GREENPOINT — We all know what a pain commuting in North Brooklyn is — snarled truck and car traffic, a dearth of functional bike lanes, dangerous intersections, and jam-packed subways.
Now, 10 years after the community asked for it, the city Department of Transportation will be studying the problem, city officials announced Tuesday.
Greenpoint and Williamsburg community members have been asking the city for an overarching study of transit in the area ever since a 2005 rezoning that paved the way for the massive high rises along the waterfront in formerly industrial areas, according to community board members.
Greenpoint and Williamsburg's population grew nearly 8 percent in two decades, according to the most recent census data.
By 2010, there were 173,083 residents, though much development has come since then, and huge projects that will continue to increase the area's population for years to come like Greenpoint Landing and Domino Sugar are still in the pipeline.
The city finally committed the $500,000 needed for the study in 2013, as part of a subsequent rezoning of Greenpoint Landing, according to councilman Stephen Levin's office, and the funds have finally come through.
The transit study will be overseen by a panel of community members and officials from the Department of Transportation, City Planning and the MTA, and will look into the Greenpoint and Williamsburg's demographics, land use issues, zoning, traffic, pedestrians, cyclists, parking and public transportation, according to the DOT.
Karen Nieves, a member of Community Board 1's Transportation Committee, who's been pushing for the kind of study announced Tuesday said she was "thrilled" but hoped it be as comprehensive as promised.
"The traffic...is everywhere you go," she said. "We're just overpopulated and congested all around."
The study will continue through the summer though results won't be released until the fall of 2017, according to the DOT.
