New York City’s study of transportation implications of future downtown Brooklyn development could get under way in late spring or early summer, and come to a conclusion later this year.

The work will reportedly take a broad look at future subway capacity issues, but will probably devote more detail to areas the city directly controls, such as bus movement on streets, parking policy and pedestrian capacity. It’s unclear for now whether the work will lead to more specific policy analyses or discuss ways to pay for some of the improvements likely to be needed if projected growth in Brooklyn pans out. But if it gives subway capacity issues and future transit capital needs short shrift, it will likely feed more opposition to downtown rezoning and development.

East River tolls would likely have a big effect reducing the through traffic downtown Brooklyn experiences because of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and could provide revenue for improvements, though we doubt this particular study will revisit the issue. Development impact fees would be another way to support more intensive and frequent mass transit in the area. To lay the ground work for such an approach, the study needs to be explicit about the transit and roadway demand that various types and scales of development will generate. v