Saturday, April 30, 2011

Breaking: First Avenue bike lane buffers getting buffed up — with trees!

Crews are out now on First Avenue...




... putting in a tree at ever bike lane buffer along First Avenue...


The finished product.


Thoughts?

Previously.

29 comments:

Bob Arihood said...

Everywhere else in the country where traffic engineers are doing their jobs responsibly , trees and other obstructions, such as these little islands ,are being removed from locations adjacent to traffic flow .These obstacles placed as they are on our streets are potentially deadly obstructions . When a vehicle strays ever so slightly from the designated path and strikes one of these obstacles ,the vehicle is more likely to lose control and people are likely to be injured or killed.This is a well known problem and here in NYC we are today irresponsibly making it even more common .

The trees are going in likely to provide an excuse not to remove these islands , when our DOT in a future administration wakes to this hazard thats been created . To remove a tree of course would be environmentally unaccepable!

Marty Wombacher said...

This tree should be disqualified immediately! It's clearly alive! For once I think this is something that Gruber MacDougal and I would agree upon.

Roger_Paw said...

The tree looks like it's slanting to the right. I hope it rights itself!!

Looks like the bike lane is here to stay.

Crazy Eddie said...

Ok, let start the countdown of when those trees will be dead. One year, two years? Typical Bloomberg BS media big opening splash. Then move on to another window dressing event while the previous event rots away due to benign neglect. Also, Bob is dead on right.

Crazy Eddie said...

Sorry, forgot to include, Marty, as usual, makes me piss in my pants!:)

Big Brother said...

Don't worry, some drunken douchey fucktards will have ripped it from the ground by 3AM tonight while their girlfriends watch taking iPhone photos and tweeting about how CRAZY their boyfriends are.

Everyone sing along: III HATE NEW YORK!

Lisa said...

Another reaqlly bad idea, and further waste of tax dollars, courtesy of that bonehead DOT commissioner Jerkoff Sadist-Con.

Anonymous said...

I like trees.

- East Village Slav

Brandon said...

@Bob Arihood, you have the data about traffic calming islands reversed.

Kimberley said...

I am pro-trees.

Anonymous said...

Great. One more thing to obscure everybody's vision. This will make it harder for me (biker) to see pedestrians about to step into the bike lane and make it harder for pedestrians and cars to see me coming.

Anonymous said...

I just hit a protruding curb with my right side wheels today, and it's gonna cost me big bucks to fix them.

And this wasn't even in the city where the fucking travel lanes are 6" wider than your car.

blue glass said...

i like trees too.
especially when they are planted where they have a chance to thrive.
between the dogs and pissing drunks, drunken drivers, pollution from cars, and those with the desire to "dig we must" these poor things don't have a chance.
and who is going to water them in the dry month of august?

Anonymous said...

This is a really bad idea. Its an obstruction for drivers and is going to lead to people being seriously hurt if not killed. When will this stupdidly end.

Anonymous said...

Obstruction for drivers? I may be wrong, but I thought the islands with dirt were only at places where there is no left turn onto another street.

I fail to see how it would obstruct the view of pedestrians walking into the bike lane, there is already a good amount of space between the island and the lane (as the picture shows). The islands don't exist where a car has to cross the bike lane, so scratch that worry.

As for traffic - I rather like the slowing of traffic along avenues with bike lanes. It isn't that slow to begin with. Plus, it's a local street, not a motor-speedway.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments that these islands and trees are obstructions!! - then i guess a sidewalk would fall into the same category on a street with no bike lane right? A sidewalk being something to slightly veer off and hit?
and trees DO survive in the city - all the time! - and we all benefit from them!
so many nay-saying negativity!
long live bike lanes
and come on everyone - really trees are only a positive thing - yay for trees in the concrete jungle!

Anonymous said...

'cuz what's a little island without a tree?

JM said...

A lame attempt at making the bike lanes seem permanent. How many teachers do you think they'll have to fire to make up the budget gap for trees next to the bike lanes/bike lanes/East River walk/Madison Square lunch tables in the middle of traffic/etc.? Man, the city budget must be in really dire straits when they keep doing meaningless, moronic stuff like this.

Eden Bee said...

Even Gilligan can't get lost on that island. Dogs will yearn to break free and pee on these trees. They are really trying to make these lanes work I guess..I saw 6 accidents on the past two days. But..they are here to stay I guess..

notfromNJ said...

They should replace the whole avenue with trees and let the car riders haters move to the burbs where they can race drive all day. and take the bars with them.

Ken from Ken's Kitchen said...

I like the trees although they're kind of sad. They'll never do much obscuring. They're mostly gonna stay little and scrawny in those itty bitty piles of dirt.

Anonymous said...

Weird that the presumably "free spirit" of the East Village excludes planting trees. Community gardens, anyone?

How about we slow down traffic? Why should there be expressways through neighborhoods? It seems at odds with the presumably local ethos of anyone who reads this blog.

Anonymous said...

Trees, what's not to like?

Anonymous said...

And where do they expect the roots to grow exactly?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 4:27PM

Um... how about down, like most trees grow their roots? The road doesn't penetrate 10 feet into the ground. Where do all the other sidewalk trees have their roots?

Andrew Tyndall said...

For Bob Arihood up is down, day is night, white is black.

Au contraire, Arihood, these are the actions of responsible traffic engineers and should be endorsed.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Cool - now I have a place to put my lawn chair and barbecue!

Anonymous said...

the more i think about the negative angry haters of bike lanes and trees the more concerned i get for the east village and the so-called-east-villagers!!! remember when east villagers were lovers of trees and parks and gardens and bikes and individuality, and not fans of cars!??
what happened!
what happened? there is zero logic to this badmouthing!

Anonymous said...

take a look at the tree lined bike lanes on 8th avenue, they are doing just fine thank you