November 13, 2009: Vol. 32, No. 46

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November 13, 2009 / Brooklyn news / Brooklyn Heights

It’s a neckdown showdown on Hicks Street!

By Stephen Brown

The Brooklyn Paper

Enlarge this image

The Brooklyn Paper / Stephen Brown

Necking: Workers started widening some sidewalks in Brooklyn Heights on Friday in hopes of calming traffic. Here, they installed the so-called “neckdowns” at the corner of Hicks and Joralemon streets.

Enlarge this image

The Brooklyn Paper / Stephen Brown

The installation of the wider sidewalks could affect fire trucks coming from Engine 224.

Tools

A new effort to make Brooklyn Heights more pedestrian-friendly may have taken a wrong turn, as new sidewalk extensions at Joralemon and Hicks streets will make the intersection a concrete obstacle course for fire trucks exiting the nearby firehouse.

Workers started installing traffic-calming curb expansions called “neckdowns” at three of the four corners this week — and when passers-by suggested that the wider sidewalks might pose a problem for turning firetrucks, a city inspector did the strangest thing: he agreed!

“Firetrucks are definitely going to be a problem,”

Ishwar Patel, an on-site inspector with the Department of Design and Construction told The Brooklyn Paper.

Brooklyn Conservatory

But he quickly backtracked — a bit.

“I’m just the inspector,” he added. “This is not my issue. The DOT [Department of Transportation] sends the designs, we implement them.”

But Patel did say that firetrucks would almost certainly have to go up onto the sidewalk to make a left turn from Hicks Street onto Joralemon Street.

Later in the day, after The Brooklyn Paper started making a federal case out of the inter-agency neckdown showdown, another Design and Construction engineer suggested that Patel may have exaggerated the concern.

BoroDeal

But that engineer, Gerry Ambroise, also admitted that the Hicks-Joralemon crossing is “a tight corner.”

“I haven’t seen anything that says for certain that [a truck] cannot make it, but it’s tight,” he said.

Then, even later in the day, the Department of Transportation sent over a statement (on background, of course) that the agency and the Fire Department have been talking about the design and both are satisfied that everything will work out.

This curbside controversy has been a decade in the making. Believe it or not, but neckdowns and other traffic-calming measures began being implemented in 1999.

The measures have not always been popular. For one thing, some gadflies were muttering on Friday that the corner of Joralemon and Hicks is hardly a local speedway.

And more important (for some, that is), the new sidewalk material in the extensions appears to clash with the original walkway, which is in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District.

“Some people are often uncomfortable with change, and there may be an element of this,” said Rob Perris, District Manager of Community Board 2.

Updated 05:14 pm, November, 19 2009: Story was updated to include a (sort-of) comment from the city.

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Reader Feedback

Mike from GP says:

Did you bother to call the DOT about this?

Nov. 14, 2009, 4:11 pm

Bob from Broolyn Heights says:

The changes at Hicks and Joralemon are LIFE-THREATENING, and it's unbelievable that the many "neckdowns" being constructed now in Brooklyn Heights are happening after an absence of public discussion.

While "neckdown" proposals go back to the 1990s (as reported above), they were not built then, and more recently, there's been NO PUBLIC DISCUSSION about specific "neckdown" sites (as demonstrated by the fact that if you search "neckdown" in the Brooklyn Paper archive you get — nothing.

AS FOR THE SPECIFIC SITE DISCUSSED — JORALEMON AND HICKS — the article above fails to mention that it's not just the "left" hand turn for fire trucks that's endangered here, but a "right" hand turn as well. Fire trucks ROUTINELY turn right — against traffic — particularly at night when traffic on Joralemon is extremely light. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THIS, since it's hard to believe that DOT will not eventually be compelled to restore this corner, and DOT should be reminded that when they do this work, ALL of these corners, not just the "left" corner, will need restoration.

It is often reported that delaying a fire truck by even 30 or 60 seconds can cost lives. Such a delay, or more, is GUARANTEED by DOT's incompetence and failure to consult.

Nov. 14, 2009, 5:59 pm

Mike from GP says:

Bob, there was plenty of public discussion about this traffic calming project. In fact, the community begged the DOT for them. Now they are finally being installed.

These devices will save lives, not threaten them. I'm not sure where you are getting your information from, but it's obviously not from anything based in reality.

Nov. 14, 2009, 8:23 pm

Andrew Porter from North BH says:

They already did this at the corner of Henry and Middagh, because of course Middagh is one way westbound. Except when the fire engines come out of the fire station right next door to a local newspaper office.

Nov. 15, 2009, 1:04 am

Nicky from Caroll gardens says:

This DOT commissioner has been implementing these poorly thought out "innovations" for years now under Bloomberg. I was almost hit head on by a box truck simply trying to turn a corner where one of these ill conceived neck downs was just installed because there's not enough room for them to turn!
This is part of a systemic 'stealing" of traffic lanes through out the city (look at BWY south of Houston is now ONE lane for cars during biz hours!) Funny how Bloomy keeps saying we need congestion pricing to ease the congestion he's engineering with his DOT Queen. Ditto some of the more dangerous bike lanes she just sends crews out to paint in at will. When will people say enough already? How many cyclists, pedestrians and drivers must be injured or worse?

Nov. 15, 2009, 1:06 pm

Bob from Brooklyn Heights says:

Mike, I found nothing in The Brooklyn Paper's online archive about these plans, although I remember hearing about them when they were being discussed, theoretically, years ago.

Tell me, Mike, when were there SPECIFIC discussions about the SPECIFIC corners than have been necked down?

Even if neckdowns are helpful in certain locations, it is obvious that several of the locations that are being chocked in Brooklyn Heights are bad choices:

What is accomplished by chocking down a street that is lined with parked cars — and where the necked down corner was formerly a parking spot?

And, without question, doing this work adjacent to fire houses is life threatening.

Nov. 15, 2009, 4:24 pm

Mike from GP says:

For some background, folks might want to start here:

http://www.transalt.org/resources/dbtc
http://www.transalt.org/resources/dbtc/arup

Nov. 15, 2009, 4:46 pm

Bob from Brooklyn Heights says:

Thanks for the links, Mike, but they are more than SIX YEARS OLD. One secondary link (http://www.transalt.org/files/resources/dbtc/080action7237-hicks.pdf) provides the following insight into the corner of Joralemon and Hicks streets — an insight that fails to take into account the firehouse or actual on-the-ground traffic or pedestrian patterns today:

-------------

7.2.3.8 Joralemon Street
Joralemon Street provides one of the few connections from Brooklyn Heights to the waterfront. Its slope and surface discourage high traffic speeds, although the fact that it provides one of the few connections to Furman Street encourages its use as a cut through route. In fact, Community Board 2 noted that it welcomes having a street that is able to quickly release traffic from the
congested Brooklyn Heights grid. Joralemon Street’s intersection with Furman Street is currently designed to allow sweeping turns onto southbound Furman Street. It is recommended that this intersection be squared off to provide some refuge for pedestrians in all directions and to discourage cut-through traffic.

A series of neckdowns at Joralemon Street’s intersection with Hicks Street are also recommended, as discussed in Section 7.2.3.7 above.

Nov. 15, 2009, 5:29 pm

Pacholo from Red Hook says:

Where did this idea come from? Iowa?

Nov. 16, 2009, 2:14 am

perrigrino from brooklyn says:

The number-one factor slowing down firetrucks in New York City? Traffic congestion. If you really want to make a difference in emergency response, support a system which stops giving away street space for free. It's like a soviet bread line. If you give it away for free, of course too many people will try to use it.

Nov. 16, 2009, 10:20 am

Gary from Park Slope says:

I have been hearing about this for along time. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/motorist/dntnbklyntraf.shtml
What is the big problem. Cars have to take the turns a bit more slowly and cautiously. Good for everyone. I am sure the FDNY was consulted-I don't hear THEM complaining. At worst they have to mount the curb-something their big trucks can do easily (as opposed to having cars parked too close to the corner which is not so easy to get around).

Nov. 16, 2009, 10:30 am

Bob from Brooklyn Heights says:

Perrigrino, Traffic congestion DOES slow down fire trucks — but NOT at some of the intersections necked down in the Heights.

Face it, this is a stupid, money-wasting undertaking. Who's the vendor making all the money here (and who'll get the contract to pull this garbage up a few months, or a few years, from now)?

Nov. 16, 2009, 11:41 am

perrigrino from brooklyn says:

That's what I thought, Bob, you don't really want to make a difference in emergency response times.

Nov. 16, 2009, 3:41 pm

Bob from Brooklyn Heights says:

What are you (perrigrino) talking about?

The neck down at Joralemon and Hicks WILL ABSOLUTELY result in longer response times.

The neck downs along Henry are unlikely to materially improve traffic flow and may in fact make it worse.

I haven't seen every neck down, so I won't reclude the possibility that there might be some beneficial ones. I am not opposed to neck downs on principle -- I'm simply pointing out neck downs that are bad.

Nov. 16, 2009, 4:03 pm

Inez from Sunset Park says:

You commenters are so whiney, get over yourselves!
Stop driving and filling the roads with cars that block ambulances and polute the air for the rest us who don't drive!

Nov. 17, 2009, 3:56 am

perrigrino from bk says:

I'd like to see you get really upset about all of the other causes of delay to emergency response. The real ones. But you're probably just upset because there will be one fewer parking spot on your block.

Nov. 17, 2009, 10:30 am

Bob from Brooklyn Heights says:

FYI … I haven't owned a car in about 20 years (owning a car in Brooklyn Heights is crazy, unless you need it for business on a regular basis), so I don't need a parking space!

Nov. 17, 2009, 9:44 pm

swort from b heights says:

If the Hicks St fire department needs to worry about anything holding up its traffic, perhaps they should start with the six or seven of their own illegally parked cards that are outside the station every day. Either their cars should move or these spaces should be open to all. Of course I guess then they might just resort to the choice of the firemen in the north Heights station, where they just park 2-deep on the sidewalks for about 50 ft or so. Is that guaranteed somewhere in their contract?

Nov. 18, 2009, 6 pm

Blair Sorrel from Upper West Side says:

How to protect Brooklynites, their children, and their pets from a possible shocking or
electrocution - www.StreetZaps.com.

Greetings! Unfortunately, most pedestrians discover a danger, only sadly, when victimized and so I wanted to inform you of www.StreetZaps.com, a timely and useful tool intended to reduce the year-round risk of injury and fatality from contact voltage. And so you are aware, I confer with Con Edison's Stray Voltage and Public Affairs Units and was the first non-electrical representative to be invited to the Jodie Lane Fourth National Conference last year. It is my firm wish that The Brooklyn Paper readers will disseminate this vital public service as quickly and as widely as possible to preclude more tragedies. Further, the predictable seasonal incidents surge is imminent.

Thank you in advance and I look forward to hearing from you.

In appreciation and with best regards,

Blair Sorrel
Founder
www.StreetZaps.com

Nov. 19, 2009, 3:23 pm

Alan from Bklyn Hts says:

Re: the question of fire engines turning onto Joralemon, there is no way they can do it without climbing the new curb. Is that what was really intended here? Is that desirable, more residual uglification?

Furthermore, it is not the brightest lit corner in the world and drivers who do not know the neighborhood will routinely drive onto the sidewalk. Is that what you want here? That could also be a big problem for unseen pedestrians and tow trucks needed for the occasional no longer functioning vehicle.

The other thing I'm incredulous about is why they are doing this not only on the SE corner but also diagonally on the NW corner.

On the SE side going North, I don't believe there ever is parking so effectively they are making the entire East Lane of Hicks useless. Real estate in this city of ours is important for everyone, pedestrians & drivers alike.

Nov. 20, 2009, 12:01 am

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