L-train shutdown provokes questions, anxiety at Williamsburg town hall meeting

May 17, 2018 By Brett Dahlberg Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Buckley Yung, a bus planning manager for New York City Transit, shows Gina Gerhart, 29, of Bushwick, the details of the MTA’s planned transit alternatives for Brooklyn and Manhattan during next year’s shutdown of L train service between the two boroughs. Photo by Brett Dahlberg

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Citi Bike could be a key part of the solution to subway and roadway congestion during the coming L-train shutdown — but expansion of the bike share system is not currently part of the city and state mitigation effort, residents discovered at a well-attended community meeting Wednesday night.

MTA will shut down L-train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan next April — inconveniencing hundreds of thousands of commuters every day. The state agency and its city transportation counterparts have devised mitigation efforts that include carpool-only hours on the Williamsburg Bridge and a bus-only 14th Street in Manhattan, but Citi Bike, which is the nation’s most-used bike share system, is not currently in the plan.

Motivate, which runs Citi Bike, does not have docking stations anywhere east of Bushwick Avenue — an irony, considering that the meeting itself was held at Progress High School, which is just east of the Citi Bike “no-go” line.

The city Department of Transportation said only that it’s studying the possibility of more Citi Bike stations, bike parking, and protected bike lanes while the L train is out of service.

Cyclists in the crowd were not impressed.

Resident Melissa Saenz Gordon said she wanted more bike availability. The 32-year-old Bushwick resident said there are few Citi Bike docks near her L-train stop. Without easy access to the city’s bikes, Saenz Gordon worries people will turn to rideshare services to fill the gap.

“Uber and Lyft have been advertising aggressively,” she said, “but they are not safe drivers. They’re not familiar with the area, and they put people in danger.”

“I just want to know, like, if you’re going to shut the L train down, are you going to make everything else killer while it’s not running?” she said.

Others said the city is not doing enough to add protected bike lanes, deferring to the constant complaint of some residents about lost parking. An earlier plan to have protected bike lanes on both sides of Grand Street, for example, now appears dead, with Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg saying there were “geographic questions” on the key east-west route. Another official explained that to mean that the street was not wide enough for protected lanes on both sides.

“I’m terrified to ride across the Williamsburg Bridge,” added Andrew Luzincourt, 29, of Greenpoint. “It’s not good enough. I’m not protected.”

With Citi Bike and the city not stepping up to the cycling challenge, volunteers with Transportation Alternatives have begun hosting “Bike Train” rides to get non-cycling subway or car commuters comfortable with getting to work on two wheels.

But no one thinks it’ll be enough to actually get tens of thousands of people out of the L-pocalypse.

“We know that there’s going to be a tremendous surge in cycling during this period,” said Andy Byford, president of NYC Transit, the MTA subsidiary. “We think it’s important that we make cycling a key part of the solution. … We need a big plan — a bold plan.”

The plan to deal with the 225,000 people who currently ride the L train between Manhattan and Brooklyn every day is certainly bold: The city and state will increase service on the J, M, Z and G lines; add East River ferry capacity; create new bus lines across the Williamsburg Bridge; and turn some roadways into bus-only routes.

But the city has still not committed to creating those bus-only roadways on a 24/7 basis during the crisis, as transit advocates want. Traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge, for example, is consistently high for most of the day, dropping for only a few early morning hours, statistics show.

Earlier this month, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he did not currently support 24/7 bus-only lanes — a sticking point on Wednesday night.

“This is a 24/7 city,” Luzincourt said. “The L train runs 24 hours a day. Twenty-four-seven access is critical.”

Anthony Griffith, a city bus driver for 30 years, added, “It needs to be almost 24 hours a day, at least, otherwise the bridge will become overly clogged with traffic and we won’t be able to get the buses through.”

In the end, some were merely annoyed that the full plan hasn’t been developed — including the hours for bus-only traffic on the Williamsburg Bridge and on 14th Street.

“People want specifics,” said Simona Bares-Lemmon of Williamsburg.