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Testimony to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Regarding the Proposed Elimination of the B23 Bus Route on Cortelyou Road
| Posted on: January 30, 2009 |
Brooklyn Community Board 14 firmly opposes the elimination of the B23 bus route. Within the boundaries of Community District 14, the B23 runs on Cortelyou Road between Flatbush Avenue and Coney Island Avenue. We believe that elimination of this service would be detrimental to the economic progress of our community and would cause a great burden to parents and children commuting to work and school, as well as to those who use it to get to a variety of cultural institutions and other services.
Cortelyou Road recently has been experiencing a phenomenal retail revitalization, which is bringing a new life and economic vigor to the surrounding community. Restaurants, cafes, and bars are opening on a regular basis, attracting customers locally and from all over Brooklyn. The B23 provides the only bus service connecting the F and Q Trains and the B41 Flatbush Avenue bus to these establishments. Furthermore, the B23 also provides access to key retail hubs, such as Sears and the Flatbush Food Co-op, allowing customers from other neighborhoods to shop in Flatbush. Local merchants already have expressed grave concern that the elimination of the B23 demonstrates the City’s lack of confidence in the ability of this renewed commercial strip to continue to attract business from around the borough. They subsequently fear that future investors and customers will view this decision as a limitation on Cortelyou Road’s economic potential. Needless to say, this is not a view that Community Board 14 shares.
Our board also is concerned with the impact of the elimination of the B23 on the daily commute of workers and their children. Many parents use this bus to bring their children to schools and other programs near Cortelyou Road, such as P.S. 139 and the Cortelyou Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, and then use the B, Q, or F Trains to commute elsewhere. While arguments have been made that roughly parallel bus lines such as the B8 and the B35 are viable alternatives, in reality they are not. Use of either bus could require travelers to walk at least three avenue blocks north or south (about a half-mile) each way, which is an inconvenience, to say the least, for parents, and maybe an impossibility for their children, the elderly, the disabled, and anyone during heavy snow or rainstorms.
Lastly, the proposed alternate routes on Church Avenue and Foster Avenue are already heavily trafficked by cars, buses, delivery trucks, and bicycles. Church Avenue is part of State Route 27, and already is slowed by trucks delivering to retail stores. The B35 and the B8 are the 5th and 7th most heavily utilized bus routes in Brooklyn. Providing additional buses on those routes to absorb displaced B23 riders would only worsen the already problematic traffic conditions on these streets. At the same time, Cortelyou Road is the perfect alternate route for bus service to mitigate traffic on these other routes. If anything, riders should be encouraged to utilize this less-trafficked route to access commercial, cultural, and educational establishments as well as to link with other modes of transportation.
From a planning perspective, elimination of any local bus route risks increasing inefficient forms of transportation and runs counter to the Mayor’s efforts embodied in PlaNYC2030. This step backwards should not be taken in the interest of negligible short-term financial benefit.
For these reasons, Brooklyn Community Board 14 is firm in its opposition to the elimination of the B23 Bus. Additionally, we have signatures of over 1,000 residents and commuters who agree with our view about the necessity of the B23 route.
Sincerely,
Alvin M. Berk
Chair
Topics: MTA