The current proposal would generate 20,000 new vehicle trips per day, slow bus service and add riders to already crowded subway lines. But it offers little in the way of measures to address these problems.

To create a transportation plan for the project that works, the sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks believe the developer and the city must:

• Minimize construction of new parking. Parking equals traffic, and the project’s creation of new car trips can be reduced. One way is by reducing the density of development – fewer residential and especially fewer commercial units mean less vehicle-related activity. But it can also reduce driving per unit of development by cutting back on parking. Parking capacity at the site amounts to an invitation to drive to it. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) projects much of the demand for driving to and parking at the site as related to arena events. Constraints on arena-related parking will lead more patrons to use mass transit.
• Eliminate the 944-space surface parking lot planned for Phase I. The developer plans to tear down buildings on the block bounded by Vanderbilt Avenue and Carlton, Dean and Pacific Streets to build a "temporary" large open-air parking lot. While some surface parking could be required during construction, a lot of this size will make the area less attractive and safe, and will blight the area. Surface parking will hamper city plans to implement traffic calming along Vanderbilt Ave, and discourage nearby commercial redevelopment. To read a blog item on this, click here.
• Institute residential parking permits. The city can keep a lid on arena parking spilling into nearby neighborhoods by approving a residential parking permit system. One model worthy of consideration is the one in use around Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs pay for and administer the system (on game days only) and work closely with nearby communities to ensure the program keeps fans from parking on neighborhood streets. To read more about the Cub's efforts, click here. To read more about how residential parking permits work in Chicago, click here.
• Head off an MSG-like secondary parking industry. The city and state should develop zoning changes that will prevent a parking industry like the one west of Madison Square Garden from developing around the proposed arena.
• Create strong incentives for transit use. The modest subway and bus fare discounts proposed for arena patrons are unlikely to move many people from cars to mass transit. A stronger program, in use at a number of sports stadiums around the world, includes the price of a mass transit fare in every ticket sold for every event at the venue. Thus, every basketball fan or concert-goer has pre-paid for a subway or bus fare, and thus has an automatic reason to consider using transit to reach the arena.
• Implement traffic calming to prevent neighborhood streets from becoming thoroughfares. Traffic calming street designs slow vehicle traffic and treat residential streets as valuable, shared public space, where neighbors interact and children can be safe in their “front yards.” Thorough traffic calming in areas around the project site will improve pedestrian safety, neighborhood quality of life and minimize cut-through traffic on inappropriate residential streets.
• Keep buses moving. The DEIS acknowledges that traffic caused by the project will further delay already slow bus service in the area. But the project does not acknowledge the city’s possible development of a bus-way on Flatbush Avenue, and its plan for limousine lanes in front of the arena doesn’t take account of its impact on the B41 route – Brooklyn’s busiest. City/MTA plans to speed bus service should take priority over accommodating car traffic at Atlantic Yards. The Flatbush drop-off area should be reconfigured for bus and bus rider access and the limousine lanes moved to a side street. The traffic recommendations above can also help bus riders by staving off some traffic and potentially paralyzing gridlock. To read more about Atlantic Yards and buses, click here
• Plan for additional subway capacity. The city needs to begin now to accommodate significant future development in Brooklyn. The city should develop and work to include a Brooklyn mass transit capacity expansion plan in the next MTA capital program, which will cover the years 2009-2014. While the DEIS shows that riders added to Brooklyn subway lines by Atlantic Yards and other development will fall within NYC Transit’s subway “loading guidelines”, everyday strap-hangers may not know that these standards consider a train to have spare “capacity” even under cheek-to-jowl crowding conditions -- the official guidelines give riders only three-square-feet of standing room during rush hours.
• Implement roadway pricing. Downtown Brooklyn is congested even without the proposed development, and roadway pricing has proven an effective way of curbing congestion in other cities, notably London. To read more about the London experience, click here. For more on why it might work for NYC, click here.