy website. Possible new alignments for the protected path are being studied by the city DOT and Brooklyn Bridge Park.

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  • davoyager

    What’s to study? Just finish the bike path from Montague to One Brooklyn Bridge. Put up the same silly fence they have going to pier one to keep people from wondering.

  • Jorale-man

    Agreed. Jogging along Furman Street is not the nicest experience. If they’d just expand the current waterfront path to connect with Pier 6 that would be an easy fix.

  • Peter

    I expect the problem in continuing the path within the park is that a tremendous amount of construction traffic will be coming and going from Pier 5 for the next year — making a continuous path difficult.

    They could pay someone to play crossing guard/security guard, but that of course would increase the cost of operations of the park.

  • Steve R

    I certainly hope we are not comdemned to the new two-way traffic alignment on Furman (and the loss of the protected bike lane) for the next year. I thought it was only to last as long as the repairs to the BQE. I’m hoping the reason they did not extend the interior bikeway from Montague to Joralemon is because the bike lane will be back “real soon now…”

  • my2cents

    It would be nice to make Furman two ways, as one could then bypass the local roads from Atlantic all the way to the bridge. I think there would be a lot of BQE traffic spill-over though. But that’s probably the idea of the DOT –to reduce the traffic on the cantilever section. However, it was nice to have a 1 way street with no intersections with which to test my car’s acceleration….sigh. Times are a-changin’

  • Mike

    Whatever they do, it had better not be @#*&@ gravel like the existing park path. Ridiculous.

  • Adrastos

    Lets just hope this doesn’t last forever. cant wait till the new path is done along the water, and I too hate the effing gravel as well, why didn’t they just continue the trail with the black top…The gravel makes my tires all dirty, thus bringing into my apartment.

    sigh !!!

  • Miles

    The path is still there, they just took the protective barrier down. I ran on Furman tonight and they actually now have a path on both sides of the road all the way from Pier 1 to Pier 6. It’s marked with a solid white line. Furman is now just a single lane each way with a bike path on both sides of the street.

  • stuart

    they are not telling us what is really going on with the BQE. I suspect it is something pretty bad. Trucks have been operating at night both on Grace Court and in the Highway for about two weeks. Irene may have worsened some pre-existing condition.

  • David on Middagh

    Stuart, that’s the first thing I thought, too. We already know the cantilevered portion of the BQE is near the end of its life and needs renovation.

  • epc

    I can’t find my notes from the last BQE meeting, but Furman figures heavily in any BQE renovation project, mostly as a “temporary diversion”. “Temporary” in the sense that it could be several years as the cantilever is rebuilt, but not a permanent rerouting. Given the current political climate, the city & state are unlikely to get the funds necessary to do anything except cursory repairs to the BQE.

    Personally I’d like to see Furman two–way as well, but I don’t know how you do it and prevent BQE traffic from using it (though BQE Westbound traffic has been using it as a rush hour bypass for years). I think a lot of local traffic would divert from Clinton and Hicks to Furman.

    It is nice to see NYPD on site at the cross walk to the park at Furman & Fulton during rush hour. The drivers almost stop at the (new) stop sign and mostly slow down.

  • mvz2

    @my2cents personally, I welcome the change if it means Furman won’t be used as a drag strip. Even if it has to be used as a temporary BQE bypass, it is NOT the BQE. Every now and then I have seen a police car with a radar gun stopping cars doing 50+. I wish they were there more often.

  • Cranberry Beret

    If there’s to be bqe spillover traffic, then i prefer it on furman to Clinton or hicks.

  • Bongo

    Here’s hoping it will take away some of the high-speed BQE spillover traffic on Hicks

  • kcg

    I personally will miss the hot route that Furman provided to get to the south heights in an uber fast, non-stop cut through an extremely dense part of Brooklyn.

    Police only used to hang out by the MTA fan plant to give people speeding tickets during rush hour typically. They would literally pull over 3 or more vehichles at once. For shame.

    This will make the long accepted wrong way climb up Joralemon slightly more challenging, but not impossible..

  • Knight

    @kcg: a couple of years ago a church friend of mine had an accident in the North Heights and was taken by ambulance to LICH. I rode to the hospital with our Pastor — Fr. Michael Carrano — who told me that he knew a shortcut (Furman Street). We left a couple of minutes after the ambulance & arrived at LICH ahead of it!

  • JM

    Hope it’s permanent. Just makes sense, and is practical. So that would mean our DOT Queen will take it away.
    Stuart, I thought I read that the storm weakened the ground under the BQE by Grace Court and that’s what they were repairing?

  • Eddyenergizer

    The ground in that area has been unstable for a long time. Back in the eighties a large crack developed in 2 Grace Ct. running all the way from the bottom of the foundation to the top of the parapet. It was feared the west section of the building could collapse onto the BQE. Steel reenforcing was installed to stabilize the structure and it was determined safe. No doubt thirty more years of vibration and settling has taken its toll and the rains from Irene were the coup de grâce.

  • Stillhere

    I drove north on Furman for the first time on Sunday morning. Encountered no other cars. It was an interesting perspective.

    Previous day spoke to some folks in # 8 – the building on the corner. Their new Landmarks approved slate and stone sidewalk has fresh tire marks and is getting crushed. Big trucks cannot make the turn unless the plaza is completely empty. They required the assistance of the DOT traffic directors to stop the opposing traffic. And they rode over the new curb. Traffic backed up in both directions momentarily.

    Tour busses still line up in the no standing zone (the old bike lane) opposite #8 and the DOT crew does nothing to enforce.

    The DOT admits that they are leveraging the BQE sink hole to test the two way scenario. Good luck with the trucks,

    Wait and see.