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Carolyn S. Konheim, Community Consulting Services, August 23, 2006

II. FCR / ESDC ASSERTIONS, AND A REBUTTAL
Community Consulting Services, August 21, 2006

III. Traffic, Transit and Pedestrian Deficiencies of Atlantic Yards DEIS
Working Draft Report to the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods
August 21, 2006
Community Consulting Services


Table of Contents
  1. DEIS selectively complies with the City Environmental Quality Review Manual
  2. DEIS process is premature and must be supplemented with a Supplemental DEIS
  3. Study area too small, excludes other major development and problem areas
  4. Baseline traffic volumes and conditions give misleading picture of available capacity
  5. Future volumes are low because the DEIS leaves out 53% growth in 2016 Build year
  6. Dubious basis of Atlantic Yards trip characteristics may misrepresent auto trips
  7. DEIS ignores impact on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and parallel streets
  8. Impacts concealed by combining street closing diversions with Atlantic Yards trips
  9. Calculations of congestion levels are undocumented, no way to check huge anomalies
  10.  Simplistic analysis method misrepresents severity and extent of congestion impacts
  11.  Models that more accurately simulate traffic are critical part of DEIS but not released
  12.  Proposed mitigation still leaves Downtown Brooklyn road network in gridlock
  13.  Proposed changes in traffic patterns redirect traffic through neighborhoods
  14.  Transit and parking incentives to reduce Arena traffic are naïve and won’t work
  15.  Effective traffic mitigation—congestion pricing and better transit--are ignored
  16.  Parking –Early Findings: missing elements; misrepresentating on-street parking
  17.  Pedestrians get longer waits and routes, less crossing time, no traffic calming
  18.  Unsubstantiated claim of sufficient capacity on subways is shown to be wrong
  19.  Low bus use and growth defy historical trends, lead to ignoring Bus Rapid Transit
  20.  DEIS stacks the deck against lower density alternatives
  21.  Overall, the DEIS misrepresents and utterly fails to disclose or mitigate costly transportation impacts that can only be remedied by an openly developed supplemental DEIS


Appendices

  1. Development omitted in DEIS
  2. Underreported baseline traffic volumes
  3. No Build Trip Generation
  4. Underreported No Build traffic volumes
  5. Atlantic Yards 24-hour trip generation
  6. Travel characteristics related to incomes
  7. Origins of Trips to Downtown Brooklyn
  8. CCS Traffic Simulation Model excerpts
  9. Societal Costs of Added Vehicular Travel
  10.  Subway and Bus Analyses