May 24, 2013
Resistance to a major transportation policy change -- in this case, congestion pricing -- is most intense right when the new initiative takes effect. Graph: FHWA/CURACAO
Last week, Columbia University professor David King ran a great response to the recent grousing about bike-share stations. He posted this graph depicting how public perceptions of congestion pricing programs bike-share-launches-and-the-dust-settles-remember-the-nimby-frenzy/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/24/after-bike-share-launches-and-the-dust-settles-remember-the-nimby-frenzy/
May 24, 2013
Elly Blue’s latest publication, “Bikes in Space,” is a feminist sci-fi zine about her favorite mode of transportation. “I realized that because I work for myself, I can do anything I want,” she says by way of explanation. The amazing truth is that she makes a living writing whatever strikes her fancy about the intersection bike-activist-and-independent-media-titan/>[...]
/dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/24/qa-with-elly-blue-feminist-bike-activist-and-independent-media-titan/
May 24, 2013
He’s a “top urban influencer.” He promoted parking reform in his campaign to become Pittsburgh’s next mayor. And on Tuesday, City Councilman Bill Peduto won the Democratic mayoral primary, making him something of a shoo-in for the city’s highest office. (Pittsburgh hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since the 1930s.)
With the election of Bill Peduto, Pittsburgh streets could soon become much [...]
dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/24/bill-peduto-rising-urbanist-star-wins-pittsburgh-mayoral-primary/
May 24, 2013
We continue our series on City Council candidates with a Q&A with activist and food wholesaler Clifford Stanton, who’s running to represent District 11, covering Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Woodlawn, and Norwood in the Bronx. On Monday, we ran a Q&A with Andrew Cohen, who serves as a CB 8 member and legal advisor to Assembly Member Jeffrey Dinowitz; yesterday we had [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/24/city-council-candidates-on-the-issues-clifford-stanton-district-11/
May 23, 2013
The city is close to recommending that the Sheridan Expressway, a short, sparsely-used interstate that community activists have targeted for removal for years, be transformed into a street-level roadway that opens land for new development and improves neighborhood access to parks along the Bronx River.
Today, trucks going to Hunts Point follow the solid red line [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/23/city-close-to-recommending-surface-road-replace-sheridan-expressway/
May 23, 2013
Memphis is making waves today with the announcement that the city will install 15 miles of protected bike lanes.
Over the last few years, Memphis has been rushing to add bike lanes. Now the city plans to take it to the next level. Image: Memphis Flyer
Led by Mayor A.C. Wharton, a few years ago Memphis bike-lanes/>[...]
streetsblog.net/2013/05/23/memphis-to-add-15-miles-of-protected-bike-lanes/
May 23, 2013
Zupan: Bike-Share Will Be Great (RPA); Op-Doc: “I’m So Terribly Excited” for Bike-Share (NYT)
Post Finds Anti-Bike-Share Ally: Firefighters’ Union Chief Says It’s Hard to Drive Around NYC
Daily News and DNA Examine Bike-Share and Hasidic W’Burg; WSJ Was on It a Year Ago
NYPD Traffic Cop Fears Bike-Share Crashes; Wrongly Says “You Have to Stay in the [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/23/todays-headlines-1642/
May 22, 2013
Anthony Weiner, enemy of congestion pricing and infamous bike lane antagonist, is talking about street design on the campaign trail. Though there was plenty of warning this day would come, it’s still kind of surreal.
Weiner told Capital New York’s Azi Paybarah he was just joking when he boasted to Michael Bloomberg and a room full bike-lanes-with-the-following-exceptions/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/22/anthony-weiner-i-love-bike-lanes-with-the-following-exceptions/
May 22, 2013
Mayoral candidates stand to gain votes if they support increased bicycling, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.
The last question of the poll, which surveyed 1,082 NYC voters via land lines and cell phones the week of May 14-20, asked: “If a candidate for Mayor supports – encouraging increased use of bicycles, would you be more likely to [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/22/q-poll-support-for-cycling-a-vote-winner-for-mayoral-candidates/
May 21, 2013
The official Citi Bike mobile application is now available to download. The app provides a map of station locations and real-time updates about bicycle and dock availability, as well as turn-by-turn directions, riding tips, and a timer to help Citi Bike users avoid charges for exceeding the limits per trip. The app also allows users to bike-app-now-available-for-download/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/21/official-citi-bike-app-now-available-for-download/
May 21, 2013
Just when you thought the bike-share detractors might have run out of steam — or at least taken a time-out — along comes an intellectually muddled piece in the NY Post warning of dead bike-share users littering Midtown streets.
“Three people died in Paris’ first year of bike share. New York should heed Paris’s lesson.” That’s bike-share-carnage-is-a-mirage-and-a-distraction/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/21/the-coming-bike-share-carnage-is-a-mirage-and-a-distraction/
May 21, 2013
On the face of things, it’s hard to understand why would anyone oppose bicycling. It’s cheap, it’s healthy, it’s good for the environment.
Ronald Reagan on a bicycle, what could be more American? Image: Twin City Sidewalks
Somehow, though, cycling has become politicized, and it’s the party of personal responsibility, austerity, and small government that tends [...]
streetsblog.net/2013/05/21/seven-conservative-reasons-to-love-bicycling/
May 20, 2013
Fourth Avenue at 86th Street in Bay Ridge would get a pedestrian island - and a pedestrian fence - under a plan presented to CB 10 last week. Image: DOT
Last year, DOT redesigned Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park to calm traffic by widening pedestrian medians and reducing the number of motor vehicle lanes. Similar improvements [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/20/in-bay-ridge-and-park-slope-fourth-ave-traffic-calming-moves-forward/
May 17, 2013
Research has shown that women are more comfortable biking on protected bike lanes, but the male-dominated engineering profession has discouraged this type of street design. Photo copyright Dmitry Gudkov
A study published in this month’s American Journal of Public Health finds that highly influential transportation engineers relied on shoddy research to defend policies that discourage the [...]
dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/17/would-gender-balance-in-the-engineering-world-benefit-cycling-in-the-u-s/
May 16, 2013
If it seems like we’ve been singling out Governor Scott Walker and Wisconsin DOT a lot lately, that’s because WisDOT is such an excellent example of what a highly dysfunctional state transportation agency looks like. The latest foolishness: a billion-dollar proposal to double-deck part of a Milwaukee freeway.
Milwaukee is a city that lost 0.4 percent of its [...]
streetsblog.net/2013/05/16/next-boondoggle-from-wisconsin-dot-double-decking-milwaukee-freeway/
May 15, 2013
There’s a tussle going on right now about how cyclists should ride on city streets. Yesterday’s Streetsblog Network post took a snapshot of this debate yesterday, excerpting the WashCycle’s response to a Sarah Goodyear piece in Atlantic Cities.
Wrong-way cycling isn't the way to assert cyclists' rightful place on the streets. Photo: Big Shot Bikes
Sarah wrote that [...]
dc.streetsblog.org/2013/05/15/refereeing-the-raging-debate-over-the-specialness-of-cyclists/
May 14, 2013
The wisdom in Matt Flegenheimer’s bike-share NIMBY opus comes across nicely in the kicker:
Nearby, on University Place, Alfred Haffenden, 71, sat between a bike station and his table of available consumer items — two Al Franken books, a baby-care advice book, and VHS copies of “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Wuthering Heights.”
The stations would be a bike-share-and-the-mistake-of-placing-too-much-stock-in-nimby-sentiment/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/14/bike-share-and-the-mistake-of-placing-too-much-stock-in-nimby-sentiment/
May 14, 2013
Marty Golden and David Weprin Among Politicos Who Consider Themselves Above Traffic Rules (Post)
City Hires Firms to Improve Public Realm Along With Midtown East Rezoning (DCP via Curbed)
Elba Granizo, 75, Killed by Driver in Elmhurst (Times Ledger)
Leroy Comrie to Introduce Bill Requiring NYPD to Release Yearly Hit-and-Run Reports (News)
Finally, Motorists Get More Space on the Brooklyn Bridge (NYT)
Tri-State: NYS [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/14/todays-headlines-1635/
May 13, 2013
Citi Bike isn't enough of an adrenaline rush for Simone Weichselbaum. This bodes well for its success. Photos: Daily News (left, right)
Daily News reporter Simone Weichselbaum likes her bikes light and fast. The self-proclaimed “proud bike snob who is rarely without her SE Draft steel-frame fixie” said in 2009 that “biking here can be a death bike-is-not-a-fixie-and-most-people-will-be-happy-with-that/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/13/citi-bike-is-not-a-fixie-and-most-people-will-be-happy-with-that/
May 10, 2013
NYC Set to Launch the Gold Standard of Bike-Share as Electeds Count Parking Spots (NYT, NY1)
CB 6 Endorses Sackett St. Bike Lane, Union St. Corral; Rejects Columbia St. Parking (BK Paper, DNA)
Video: Cyclist Harassed by Motorist and Mob of Bystanders in Williamsburg (Animal)
NYPD Allows Civilian Complaint Review Board to Prosecute Officers Accused of Misconduct (News)
DOE to [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/10/todays-headlines-1633/
May 9, 2013
The headline from today’s City Council transportation committee oversight hearing was Janette Sadik-Khan’s announcement that the official launch date for Citi Bike is Memorial Day. Meanwhile, for Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, it was another occasion to flail at bikes and defend cheap parking under the guise of holding a budget hearing.
Council Members Vacca and Recchia want bikes-are-a-revenue-source-but-dont-touch-my-parking/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/09/at-council-hearing-bikes-are-a-revenue-source-but-dont-touch-my-parking/
May 9, 2013
Bloomberg: “I Don’t Think Anybody Would Have the Nerve to Roll Back the Bicycle Lanes” (CapNY)
Ticket-Fixing Beneficiaries Say Ticket-Fixing Isn’t a Problem (News)
Bronx Residents Clamor for Bike-Share and Bike Lanes (DNA)
With Eric Adams on Shirley Huntley’s Wire, Tish James May Switch to Brooklyn Beep Race (News)
Reason: NTSB Study of Curbside Buses Overstated Their Safety Risks
MTA IG: [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/09/todays-headlines-1632/
May 8, 2013
For decades, cyclists bickered amongst themselves about the efficacy and safety of bike infrastructure. With the proliferation of protected bike lanes in recent years, however, everyone can see that predictions about bike lanes making streets more dangerous for cycling simply didn’t come to pass. Network blogger Elly Blue at Taking the Lane says the debate bike-infrastructure-has-been-settled/>[...]
streetsblog.net/2013/05/08/the-debate-about-bike-infrastructure-has-been-settled/
May 7, 2013
At the end of its second meeting on a DOT proposal to improve bike safety on the Manhattan approaches to the Queensboro Bridge, the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 reached a conclusion. The committee needed more time to make up its mind.
The highlight of the plan is a two-way protected bike lane on First Avenue bike-access-plan/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/07/after-two-meetings-cb-6-still-isnt-sure-about-qbb-bike-access-plan/
May 7, 2013
Alon Levy at Pedestrian Observations ran a thought-provoking post today about the level of democratic involvement that goes into major American transportation projects.
California High-Speed Rail would be a better project if the public had been given more information before voting on it, says Alon Levy. Image: Dilemma-x.com
The problem in the United States, he writes, is that most [...]
streetsblog.net/2013/05/07/do-american-transportation-projects-suffer-from-a-democracy-deficit/
May 6, 2013
First Avenue at 88th Street. Concrete pedestrian islands and tree pits have already been installed, and the bike lane has been striped.
Our most recent progress report on the protected bike lanes for East Harlem and the Upper East Side came last October, when crews installed the bike lane and pedestrian refuges on Second Avenue between 100th bikes-on-first-avenue-larger-plazas-on-broadway/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/06/eyes-on-the-street-bikes-on-first-avenue-larger-plazas-on-broadway/
May 3, 2013
A protected bike lane on the Pulaski Bridge — calming traffic heading to McGuinness Boulevard and providing much more breathing room than the bridge’s narrow bike/ped path alone — has cleared a significant planning hurdle. In a letter to Assembly Member Joe Lentol [PDF], DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said that the proposal meets traffic analysis bike-lane-clears-traffic-study-engineering-review-next/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/03/pulaski-bridge-bike-lane-clears-traffic-study-engineering-review-next/
May 2, 2013
Quinn, Vacca, and Greenfield May Have Milked the Parking Thing for All It’s Worth (CapNY, NYT)
Downtown Express and DNA Take a Stab at Balanced Bike-Share Coverage
Post Running on Fumes; And the Rest: Gothamist, Fox, AMNY, CBS, NY1
State Supreme Court Justice Issues Hail App Injunction (CapNY, NYT)
Straphangers: G Train Had Fewest Delays in 2012, Delays Up System-Wide (NYT, CapNY)
Staten Island SBS Camera Enforcement [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/02/todays-headlines-1627/
May 1, 2013
Dave "Paco" Abraham, a volunteer with Transportation Alternatives' Brooklyn committee, hands the signed photograph to 78th Precinct commanding officer Michael Ameri. Photo: Wayne Bailey
Bergen Street near Flatbush Avenue used to be a trouble spot for cyclists going from Prospect Heights to Park Slope, with one segment of the bike lane frequently obstructed by police vehicles. bike-lane/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/01/bergen-street-cyclists-thank-nypd-precinct-for-protected-bike-lane/
May 1, 2013
Update: The Home Reporter reports that the elderly victim of this crash has died.
Residents of Bay Ridge are again calling for measures to rein in reckless motorists after a Tuesday crash that sent at least one pedestrian to the hospital. The crash occurred in the district of State Senator Marty Golden, who has blocked a [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/05/01/motorist-hospitalizes-senior-in-district-of-speed-cam-foe-marty-golden/
April 30, 2013
West Village NIMBYs Sue for Removal of Bank Street Bike-Share Station (Post, DNA)
CM Andy King Backs Co-Op City Bike Lanes to Reduce Motorist Speeding, and NY1 Flubs the Hook
NYPD Personnel Shifts Bring New Commanding Officers to 6th and 10th Precincts (DNA)
Child Hospitalized When Van Driver Hits School Bus and Building at McGuinness and Greenpoint (DNA)
Civil Jury [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/30/todays-headlines-1625/
April 29, 2013
Mayor Anthony Foxx has accepted President Obama's nomination to be the next U.S. DOT secretary. Photo: Flickr/psychoticwolf via Smart Growth America
Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx just accepted President Obama’s nomination to be the next transportation secretary.
Before we get into the details of Anthony Foxx’s résumé and policy positions, let’s just take a moment to appreciate this: [...]
dc.streetsblog.org/2013/04/29/meet-your-next-transportation-secretary/
April 29, 2013
Sustainable transportation advocates have mostly cheered the expected appointment of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to the top job at U.S. DOT. Image: Cyclelicious via Mary Newsom
Later today President Obama is expected to nominate Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx to replace Ray LaHood as transportation secretary.
The last time we reported about Foxx, the North Carolina Legislature was [...]
streetsblog.net/2013/04/29/what-kind-of-transpo-secretary-will-charlotte-mayor-anthony-foxx-be/
April 26, 2013
Photo: South Slope News
Christine Bush, editor of the neighborhood blog South Slope News, writes in with this question about when painted bike lanes and alternate side parking collide:
We just had our snazzy new bike lanes pop up on 14th and 15th Streets in South Park Slope last weekend, but when I left to take my bike-lanes/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/26/dear-streetsbloggers-how-do-you-handle-alt-side-parkers-blocking-bike-lanes/
April 26, 2013
BEDLAM! A lunatic cyclist is brought under control by a slacking city employee.
Given the Post’s unequivocal hatred of people who ride bicycles, you’d think Col Allan’s tabloid would applaud DOT for assigning a small number of employees to encourage cyclists to ride in the direction of traffic and stop for pedestrians. Instead, the Post today bike-hate-beaming-from-the-new-york-post/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/26/its-spring-feel-the-bike-hate-beaming-from-the-new-york-post/
April 25, 2013
This morning, a group of livable streets advocates gathered in the Madison Square pedestrian plaza to announce the formation of StreetsPAC, a political action committee to put street safety front and center in New York City’s 2013 election cycle.
Eric McClure announces the formation of StreetsPAC at Madison Square this morning. Photo: Stephen Miller
Many of the names bike-i-walk-and-i-vote-streets-pac-launches-with-focus-on-city-council/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/25/i-bike-i-walk-and-i-vote-streets-pac-launches-with-focus-on-city-council/
April 25, 2013
DOT Street Safety Managers at First Avenue and 11th Street. Photo: Stephen Miller
Wondering what’s up with the people holding stop signs in the bike lane today? NYC DOT’s press office just sent out this explanation:
New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan today announced that DOT Street Safety Managers (SSM) are assigned to bike-routes/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/25/dot-deploys-street-safety-managers-to-high-volume-bike-routes/
April 24, 2013
From left, NYC DOT Policy Director Jon Orcutt, University of Connecticut civil engineering professor Norman Garrick, David Vega-Barachowitz of NACTO, and Laura MacNeil of Sam Schwartz Engineering talk street design last night at the Center for Architecture. Photo: Stephen Miller
Cities and towns have been leading the charge for safer streets, incorporating design elements like protected [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/24/writing-the-manual-how-nycs-streets-will-be-the-rule-not-the-exception/
April 23, 2013
Photo: Brian Wilson
Over the weekend, crews finished striping new bike routes on 14th Street and 15th Street in Brooklyn, creating a safer east-west connection between Prospect Park West and Third Avenue on the southern end of Park Slope. These are painted, unprotected lanes, except for the westbound stretch between PPW and Eighth Avenue, which is [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/23/eyes-on-the-street-fresh-stripes-in-the-south-slope/
April 23, 2013
Last night’s mayoral forum on sustainability at Cooper Union was the first to attract the full slate of candidates this election season, perhaps a sign that environmental issues now figure prominently in the campaigns’ electoral calculus. Organized by the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund and the Cooper Union Institute for Sustainable Design, [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/23/most-candidates-endorse-traffic-reduction-but-few-offer-plans-to-achieve-it/
April 23, 2013
NBBL Lawyer Jim Walden Spreading Misinformation About Bike Lanes to Manhattan CB 8 (DNA)
Bikeshare.com Maps 2013 North American Start-Ups (TransNat)
MTA Board Postpones Decision on How to Use “Extra” $40M (TransNat)
City Planning Certifies Bloomberg’s East Midtown Rezoning Plan (DNA)
Select Bus Service Coming to Webster Avenue in June (News)
Post-Sandy Rockaways Commute Made Worse by Overcrowding on the [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/23/todays-headlines-1620/
April 22, 2013
For now, this is as good as it's going to get for cyclists who approach the Manhattan Bridge via Jay Street. Image: DOT
To make biking between Brooklyn and Manhattan safer and more appealing, one thing that needs to be addressed is access to the Manhattan Bridge from downtown Brooklyn. With the high volume of traffic bike-approach/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/22/dot-proposes-striping-adjustments-for-manhattan-bridge-bike-approach/
April 19, 2013
We continue our series on City Council candidates with a Q&A with former New York Young Republican Club President Daniel Peterson, who’s running to represent District 22, covering Astoria, Ditmars-Steinway, and northern Jackson Heights. Yesterday we ran a Q&A with Democratic District Leader Costa Constantinides. There are two other candidates in this district. Antonio Meloni responded to Streetsblog’s questionnaire but did [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/19/city-council-candidates-on-the-issues-daniel-peterson-district-22/
April 18, 2013
This is how the Times of London editorializes about bike safety.
So yesterday the Daily News published an opinion piece on bike-share that framed it not as a new option for New Yorkers to get around, but as another tense, dangerous showdown in the eternal confrontation between bikes and cars. Yawn.
Of course, the fact that bike-share systems [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/18/what-it-looks-like-when-a-newspaper-actually-cares-about-safe-streets/
April 17, 2013
Fourth Avenue in Park Slope is slated for a road diet that will shorten crossing distances for pedestrians. Image: NYC DOT
For years, Fourth Avenue has been identified as one of Brooklyn’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians. Recently, DOT has been working neighborhood-by-neighborhood — in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Park Slope — to redesign Fourth [...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/17/traffic-calming-road-diet-could-come-to-fourth-avenue-in-park-slope/
April 17, 2013
In Walkonomics' analysis of Toronto, green means it's a great place to walk, and red means high anxiety for pedestrians. Image: Walkonomics
The new wealth of finely-grained information on cities — culled from Google Maps, open government data, and other sources — continues to deepen our understanding of the places where we live at a breathtaking [...]
streetsblog.net/2013/04/17/torontos-walkability-analyzed-and-illustrated/
April 16, 2013
While current and former City Council transportation chairs James Vacca and John Liu reacted to bike-share with paranoia and fear, at least one council member was breaking out the credit card: Brooklyn’s Brad Lander posted this tweet after signing up for a Citi Bike subscription yesterday.
Any of Lander’s colleagues have a lower membership number than he bike-share/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/16/who-will-be-the-second-city-council-member-to-sign-up-for-bike-share/
April 16, 2013
What does John Liu think of bikes in NYC? That’s hard to say, and it’s not clear that Liu knows either.
On the day when thousands signed up for the city’s bike-share program, exceeding expectations and setting the stage for a major shift in the way many New Yorkers get around, Liu chose to engage in bike-lanes/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/16/john-liu-cyclists-need-helmets-but-not-bike-lanes/
April 15, 2013
Public space and street safety improvements from Bushwick to the Bronx are up for discussion at public meetings on the Streetsblog calendar. The week is capped by the RPA’s 23rd Regional Assembly. Here are the details:
Tuesday: Brooklyn Community Board 2′s transportation committee will hear a DOT presentation on extending the Jay Street bike lanes north of Tillary bikes-and-more/>[...]
www.streetsblog.org/2013/04/15/this-week-plaza-plans-blessing-of-the-bikes-and-more/
April 12, 2013
Making your own traffic counts could be this easy. Photo: Kickstarter
Liberate yourself from government transportation data that doesn’t tell you what you need to know!
Break the chains of ignorance about how streets in your town are being used!
Declare your independence from five-year-old data sets in PDF spreadsheets!
Advocates have for too long been at the mercy bikes-and-cars-without-a-clipboard/>[...]
dc.streetsblog.org/2013/04/12/counting-bikes-and-cars-without-a-clipboard/
