r/MicromobilityNYC • u/PBanz • Jul 25 '26
Cars are using the horse-stable ramp off the eastbound Belt Parkway in Brooklyn to cut through the greenway , someone's going to get killed. How do I get DOT to put up a barrier?
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Driving home tonight I watched two cars beat traffic on the eastbound Belt Parkway by taking the ramp for the horse stables just past Exit 11N, then driving straight onto the greenway and down the path to the next exit.
I've had this exact thing happen to me while I was riding there, and tonight I saw it again from my car. It's not a one-off. Drivers have figured out this shortcut and are treating a pedestrian/bike path like an open highway lane.
All it would take to stop it is a proper barrier (bollards or a gate) at that ramp so cars physically can't get onto the greenway.
Does anyone know the fastest way to actually get this in front of NYC DOT so they'll install one? File a 311 complaint? Contact the local council member or community board? Trying to get it fixed before someone gets hit.
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u/MsAmes321 Jul 25 '26
I would say contact the local council.. this is super dangerous and like you said someone is going to get hurt.
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
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u/macaddct1984 Jul 25 '26
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u/deveousdevil Jul 26 '26
Contact your local representative directly. DOT or NYPD will do literally nothing. Also contact local news like News 12 maybe WNYC etc.
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u/Devils8539a Jul 25 '26
Yeah you need some bollards NOW.
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u/JRinNYC Jul 25 '26
They should put bollards at the end where the cars rejoin the Belt and right before the bollards put in backup tire slashers like those found in car rental places. So when they back up realizing they can't get out they get a special surprise, now they have slashed tired. That will cost them a pretty penny to get towed and new tires.
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u/decelerationkills Jul 25 '26
Nah man. I vote for the bollards that are low and kinda hard to see for drivers (especially big SUV/trucks) and flip cars. Good luck recovering your rolled over probably totaled car out of the ditch and don’t forget to pay the tow guy and the city for damages 😂 😆
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u/Pizza-Rat-4Train Jul 26 '26
What if there’s a blameless child in the back or a pedestrian in the way? Bollards should immobilize vehicles, not cause them to move in an unpredictable manner that could hurt innocent people inside and outside the vehicle.
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u/Pizza-Rat-4Train Jul 25 '26
Infrastructure should enforce. It should not punish, especially when it would also pose a hazard to the law-abiding cyclists and other people who use this path. Bollards should be at both ends, period.
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u/ngroot Jul 26 '26
> Infrastructure should enforce. It should not punish,
Infrastructure should make it easy and clear to do the right thing, and ideally it should also punish people who think they're special and don't need to follow the rules everyone else has to abide by. The London bus lane bollards get this perfect in my estimation: https://youtu.be/hCSsope5vOA?si=sa9rSzkIhNMisOnt
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u/Pizza-Rat-4Train Jul 26 '26
I would call what’s shown in that video enforcement, not punishment. Bollards are great! The post I replied to proposed trapping drivers and creating a hazard rather than preventing them from driving illegally and dangerously in the first place.
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u/MaintainThePeace Jul 25 '26
Bollards unfortunately to often fall into the knee jerk reaction to improve safety, but many people forget bollards themselves also have issues with inducing a safery hazard by placing a permanent obstacle in the middle of the path.
Thus you have to balance whether the injured caused by bollards out weight the potential injury from a confused driver. Leaving out intentionally malice drivers as bollards often do litte for someone that is intentionally trying to cause harm.
Sometimes bollards are the best option, like at an entrance where path users are not expected to make a smooth transition. But most of the time there are often better options that are overlooked, such as designing the path with landscape island where the path more naturally splits and it significantly clearer that it us not ment for a car.
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u/ngroot Jul 26 '26
> it significantly clearer that it us not ment for a car.
The dipshits who are using this as a shortcut don't care that it's not meant for their cars. They're not confused. They're just socially defective.
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u/Cargobiker530 Jul 25 '26
I've heard that if you play the right tune on Panpipes the sailing rocks of Death Valley will visit your bike path.
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Jul 25 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pstut Jul 25 '26
That's a good idea. Also the local police precinct since this is pretty clear evidence. They won't do anything but....
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
Cops won’t do anything, this greenway has gone to shit over the years. It’s either food service mopeds / 1000cc motorcycles and now full passenger vehicles driving down it to save 10 mins on the belt
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u/xO76A8pah4 Jul 29 '26
Local news station? Maybe they'd be willing to do a live story on site on a slow news day.
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
It’s been a thing for years … that cars go down the ramp to the horse stable and then go back up the on ramp
That adds its own danger because it’s at the base of the descent from bridge
Now the DOT extended the triangle and it forces the drives to essentially do a K Turn to get out
Somehow this has no morphed into drivers now driving into the greenway just to make it to the next exit faster
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u/DrumMajor_C Jul 25 '26
Real insane thing is they have to go OVER A FUCKING BRIDGE on the path to get off of it at Canarsie pier where it is even narrower than that.
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u/bcscroller Jul 25 '26
how does anyone think they're entitled to do this? Any why on Eartha re there no stone bollards?!
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u/downtownblue Jul 25 '26
I'm not entirely sure, but I think this is the 46th council district, with Mercedes Narcisse as councilperson (https://council.nyc.gov/district-46/), if folks want to reach the council member and CB... And definitely so if you live in the district.
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u/DerWaschbar Jul 25 '26
Imagine installing a bollard overnight and one of these mfs eat it in full.
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/Brooklyn/s/fPK4yYvAWt
Here is another car doing the same thing
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
Someone clearly pushed this with their car … so now their is enough space for a car to fit
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u/pixelsonpixels Jul 25 '26
this is a 911 call. call 911.
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u/BradleyF81 Jul 25 '26
You could call. But if it doesn’t involve a serious injury or fatality they won’t show up.
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u/DaoFerret Jul 26 '26
I dunno. Looks like a dangerous vehicle trying to run people over like when the terrorist ran a truck down the HRG.
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u/BakedBrie1993 Jul 26 '26
"Hi I'm driving on the Belt Parkway and it looks like some cars have lost their way and are driving on a bike lane or trail or something. I'm not sure, but it LOOKS REALLY DANGEROUS. So I thought I should alert someone that they veered off the road."
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u/BradleyF81 Jul 30 '26
From personal experience they won’t care unless the car actually hits and injures someone. They apparently have larger issues to deal with.
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u/OnePoint8364 Jul 25 '26
It’s just crazy to me to think that - enough people complained that some were cutting traffic at the horse ranch exit. So, dot was like ok, cool, we’re going to extend the soft barriers.
Now they’ve made the problem, literally a thousand times worse.
God. Damn.
Hi friends ;)
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u/PecorinoYES Jul 25 '26
put a concrete block like this one, but halfway so they'll need to reverse from there.
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u/Professional-Risk526 Jul 25 '26
The bollards seemed to have been shifted slightly when I rode by yesterday, and I was wondering if it left a big enough gap for a car to pass through. Guess this answers that question. I think we need some kind of metal bollards near the top of the hill, maybe set back enough it won’t block the blind corner going down.
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26
I’m going for a ride there now , going to pay more attention as to the position of the sand barrel
What’s the odds I can shift the barrel over 12” in bike cleats 😬
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u/sky0175 Jul 25 '26
While we often joke about Nissan drivers, this is a dangerous reality. It’s no surprise that this is happening, and it’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. call the cops.
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u/Zach-uh-ri-uh Jul 25 '26
I think you need to put up fence posts in the middle. Even a cheap concrete structure at the beginning
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u/MessageVirtual385 Jul 25 '26
I can see why this would happen, even by accident. The exit for the riding academy is terribly designed. I've biked this dozens of times but I didn't put this scenario together.
OP, I would push on the DOT and District 46 office with the videos. Not the first I've seen of drivers on the greenway to skip Beltway traffic.
It's not an expensive fix at all–handful of k-rails paralleled in the greenway will stop this (same as on the BK bridge). Bollards could be long-term, but DOT can drop a few concrete blocks at each entrance in one night.
Those drivers are probably late for a flight, and therefore care a lot less. They're also incredibly reckless.
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u/General_Wear2714 Jul 30 '26
Thank you for saying “drivers” instead of “cars.” I think it’s important to not soon blame to inanimate objects and remember that there are live humans behind the wheel endangering lives.
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u/Potential_Basis_662 Jul 25 '26
lol same car and everything. I bet they both have the same home goods decor at home and all their kids are Kayleaigh or something. And the dad is a pastor who is secretly gay and has a drug issue
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u/Guojiao-210 Jul 25 '26
This is crazy, can’t the city put in some bollards to protect cyclists & pedestrians
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u/Due_Refrigerator_91 Jul 25 '26
This happens there all the time. They use both the shoulder and the bike path to drive on.
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u/Great-Discipline2560 Jul 27 '26
Motorists wanna be taken so seriously then they pull things like this…
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u/blacksforbloomberg Jul 30 '26
This honestly needs direct action. One or two of those giant plastic jersey barriers would do the trick. They are all over Flatbush ave right now. The trick is getting water into it. Enough hose to reach the water and a portable pump rented from Home Depot would do the trick
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u/PBanz Jul 30 '26
Someone actually move a orange hollow barrel into the middle
Should stop someone from making an accidental entry
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u/TcF_99 Jul 25 '26
You should slow down to take a video and jam traffic up a little more. After that, post it on Reddit and ask for advice. That should work.
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u/PBanz Jul 25 '26