Monday, September 29, 2003, 4:30pm
Brooklyn entrance to the Manhattan Bridge bicycle and pedestrian path
(Jay Street between Sands and High Streets)

On Monday, September 29, 2003 at 4:30pm Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and City Councilmember David Yassky will join Transportation Alternatives, Recycle-A-Bicycle, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Coalition, the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Taskforce and Manhattan Bridge users to call on the New York City Department of Transportation to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety on the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge.

Since the Manhattan Bridge path opened two and half years ago (June 25, 2001), bicycle and pedestrian use on it has skyrocketed; yet traffic safety improvements to make Brooklyn-side access less perilous have not kept pace.

Over this time, the Department of Transportation has done nothing to slow down drivers, alert them to the presence of bicyclists and pedestrians or otherwise make it safe to walk and bike to the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge. The department has a sign plan, developed in 1996, which, if installed would make access much safer. The plan includes stop signs, crosswalks and pedestrian signage to slow drivers and alert them to the presence of pedestrians and bicyclists. In Summer 2001, the Department of Transportation made the Manhattan side of the bridge much safer for bicyclists and pedestrians by installing stop signs, a crosswalk, blinking red and stop line at the bridge path entrance.

According to the NYC Department of Transportation (2003), 190 bicyclists cross the Manhattan Bridge between 7am and 10am on an average late summer weekday. That's up from 152 during the same period in 2002 (T.A. data), and up from eleven during the same period in 2001. Based on this data, T.A. estimates that 1,200 people walk and bike over the bridge each day.

According to a July 2003 Transportation Alternatives' survey of 190 Manhattan Bridge path users:

• 5% (1 in 20) crashed as a result of motorist-bicyclist conflict on the Brooklyn side,
• 53% had a "close call" with a motorist on the Brooklyn side of the bridge,
• 70% said that pedestrian and bicyclist safety on the Brooklyn side of the bridge is "dangerous" or "intolerable."

Of the Brooklyn side of the Manhattan Bridge, Noah Budnick, Projects Director for T.A., said, "Someone will be killed here, unless the DOT makes pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements."