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Scooter-Share Program Can Help Mitigate L Train Closure Chaos, Report Says

By Gwynne Hogan | August 25, 2016 2:26pm
 Reporte remcmcmc
Reporte remcmcmc
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East River Skyway/Scoot

GREENPOINT — An scooter/motorcycle-share program and a high-speed gondola over the East River are some of the out-of-the-box solutions that could help mitigate the devastating impact of 2019's L train shutdown that stands to sever the link between Manhattan and Brooklyn for 18 months, a new report charges.

"New York City policymakers have an opportunity to explore entirely new modes of transportation," the report, published Wednesday by New York University's Rudin Center for Transportation, recommends.

A scooter share, like San Francisco's program Scoot, offers riders electric motorized scooters and mini-cars at $2 a ride, operating under a similar model as CitiBike with docking stations at various locations. The scooters don't take up much space and have little impact on traffic or air quality, according to the report. The scooters recharge when docked and are activated by smartphones.

The Rudin Center also recommends an electric-motorcycle ride share to help cut down on traffic, using a new bike model from the Netherlands called The Storm, which can travel 236 miles without recharging.

"Deploying these new technology centric modes will tap into the tech savvy and innovative minds of Williamsburg," the report reads.

In addition to bringing these new ride-sharing programs to the city, the report urges the city to seriously consider a proposal for the East River Skyway — a high-speed gondola over the East River connecting Williamsburg to the Lower East Side — that could shuttle up to 5,000 people per hour between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The report also recommends a host of other alternative that are already being considered by the MTA and transit advocates, including increased subway service along the G, E, R, M, 3, A, C, J and Z trains, more frequent water ferries and a dedicated bus lane over the Williamsburg Bridge.

The MTA needs to shut down the L train between Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan for 18 months in order to repair the Canarsie Tunnel, which flooded during Hurricane Sandy.

Service within Brooklyn will remain mostly the same during the construction, which is slated to begin in 2019.