BQE Could Be Four Instead Of Six Lanes, Planning Group Says

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The city's controversial plan to reconstruct a section of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway shouldn't just rebuild the highway — it should transform it, a planning group contended Tuesday.

A new report released by the Regional Plan Association argues that the city's proposal to reconstruct a 1.5-mile section of the expressway, which has not seen a major update since it was built decades ago, should go beyond simply reconstructing the current three-level structure.

Instead, it contends that with congestion pricing, increased tolls on the Verrazano Bridge and other measures, the city and state could reduce traffic enough to make the highway four lanes instead of six. The report, commissioned by nonprofit A Better Way, said the policies can help New York follow other cities that have scaled back or even removed their highways.

“The BQE was conceived with a mid-20th century urban planning mindset that sought above all to accommodate the automobile, without regard for the environment or disrupted neighborhoods," RPA President and CEO Tom Wright said. "With more cars on the road than ever, creating smog and limiting residents’ ability to get around, the revitalization of the BQE is a perfect time to reconsider the role of personal vehicles in New York, and stand with cities across the globe to prioritize smaller thoroughfares, boulevards and open green spaces.”

The planning experts looked at five policy options using public data, assumptions about how drivers would respond and consideration about how they worked in other urban highways to evaluate how they could reduce traffic on the BQE.

They ultimately found that two of the policies — a specific model for the recently-passed congestion pricing and allowing only cars with three people on the BQE during peak hours — would allow the six lanes to be reduced to four.

Another three policies, such as creating a two-way instead of one-way toll system on the Verrazano Bridge or carpool requirements on free bridges, could help reduce traffic even further to make the lane-reduction viable.

The report didn't necessarily offer an alternative design to the controversial project, which has created uproar among local communities worried about the two proposed construction options. But, it did say that using the traffic reduction methods could help avoid parts of these plans..

The city Department of Transportation has proposed either creating a six-lane temporary highway that would shut down the Brooklyn Heights Promenade for several years or fixing the BQE lane-by-lane over a longer period of time.

RPA suggests that reducing traffic with the policies it pointed could eliminate shutting down the promenade, which has faced arguably the most pushback.

"Travel demand management policies like congestion pricing and lane reduction present both immediate benefits, like eliminating the need to block access to the historic Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and long-term rewards, such as helping New York City achieve its carbon reduction goals by limiting the number of cars and trucks on the road," the group said.

The report comes just a day before a scheduled Town Hall meeting about the BQE reconstruction that will be hosted by The Brooklyn Heights Association and A Better Way, two of the groups most fervently against it.

RPA concluded the study by saying that the traffic reduction options would still need to be evaluated further and should be looked over as part of the city's environmental review of the project.