[jclem]

It’s hard to get a sense from the site or from the actual idea pages what the goal is. Removing the BQE (https://transformyour.city/vision/new-york-city/the-bqe ) would affect millions of people and businesses, and simply saying “transform it into a linear park” comes across as incredibly naïve. I would feel foolish signing this petition because…what’s the actual plan?

Sure, maybe there is some way to do it with a multi-decade effort, an enormous cost, and a fundamental shift in NYC’s layout and even economy, but something about how MASSIVELY oversimplified the statement “Remove the BQE” is makes it hard to take this seriously.

I applaud the sentiment, though! And I hate the BQE.

Edit: Also just to be even clearer for anyone not familiar with NYC geography: the BQE is a stretch of interstate highway 278 that connects Brooklyn and Queens.

This isn’t the High Line, built from a disused rail line. It’s proposing removing a stretch of interstate and putting a park in its place.

Edit 2: Ok, apparently the goal is to gather signatures and then show elected officials. The minimum bar appears to be 100 signatures. I have a hard time understanding what outcome is expected when an elected official in NYC is shown a petition in which 100 people say we should rip out part of the interstate (and one of NYC’s most important stretches of road) and put in a park.

[tootie]

If we got 8 million signatures they couldn't move the BQE. Closing streets is like banning alcohol or abortions. If you choke off supply it just makes the price go up. The solution is to throttle _demand_. Like making our subway stations less dank. Curing America's car addiction is not going to be easy.

[addicted]

Yeah, but the BQE isn’t in random place America. It’s in a city which has less than 30% car ownership.

You could ban all private cars from the roads tomorrow and people in NYC would be getting around much faster (including those who currently drive) if you do nothing else but increase bus service and frequency, as they’re not log jammed because of higjly inefficient cars anymore.

[quickthrower2]

Silly question from afar: could you tunnelify the BQE (no digging, just cover it!) and drop a park on top? Best of both worlds.

Seems silly to rip up roads when self driving electric buses could be running down them (or at least get their own priority lane).

[clairity]

put the BQE underground and you get the best of both worlds. scrub all the pollution (not CO₂) out of the exhaust and it's environmentally positive too. sure, it's expensive, but we're the richest country in the world. boston did it and everyone loves the result now despite the grousing about cost and inconvenience during construction.

[addicted]

If you’re digging an underground tunnel in NYC throwing low throughout roads in it is the worst idea possible.

There is absolutely no reason to not put a subway track, which would have an order of magnitude higher capacity, in an underground tunnel instead.

[clairity]

you could also put in a subway track down the middle while you're at it, but the primary point of undergrounding the road is so we get our most precious above ground space back for people, not cars. it's not simply about optimizing throughput, though that's also a worthy, and compatible, goal.

[anamexis]

Boston's Big Dig was a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) tunnel under the harbor, that cost 22 billion dollars and took 15 years to build.

The BQE is 11.6 miles (18.7 km) long, and runs through Brooklyn and Queens.

[zachkatz]

So remove it. Way simpler.

[sedan_baklazhan]

This is not a "plan". What are the proposals for transit on the place of BQE? Where will all the traffic from BQE go? To local streets?

[clairity]

you're right, it's an online discussion. the traffic from the BQE already goes to local streets. the point is to give the above ground space back to people, and perhaps clean the air while we're at it.

[sedan_baklazhan]

Currently the traffic enters BQE on one local street and exits it most likely far away. When BQE is removed, the traffic will go through a lot of local streets, increasing noice and air pollution in residential areas.

[clairity]

not remove, but rather replace. put the BQE underground.

[sedan_baklazhan]

This is VERY expensive. A lot of new subway lines could be built at the same cost.

[MisterTea]

There is a ton of underground infrastructure this idea would run afoul of.

[clairity]

pretty sure the contractors and engineers would consider that before they started digging. do you think boston didn't have underground infrastructure already?