From Transportation Alternatives' Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron:
On Thursday, May 1, with no vote from board members, Queens Community Board 2 Chair Joe Conley delayed a decision on proposed pedestrian and cyclist improvements to Vernon Boulevard, an important link in the proposed Queens East River Greenway.
The DOT plan [PDF] calls for removal of the majority of parking along the East River side of Vernon from 45th Ave to its termination at Main St. In place of parking the DOT plans to put down a painted bike lane in both directions, with painted buffers between the lanes and auto traffic. Also proposed are additional traffic calming improvements along Vernon and a pedestrian relief Green Street to be installed at Queensbridge Park. Two weeks prior the proposal was unveiled to CB 2's Land Use Committee, which voted unanimously in favor.
The latest figures from the Paris Vélib bike sharing program are in. User stats and survey results are posted on the official web site, but for those who don't parlez Français, here's a summary:
Rides to date: 20 million
Average trips/day: 70,000
Average trip time: 18 minutes
190,000 annual pass holders
42% of users are females
1/3 of users come from outside the central city
17% of users are more than 46 years old
94% of users like it (of which 20% like it a lot)
46% are satisfied with stations (available bikes, parking slots)
Vélib-style bike rentals come to the U.S. this month in Washington, D.C.
After the jump, for you French speakers, Parisians talk about the program -- one of many ways the city is beating traffic.
Attention aspiring Streetfilm directors: U.S. PIRG has noticed that transit doesn't seem to be on the radar of most pols, so it's enlisting the YouTube generation to help lawmakers see the light. From the U.S. PIRG website:
Are you tired of being stuck in traffic? Shouldn’t we have better options? In the last decade, people went from spending 18 hours per year stuck in rush hour traffic delays to a whopping 38 hours. And as we all know, time spent stuck in traffic is time you never get back.
We want you to create your most persuasive video about why we need more and better public transportation. What’s your vision of a 21st century transportation system? We'll use the winning videos to help decision-makers imagine a better future. Your video will be a critical part of an effort to educate city councils, legislatures across the country, and lawmakers in Washington, D.C.
At a press conference held in the new 14th Street plaza, DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan talks about present and future street-level improvements, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe sums up progress on greenways, and Health & Mental Hygiene Assistant Commish Jane Beddell promotes biking as part of the solution to the city's obesity problem. TA's Paul Steely White then gives a quick run-down of some of the 200+ Bike Month events.
According to city statistics, over the last seven years the number of cyclists on New York streets has risen by 75 percent. With increased investments in infrastructure, overseen by a new, pro-cycling DOT commissioner, the city hopes to double the number of riders by 2015.
Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat from Manhattan, immediately issued a statement condemning the measure:
S.7594-B, introduced by Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), would exempt gasoline and diesel from the State's excise tax, Sales Tax, and Petroleum Business Tax, from May 23, 2008 to September 2, 2008. These taxes are currently used to provide funds for highways, roads, bridges, and mass transit. By suspending the taxes the Senate Republicans will create an estimated $600 million budget gap for these necessary services.
"This bill is obviously meant to prey on the desperate need for relief of New York's suffering drivers," said Senator Liz Krueger. "In reality this bill will only worsen the economic crisis in New York, and at best result in little to none of the intended aid. Increased demand will lead to higher prices and negate any positive effect the gas tax holiday was meant to have."
So far so good, but then Krueger serves up a cocktail of alternative policies meant to ease the burden on drivers. Even in relatively rail-rich New York, transit doesn't enter the picture.
L-R: DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Transportation Alternatives Director Paul Steely White and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe at this morning's Bike Month NYC event on 9th Avenue.
Benepe with White and Streetsblog Publisher Mark Gorton.
But the notion of driving less and riding more is bubbling up, even in the corridors of Congress. We turn to Delaware Senator Thomas Carper, who made use of a floor debate on reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration to deliver the following remarks last week:
I ride the train back and forth most days. I live in Delaware, and
I go back and forth. As my colleague, the Presiding Officer, knows, I
go back and forth almost every night to Delaware. A strange thing is
going on with respect to passenger rail ridership in this country.
I used to serve on the Amtrak board when I was Governor of
Delaware, and every year we would see ridership go up by a couple of
percentage points. We would struggle, try to raise money out of the
fare box to pay for the system and the expansion of the system. Well,
the first quarter of this fiscal year, ridership at Amtrak is up 15
percent. Revenues are up by 15 percent. People are starting to realize
that maybe it makes sense to get out of our cars, trucks, and vans and
take the train or take transit. Transit ridership is up again this
fiscal year more dramatically than it has been in some time.
The speech may be buried in the Congressional Record (search for S3479), but who else in the Senate is connecting the dots between reducing dependence on oil and investing in rail? More from Carper, including some astute observations that touch on land use, after the jump. (Be sure to read the last paragraph.)
Even as the price of gas turns into a 
