Driving To Games? Fuggedaboutit!

Barclays Center presented its revised transportation plan for the arena Tuesday night and the message was simple: don't even think about driving. Indeed, the arena's transportation consultant made it clear: there won't be that much parking available near the arena once you get there -- and it's intentional.

In addition to the disincentives for driving, there will be incentives for taking mass transit, the consultant Sam Schwartz told a skeptical audience in Brooklyn. Among them: empty subway cars and buses at the ready as games exit; additional trains on both the busiest subway lines and the LIRR, where there will be twice as many trains as usual on game nights; even a guarded 400-bike parking lot. What there won't be is the much ballyhooed "NetroCard", a free subway ride for fans. That's been abandoned.

For those who insist on driving, there will be around a thousand spots within a mile of the arena, but only half tha number on the premises, a couple of blocks away. There will be shuttle buses from lots farther away, where fans will be able to reserve and pre-pay for a spot at a discount. Schwartz proudly said ticket information for arena events won't even include driving directions ... although as of Wednesday morning, they were available on the Barclays Center website.

• Barclays Center Planners to Public: Don't Drive - Robert Myers - Patch.com
• Live Blogging: Barclays Center Traffic Mitigation Plan Public Meeting - Amy Sara Clark
• A Brooklyn arena rises and so do transportation worries - Benjamin Kabak - Second Avenue Sagas
  
• Barclays Center cans plan to give MetroCards to basketball fans to ease traffic - Rich Calder - New York Post
• Barclays fouls out on plan to provide MetroCards - - Rich Calder - New York Post
• Free MetroCard plan for Barclays Center arena scrapped - Erin Durkin - New York Daily News
• Big Transit Boost for Barclays Center, But Costs are Unknown - Kyle Thomas McGovern - New York Times
  
• Barclays Center's Traffic Impact Under Debate - Ted Mann - Wall Street Journal
• Barclays Developers Push Mass Transit As Residents Worry About Parking - Jeanine Ramirez - NY1
• In Plan For Barclays Center, Parking Slashed By Half - Jim O'Grady - WNYC
• Please, Please Do Not Drive Your Car to Barclays Center - Will Leitch - New York Magazine
• Park your dreams of driving to Nets games at home - John Brennan - The Record
  
• Barclays TDM Presentation Revised Notes - Forest City Ratner