The city’s Department of Transportation tomorrow is planning to unveil its latest plan to overhaul 34th Street. No doubt, there will be claims as to the scheme’s benefits for traffic flow and bus service and, heck, maybe even world peace.
But a lawsuit fi led in Brooklyn Supreme Court last week by frustrated Park Slope residents should add to New Yorkers’ skepticism of anything coming from the department and its lightning-rod commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan.
That goes for tomorrow’s 34th Street plan and for yet another DOT scheme — to allow restaurant dining in the streets at the expense of vehicular traffic, as The Post’s Susan Edelman reports today.
DOT was forced to scrap its original 34th Street plan after reports and criticism in The Post, particularly regarding a planned pedestrian plaza between Fifth and Sixth avenues.
Tomorrow the agency, which hatched that plan largely in secret, will officially provide details on its new 34th Street scheme.
But a suit by opponents of a two-way bicycle lane installed along Prospect Park West last July casts yet more doubt on the agency’s credibility.
The suit alleges that DOT failed to act in an objective manner before installing the lanes, ignored state and city laws requiring environmental studies and relied on spurious data. It wants the court to yank the bike lane and subject the project to extended review.
Obviously, DOT will have a chance to respond to the charges.
But the suit’s key allegations — that the agency conducted its planning in secret, cooked the data and misled the public — aren’t easily dismissed.
While the agency says it welcomes “community” input, the suit alleges that the department repeatedly ignored requests to meet with bike-lane opponents.
Furthermore, e-mails obtained through the Freedom of Information Law show that staffers and pro-lane activists were thick as thieves: One aide asked an advocate whether they are “counterattacking” the opposition or “neutralizing” their claims. Another strategized with advocates and spoke disparagingly of opponents.
DOT claims that its decisions are data-driven are equally suspect: Assertions that the bike lanes have boosted safety are contradicted by the department’s own raw data, which show a spike in accidents since the lanes were installed.
And, as in the case of Sadik-Khan’s overhaul of Times Square, the bike lanes were sold as a “pilot program” — but later declared a success, though the actual results didn’t deliver on earlier promises.
In short, DOT can’t be trusted.
That will be worth keeping in mind tomorrow when the new 34th Street makeover is presented.