While the neon green bike lane recently painted on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights has set off quite the frisson of blogger delight, the Department of Transportation has been quietly experimenting with different bike lane colors in Brooklyn for some time.
We thought we'd put these three choices together for comparison:
a: (upper left) The brightest, shiniest green possible
b: (middle right) Sky blue, on Jay Street
c: (lower left) Blue-green, on Henry Street south of Atlantic
Bearing in mind that the green lane is freshly painted and will eventually fade, which would you choose? Take our poll in the sidebar to the right.
Photos by MK Metz
Are they going to paint bike symbols in the lanes at any point?
ReplyDeleteWe noticed that the Sky Blue lanes had bike symbols painted on top of the blue, but most were at least partially worn off.
ReplyDeleteI was somewhat startled when I turned the corner off Clark Street and was confronted by the garish bright green. Did whoever painted it get permission from Landmarks, because I find it vastly more offensive than many other things that are prohibited.
ReplyDeleteThe blue colored lanes work quite adequately and are not at all offensive.
Yeah, well I'm offended by all of the cars parked on the streets of Brooklyn Hts, especially the mammoth SUV's. I'm also startled by all of the asphalt with the yellow and white stripes painted on them and the way that the city has slowly but surely over the years chipped away at the sidewalks, narrowing them to make room for motor vehicles. Also the traffic signals and ugly, garish street signs seem completely unnecessary and a distraction. I hear that some Dutch towns are getting rid of them altogether.
ReplyDeleteDid Landmarks sign off on all of that? You know bicycling was huge in NYC in the 1890's.
I believe the Parks Department makes traffic signs brown instead of green around parks. Maybe they could make the bike lane brown, too.
ReplyDeletepaint them WHITE with the bike symbol knocked out of the paint (that is - leave the street showing through in those spots)
ReplyDeleteI voted for "other." I think we should do it the way they do in Montreal.
ReplyDeleteThey indicate bike lanes with large graphics of bicycles and show the direction in which they should be going, and in areas with heavy traffic, they insert poles in the asphalt to separate the bikes from other vehicles.
It wouldn't make sense to paint bike lanes green everywhere but brown in "historic" districts...
ReplyDeleteBrown bike lanes would only work in the Meatpacking, er, fudge-packing district in Manhattan.
ReplyDelete