Automated traffic enforcement cameras and lockboxes to protect transit funding are at the top of the legislative agenda for transportation advocates in 2012. Image: Wikipedia.

Many of Albany’s biggest transportation issues this year — the bloated and transit-free Tappan Zee, the unfunded MTA capital plan — will be decided by Governor Cuomo. But transportation advocates also have a slate of bills they hope to see make it through the legislature. Last year, the complete streets bill passed after a few prior attempts. Here’s what’s on the table for 2012.

Transit Lockboxes

Last year, lockbox legislation sponsored by Assembly Member James Brennan and Senator Marty Golden passed the legislature unanimously, only to have Governor Cuomo “eviscerate” the bill by amendment. The sponsors have vowed to try for the original language again.

The politics of the lockbox could be different this year if downstate legislators team up with their colleagues upstate. Buffalo Republican Mark Grisanti has introduced his own lockbox meant to protect dedicated funds for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. He is amenable to working with those hoping to protect the MTA. “If we can get the upstate folks talking about a lockbox bill in the same breath as the MTA, then maybe that sends a louder message to the governor,” said Nadine Lemmon, Albany legislative advocate for the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

Speed Cameras

Assembly Member Deborah Glick’s legislation to allow speed enforcement using automated cameras hasn’t gone anywhere in the past, but advocates have declared it a top priority for this year. “It’s speed cams all the time when it comes to Albany,” said Juan Martinez, general counsel for Transportation Alternatives.

The bill has support not only from transportation advocacy groups, but the New York City DOT and public health organizations. “There is a good coalition that’s gotten around it,” said Lemmon. That said, the bill still doesn’t have a Senate sponsor, an indication of how much work is left to be done.

Red Light Cameras

Three bills to increase the number of red light cameras permitted by the state, one each for New York City, Nassau County and Suffolk County, passed the Senate last year only to die in the Assembly transportation committee. Assembly transportation chair David Gantt has a history of blocking bills that would allow localities to implement life-saving traffic technology.

The red light camera bills didn’t have sufficient outside support last year, said Lemmon, who expects more action on the issue in 2012. If necessary, she said, the bills’ Assembly sponsors might be willing to use a parliamentary procedure to force a vote in committee. In the Senate, the bills are sponsored by Marty Golden, Chuck Fuschillo and Owen Johnson, respectively.

Transit Commuter Tax Benefit

The federal government may have let the tax benefit for transit fall to $125 per month while raising the parking perk to $240, but that doesn’t mean New York State has to. Senator Chuck Fuschillo’s legislation would reinstate the full benefit for state taxes. The benefit reduction doesn’t matter much for New York City residents — even now, the tax benefit covers a monthly MetroCard — but for those commuting into Manhattan on the LIRR or Metro-North, it’s a major incentive to take transit.

Fuschillo’s bill passed the Senate but died in the Assembly last year. Though it previously didn’t have outside advocates behind it, that will change in 2012.

Commercial Cyclist Responsibility

It seems that almost every community board in Manhattan has complained about unsafe riding by working cyclists. In order to effectively and equitably improve commercial cyclist behavior, Transportation Alternatives is lobbying for a bill sponsored by Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh.

The legislation would place responsibility for traffic violations by working cyclists on their employers. “It’s the business owner who is in the best position to guide the cyclists’ behavior,” explained Martinez. “In order to make those deliveries, they feel they have to ride the wrong way or ride on the sidewalk.” On construction sites, Martinez said, employers receive violations for workers who don’t wear hard hats; he said the principle should be the same for cyclists.

Transportation Alternatives’ push for the bill comes as City Council Member James Vacca is launching his own campaign to regulate commercial cyclists. Under Vacca’s proposal, police would step up enforcement of existing rules and working cyclists would be required to take a new bicycle safety course.

Curbside Bus Regulation

The curbside bus industry is booming, to say the least. In 2007, 4.2 million people rode MegaBus, Fung Wah and other curbside buses along the Northeast Corridor, compared to zero a decade before, and the number of riders continues to grow rapidly. That means it’s easier to travel the East Coast in a way that’s both affordable and sustainable, but it’s also created significant pressures on the neighborhoods in which the buses load and unload, where passengers and luggage cramp the sidewalks.

A bill sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Senator Dan Squadron would, for the first time, allow the city to regulate how curbside buses work. In theory, the city would be able to shift curbside operations toward streets with more room, or to locations that otherwise fit the city’s transportation vision. Legislation along these lines was proposed by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign in a 2009 report on improving regional bus service.

The bill doesn’t allow for a situation like that in Washington, D.C., however, where the city attempted to charge bus companies an $80,000 annual fee, which the industry said would result in higher fares. Under Silver’s law, the maximum annual fee for a permit is $275.

Last year, the Assembly passed the bill but it died in the Senate. With Silver’s name at the top, its future likely depends on his willingness to wheel and deal with the Senate.

A rendering of the Wyandanch Rising project, which used a planning grant to develop a downtown redevelopment vision that went on to win both state and federal funding.

An important heads up from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign: Towns looking to shape their future around NYC region’s extensive transit network have until the end of the week to apply for a grant from Tri-State and the One Region Funders’ Group to help turn those aspirations into a concrete vision.

This marks the second round of grants being issued by the groups. The first, given out in 2009, have helped a number of cities and towns in the region. Stratford, Connecticut turned a $50,000 grant into a plan for growth around its Metro-North train station and a draft of a new zoning code. Those plans, in turn, earned Stratford $250,000 in additional funding from the state. Wyandanch Rising, a downtown development project on Long Island, parlayed its funding into $2 million from the federal goverment and a share in the $100 million prize Long Island received from the Cuomo administration for winning its economic development competition.

Towns and cities in southwestern Connecticut, northern New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester County are eligible for the grants, as is New York City. Grants will provide between $10,000 and $50,000 for planning and public outreach. You can get more information and apply on Tri-State’s website.

We’ll be there next Thursday and hope you will too. Tri-State is out there fighting for sustainable transportation options across the region — advocating for a highway teardown in New Haven, protecting LI Bus riders from fare hikes and service cuts, and helping to build transit-oriented communities around NJ Transit lines.

To help support Tri-State’s work, here’s where to go:

Tri-State Transportation Campaign Annual Benefit
November 3, 6pm to 9pm
Top of the Garden, 251 W. 30th St (16th floor), Manhattan
Tickets available from $150

While you’re blocking off space on your calendar for benefits and parties, don’t forget to sign up for “Streets of the Future” — the annual benefit for Streetsblog and Streetfilms, November 17 at the new Bicycle Habitat in Park Slope.

Older people are at much greater risk of being killed by a car while walking, especially in downstate New York. Image: Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

Pedestrians over the age of 60 are particularly at risk when walking on the streets of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, a new report from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign shows. According to “Older Pedestrians at Risk,” an updated version of similar research from last year, the pedestrian fatality rate for those over 60 is more than 2.5 times as high as for those under 60. Senior citizens over the age of 75 are likelier still to be killed by cars while walking, with a fatality rate 3.1 times higher than for those under 60.

Between 2007 and 2009, 433 pedestrians over the age of 60 were killed in traffic crashes in the tri-state area. Two hundred and seventy one were killed on roads in downstate New York. Programs like New York City’s Safe Streets for Seniors have saved lives, said Tri-State, but they need additional funding for more widespread implementation.

Bill Ferris, the legislative director for AARP in New York, said the Tri-State report “showed some disturbing trends in how older persons are disproportionately killed walking in their own communities. This is unacceptable to AARP.”

The Tri-State authors identified four reasons that older pedestrians were disproportionately in danger from traffic. Older people are less able to quickly move out of the way of an oncoming vehicle and likely to sustain greater injuries from the same crash, two factors which contribute to an elevated pedestrian fatality rate nationwide. Design-wise, seniors suffer when streets are designed for a younger population, as when traffic lights don’t provide enough time for a slower person to safely cross the street.

In the tri-state area, however, older pedestrians are at even greater risk of being killed by cars than they are nationwide. The ability to remain active without needing to drive is a major boon for the area’s seniors, but staying out and about does mean staying exposed to the risk of traffic crashes.

Large numbers of older, active residents is part of why Brooklyn had the highest pedestrian fatality rate for people over 60 of any county in the entire tri-state area, an ignominious title that belonged to Manhattan in last year’s report. Brooklynites over the age of 60 made up 46 percent of all pedestrian fatalities in the borough even though they only make up 16.3 percent of the population. Factsheets for each county in the region can be found on Tri-State’s website.

As the region’s population continues to age, ensuring that older residents are able to walk safely will become only more important. “It all points to the need for New York State legislature to pass complete streets legislation in order to make our roads safer for all users,” said Ferris. Complete streets legislation, currently pending in Albany, is particularly important considering the finding that seniors are disproportionately killed on large arterial roads, the kind of streets that are targeted by the bill.

A map of New York-area pedestrian fatalities. Because so many people in the region walk, pedestrian safety measures can prevent a large number of deaths and injuries. Image: Transportation for America

Despite streets that remain far too dangerous for walking — 3,485 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes during the past decade in the New York metro area alone — efforts to pass a complete streets bill are still stalled in the state legislature.

The legislation, which would require all street projects that receive state and federal funding to accommodate the needs of everyone who uses the street, has passed the Senate Transportation Committee but hasn’t even been introduced in the Assembly yet. With less than a month left in the legislative session, a complete streets bill is going to need powerful supporters to clear the Albany gauntlet.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is urging complete streets supporters to go straight to the top: Governor Andrew Cuomo.

One of the most powerful letters to the governor comes from Sandy Vega. Vega’s daughter Brittany was killed last year while crossing Long Island’s Sunrise Highway, the second-deadliest road in the New York region. She wrote:

Dear Governor Cuomo,

I need your help. New York State needs a Complete Streets law, now, and I am requesting your support and advocacy to make sure this bill is passed before the legislature goes home.

New York has some of the most dangerous roads in the nation, and it is time to stop the carnage. In the fall of 2010, my daughter, Brittany Vega, a 14-year-old walking to school on Long Island, was struck and killed by a car while crossing the road. This particular road, Sunrise Highway, is a 6-lane, arterial road that bisects the central business and residential areas of our hometown in Wantagh. With no count-down clock, there was no way Brittany could tell how long she had to get across. With no pedestrian island in the roadway, she had no safe refuge. She made a guess, and it cost her life.

Complete Streets design principles assure that when roads are built or redesigned, they take into account the needs of all users of the roads, not just cars. Simple changes in road design—such as count-down clocks, better crosswalks, protected bike lanes, and traffic calming devices—can dramatically reduce the number of fatalities on our roads. Complete Streets are safe streets: streets that encourage economic development and assure our seniors can stay in their homes and walk to services, and that our children can make it safely to school. Complete Streets are also environmental streets—providing people with transportation choices that can help to cut down on the congestion and smog that are impacting our health and climate.

Following your lead, in March, advocates for the bill met with those who were concerned that it was an “unfunded mandate.” Both sides were able to come to an agreement and shake hands over new language that everyone was comfortable with. That new bill has been introduced in the Senate, with bi-partisan support, and is moving. However, it is my understanding that the Assembly is waiting for comments from your office before moving the bill in the Assembly.

I urge you to support and find a way to help pass the State Complete Streets bill (S5411) so that our future roads take into account the needs of all users—including users like my daughter.

Sincerely,

Sandi Vega

In a phone interview yesterday afternoon, Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, shared her first impressions of the city’s revised sustainability plan…

On the diminished prominence of transportation compared to the first version of PlaNYC:

So much has been accomplished on the transportation front already, it’s not entirely surprising that transportation wouldn’t be front and center.

On what’s better in the revised plan:

We’re encouraged that they addressed freight, and the way it was addressed. That was a weak point in the original. They’ll be working with the Port Authority to shift more goods onto rail, especially by the 65th Street transfer station (in Brooklyn). Obviously bike-share is a huge project and would benefit the city in a big way if they do it properly.

On the details that are lacking:

The parking section was less specific than I’d hoped.

The shortfall in the MTA capital program is going to require contributions from the city and the state and will probably involve some sort of revenue stream.

On the big picture:

Overall, take a step back from this edition of the plan and think about how far the city has come. If you think back six years ago to where we are now, it’s just remarkable. The streets are much safer. The fact that there are now bus lanes with pre-paid fares is a major step forward. These are improvements that were delayed for years.

We’re not too far away from a discussion of the next mayoral campaign. Advocates are going to be watching closely whether the candidates commit to policies that advance sustainability. Announcing this version of PlaNYC helps move that discussion forward and serves as a guidepost for whoever’s running for mayor.

On the steps of City Hall, TSTC will present the city with a thank-you card signed by over 1,700 people, and will read statements from New Yorkers who have benefited from street improvements brought about during the tenure of NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Care of TSTC’s Steven Higashide, Here’s how you can get involved:

Stand with us at 9 a.m. at City Hall.

Send in a brief story about how NYC’s pedestrian/cycling/transit improvements have personally affected you.

To submit your stories, to RSVP or to get more information about tomorrow’s event, e-mail Steven at steven@tstc.org.

Since being sworn in on Saturday, Andrew Cuomo has already made moves with big implications for transit. Photo: Andrew Cuomo Flickr account.

To begin with, Cuomo is drawing a line in the sand over public sector compensation. Yesterday, a top administration official revealed that Cuomo will ask the state’s unions to accept a salary freeze for all state employees. And today, Cuomo announced that he and senior aides would take a five percent cut.

As Ben Kabak notes in a post today, New York City’s transit workers can’t help but get drawn into this battle. TWU Local 100′s contract with the MTA expires next January, meaning negotiations will start in 2011. Whether because the state budget is intertwined with the MTA’s or because one public contract sets standards for another, Cuomo’s stance will affect those talks. Concludes Kabak:

For better or worse, labor pressures will be one of the top transit storylines for 2011. If workers’ salaries and benefits keep going up, riders will be outraged. If the unions are battered or broken by Albany, the workers will be very unhappy. No matter what, this story will be have a bumpy ride and an ending that can’t be happy for everyone.

Cuomo has also started to make some top appointments, and the Times-Union’s Rick Karlin teases out what one of them might mean: privatization. He writes:

They may not call it that, but watch for deals in which infrastructure, buildings or even bridges and roads are “sold” and then leased back to the state, or operated by concessionaires. It will be controversial, but could raise lots of cash in a hurry. Cuomo has hired Paul Francis, who under Spitzer helped develop a plan — which wasn’t enacted — to securitize or sell future lottery proceeds to investors for a large chunk of cash to help create a fund for higher education.

During the campaign, Cuomo’s policy books didn’t say much about this specific type of privatization, but they did reveal a strong interest in using public-private partnerships to finance infrastructure. However, not all experiences with monetizing transportation assets have been a success — Chicago’s lease of its parking meters is widely considered a disaster for the city — and private sector money never comes without a price tag.

In this cost-conscious environment, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign has some other advice for the governor. On transit funding, Tri-State’s Kate Slevin and Veronica Vanterpool suggest a congestion pricing plan for New York City in order to finance the MTA’s capital program, which still has a $9 billion gap. Cuomo could make the state DOT more efficient and more sustainable by streamlining the agency’s eleven regional offices and investing in more cost-effective smart growth solutions, they write.

Perhaps more controversially, Tri-State also suggests scrapping plans for commuter rail across the Tappan Zee Bridge in order to free up funds for other important projects. Write Slevin and Vanterpool:

On the capital side, the next Governor should also support the LIRR third track project (key for Long Islanders to reap the benefits of East Side Access) and plans for bus rapid transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 corridor. Additionally, plans for Tappan Zee Bridge replacement could be scaled down and proceed without the commuter rail connection from Rockland to NYC. Most commuters using the Tappan Zee are traveling to suburban destinations, not ending their trips in Manhattan, so the bus rapid transit connection, which provides much greater utility at the most affordable cost, should be retained.

The Cuomo Administration is young, but one thing’s already clear. For the foreseeable future, it’s all about making ends meet.

2010 is almost over, and it’s about time to step back and assess all the progress that’s been made in just the past 12 months. This year alone, New York City has seen the transformation of Broadway near Union Square, the taming of traffic on Prospect Park West, the launch of Select Bus Service on one of the nation’s busiest bus routes, the addition of several miles of protected bike routes in Manhattan, and pedestrian safety improvements throughout the boroughs.

With a conflict-hungry press corps ready to pounce on every change and electeds willing to oblige with camera-ready political theater, livable streets improvements are catching a lot of static right now. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is trying to cut through the noise by sending a big thank you to the mayor and leaders in his administration overseeing transportation policy.

If you want to see NYC continue to be a bold leader in green transportation and safer streets in 2011, tell the people in charge and sign on to Tri-State’s thank you letter.

In the next few days we should get to see the responses to candidate surveys sent out by Transportation Alternatives and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, which went to everyone running in the five boroughs and the seven other counties served by the MTA.

We've also got three live debates coming up this week and next, starting tomorrow with the contenders for the 10th Senate District in southeast Queens, incumbent Shirley Huntley and challenger Lynn Nunes. The next day, Pedro Espada's opponents in the 33rd District will face off (a debate that Espada has backed out of), and next Thursday, the candidates running to succeed AG hopeful Eric Schneiderman in the 31st District will discuss where they stand on transportation issues.

Here's the full debate schedule from TA, which is organizing the events with local partners:

10th SENATE DISTRICT DEBATE (Richmond Hill)
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010, 7:00-9:00pm
Fairfield Pavilion, 131-10 101st Avenue, Richmond Hill, Queens
Partner organization: Richmond Hill EDC
Moderator: Clare Trapasso (New York Daily News)

33rd SENATE DISTRICT DEBATE (Fordham, Kingsbridge)
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010, 7:00-9:00pm
Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church, 2430 Walton Ave., The Bronx
Partner organization: Picture the Homeless
Moderator: Alex Kratz (Bronx News Network)

31st SENATE DISTRICT DEBATE (Washington Heights, Inwood, West Harlem)
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010, 7:00-9:00pm
The Armory Foundation, 216 Fort Washington Ave (between 168th & 169th Streets), Manhattan
Partner organizations: WE ACT for Environmental Justice, Upper West Side Renaissance
Moderators: Dan Rivoli (West Side Spirit), David King (Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation)

With a deepening budget crisis and continued chaos in Albany, New York’s next governor will inherit no shortage of challenges. Transportation is no exception: Transit systems across the state face incredible deficits and the state lacks a 21st century transportation agenda. How the governor chooses to deal with transportation issues in 2011 and beyond will dictate the future state of our transit and road systems and shape our landscape for decades to come.

From top: Candidates Cuomo, Lazio, and Paladino. Photos via candidate websites.

So far, all the campaigns have been relatively quiet on transportation issues. Front-runner Andrew Cuomo has said he will upgrade downstate airports and create a state infrastructure bank, but his positions on broader policy and funding questions remain a mystery. Republican candidates Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino have offered even fewer details about their transportation priorities, and neither has a transportation section on their campaign website.

What should the next governor’s transportation agenda look like? Below are a few places for the candidates to start:

Reform New York State DOT into a smart growth leader. Old-fashioned approaches to projects, questionable spending decisions, and the collapse of the Champlain Bridge are signs that NYSDOT is ripe for change. A strong, reform-minded leader at the department could bring that change, as Janette Sadik-Khan has done for NYCDOT and Joseph Marie did for the Connecticut Department of Transportation until a few weeks ago. Existing New York state programs could serve as launching points. NYSDOT's GreenLITES program, for example, views transportation projects through a lens of sustainability; the proposed Community Corridor and Land Use Planning Initiative would have the agency work with communities to develop comprehensive solutions to transportation problems; and the state is working with towns toward smart growth planning in the Lower Hudson Valley. New Jersey’s NJFIT program and Pennsylvania’s Smart Transportation program also offer ideas.

Replace the Sheridan Expressway with parks and housing. Few projects offer the smart growth, equity, and sustainability benefits of removing the underutilized Sheridan Expressway in the South Bronx and replacing it with more appropriate development. The next governor should back this proposal and make it a hallmark of a broader sustainable redevelopment effort.

Fund transit and support new revenue streams. The MTA’s operating deficit is $900 million, the capital program is unfunded after 2011, and riders are paying more for less service. Outside of NYC, non-MTA bus systems only have half the revenue they need to maintain existing service.  The governor will have to make the tough decisions to ensure the transit systems in our region are protected from severe cutbacks that could cripple them for generations to come. Setting up a commission, as Governor Paterson did in 2008, is a good way to start the discussion.  East River Bridge tolls, allowing solo drivers to pay a toll to use the HOV lanes on the Long Island Expressway, a higher gas tax, and allowing Thruway tolls to fund transit service are all possibilities worth consideration. On the federal level, the governor should direct the MTA to support modest federal aid for transit operations, something it has traditionally opposed.

Improve suburban transit, especially for bus riders. Nassau County’s Long Island Bus is facing cuts that could destroy the system. Westchester’s Bee-Line Bus just cut service. A new funding agreement between the counties, MTA and state and a new administrative structure for the agency could offer cost savings and protect service for riders. On the capital side, the next governor should also support the LIRR third track project (key if Long Islanders are to reap the benefits of East Side Access) and plans for bus rapid transit in the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 corridor.

Improve cross-Hudson transit service. NYC and New Jersey both benefit from strong transit connections across the Hudson. With the groundbreaking of the ARC passenger rail tunnel last year, there is finally hope for reduced congestion and improved transit connections across the Hudson, not to mention economic benefits for homeowners. The next governor should continue to support ARC, and ensure the Port Authority also works for near-term improvements for cross-Hudson bus riders. This includes prioritizing plans for a second Manhattan-bound bus lane through the Lincoln Tunnel and building a bus garage on the West Side of Manhattan, a key project that has been postponed by the Port Authority due to budget deficits.

Make roads safer and adopt a complete streets policy. Nearly 300 people die while walking in New York State each year. Traffic calming offers tremendous safety enhancements on dangerous roadways for limited capital investment. The next governor should use federal dollars to fix the states’ most dangerous roads for walking, expand affordable and effective programs like the Local Safe Streets and Traffic Calming Grant and SafeSeniors programs, and start a new statewide Safe Routes to Transit program. The governor should also support the complete streets policy that passed the Senate earlier this year.

Keep innovative leaders. Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward and MTA Executive Director Jay Walder have brought innovation and cost savings to their agencies during difficult financial times. Maintaining both appointments could allow the agencies to focus attention on the economic challenges ahead, rather than on transitions to new directors.

There were 424 pedestrian and cyclist injuries and crashes in the Town of Babylon between 2006 and 2008 alone. Image: TSTC

In the face of state inaction, Long Island's local governments are taking street safety into their own hands, passing their own complete streets policies. However, there's only so much that towns can do; some of their most dangerous streets are outside their jurisdiction. A comprehensive approach to street safety requires action from the Assembly. 

The Town of Babylon, which encompasses several smaller communities and is home to more than 200,000 people, passed Long Island's first complete streets policy earlier this month. The legislation acknowledges the town's auto-dependency and Long Island's history as a region that pioneered sprawl, while promising to move beyond that legacy. "This Policy will fundamentally change the relationship between driver and pedestrian by creating streets that regard these users equally, with equal right to access and use," reads the preface to the bill.

Any roadwork under the town's jurisdiction -- whether planning, repair, or new construction -- must now be designed and executed to accommodate pedestrians of all abilities, cyclists, and public transportation. While not every street will have sidewalks or bike lanes, Babylon is committed to building "an interwoven array" of streets -- networks for walking, bicycling, and transit so people can reach destinations safely and quickly without having to drive.

To ensure that the new policy has staying power, Babylon will develop a new Sustainable Complete Streets Master Plan within 18 months and evaluate its streets based on a new array of metrics, including the increase in walking and biking and the reduction in car speeds in pedestrian areas.

Babylon isn't the only Long Island town working to complete its streets. Both Islip and Brookhaven, which cover big geographic areas and have the populations of medium-sized cities (around 300,000 and 450,000 people, respectively), will be voting on complete streets policies in August. 

"Hopefully we'll be the second town," said George Hoffman, the chief of staff for Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan. "It helps build walkable communities, it helps bikers, it helps seniors," Hoffman explained, adding that Islip modeled its complete streets policy after Babylon's and that he believes the bill has strong support in the town council. 

But these towns won't be able to do everything on their own. As noted by the Ryan Lynch of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, local complete streets laws can only require change on roads owned by the town itself or in private subdivisions. State and county roads like the Sunrise Highway, the second-most dangerous road in the region, would be exempt. Only 29 percent of Babylon's pedestrian and cycling fatalities occurred along town roads, according to Tri-State.

That's why the Assembly needs to pass a statewide complete streets bill. "That wold be the preferable way," said Hoffman, "since most all the roads have some sort of state funding in them." Hoffman added that any state law would be perfectly compatible with ongoing local efforts to improve street safety, and that concerns about imposing an unfunded mandate were unfounded. "If you get in at the planning stage," he explained, "a lot of this stuff is really not expensive." 

The Sheridan Expressway runs only 1.25 miles between the Cross-Bronx and Bruckner Expressways. This option, one of two remaining alternatives, would remove it entirely. Image: NYSDOT

At a public meeting last night, the state Department of Transportation released a traffic analysis of the proposal to tear down the Sheridan Expressway, the Moses-era "highway to nowhere" that separates Bronx residents from the Bronx River waterfront. The main conclusion appeared to bode poorly for the plan to replace the highway with housing and parks: According to the state DOT, removing the Sheridan would force traffic onto local streets.

In response, advocates for transportation reform and environmental justice warned about potential flaws in the methodology behind DOT's traffic analysis. They also questioned the assumptions behind the agency's impending environmental review, which won't take into account any of the benefits of what will replace the Sheridan. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign's Kyle Wiswall called the DOT's environmental analysis "an exercise in futility" that "seems to be engineered to reach a preconceived result" -- keeping the highway in place.

For years, the state DOT has been studying ways to improve the highway system near Hunts Point, a regional food distribution center that's a hub for truck traffic. Currently, trucks travel onto the peninsula via local roads, destroying the quality of life for area residents even as the many highway interchanges in the South Bronx -- the Sheridan, the Major Deegan, and Bronx River Parkway all run between the Cross Bronx and Bruckner Expressways -- snarl highway traffic.

Thanks in large part to a sustained advocacy campaign, under the umbrella of Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, the teardown option has gradually gained momentum and entered the official discussion of what to do with the Sheridan.

The DOT has now narrowed their proposal down to two possibilities. In some ways, they are identical. Both would add an exit on the Bruckner that could connect more directly to Hunts Point, intended to keep truck traffic off local streets. Near where the Bruckner meets the Sheridan, it briefly narrows from three lanes to two, before widening again; both plans would add a lane on that segment to eliminate the bottleneck.

But the difference between the two plans is a big one.

One would keep the Sheridan Expressway in place; the other would remove the highway altogether. That would be the first highway teardown in New York since the West Side Highway was removed in the 1970s and 80s. The state DOT will make a final choice in early 2012, according to Gill Mosseri, the project manager with the consulting engineering team. 

The Sheridan is only 1.25 miles long and serves as a redundant connection between the Cross-Bronx and the Bruckner. The Major Deegan connects the two only four miles west of the Sheridan, while the Bronx River Parkway connects them less than a mile east of the Sheridan. The Cross-Bronx and Bruckner merge directly only two miles east of the Sheridan. The Sheridan is so underutilized that on some days you can safely stand in the middle of the highway at rush hour. 

With the highway gone, 28 acres of newly available space could be put to use as badly needed affordable housing or parkland. The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance's community-based plan would replace the highway with 1,000 units of housing and a greenway along the river, creating an estimated 700 jobs.

The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance plan to replace the Sheridan with housing, retail, and open space.

That analysis may not stand, however. "We're going to get the underlying data and pick it apart," said Kyle Wiswall. "The last time we did that, we found errors in both the inputs and the outputs." Coding errors and faulty assumptions about how traffic would grow marred earlier traffic predictions, he said.

Though activists haven't yet had a chance to look at the DOT's model, Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development pressed DOT representatives last night about "the meta-assumption that traffic will increase no matter what."

Mosseri responded that the department was using the model recommended by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (the region's federally designated planning body), which assumes that traffic will increase with population. 

The DOT now begins preparing an environmental impact statement for each proposal, with drafts expected to be released in early 2011. Because the EIS includes categories like "visual resources," "land-use and social conditions," and "environmental justice," you might expect that document to look more favorably on park space and housing than on a highway. That's not what the EIS is likely to do, however.

Claiming that there isn't any official plan for what would replace the Sheridan, the DOT and their environmental consultant argued that they can't factor in any benefits of what would replace the highway. "You just lose the Sheridan," said Guy Lamonaca, the project engineer with DOT. "Maybe you put up a barrier, you put up a fence."

In other words, said Wiswall, in the analysis, "the removal isn't a removal. It's a highway left to rot." 

By not assessing any benefits of highway removal, DOT is putting a finger on the scales, argued Byron. She worried that keeping the Sheridan will end up the department's preferred alternative because DOT's assumptions will lead to the conclusion that "having a highway is better than not having a highway."

Byron called on the New York City agencies which would have authority over the freed-up land if the Sheridan is torn down -- City Planning, Parks, DOT, and the Economic Development Corporation -- to intercede with the state DOT and assure them that the land wouldn't be allowed to lie fallow. "It's their prerogative to insert themselves into this debate," she said.

The august New York State Senate. Photo: AP

For as long as Streetsblog has been covering the transportation reform beat, Albany has been a graveyard for progressive transportation legislation affecting New York City. Sheldon Silver and Assembly Democrats buried congestion pricing there in 2008. The State Senate poured cement shoes for bridge tolls last year, hobbling the attempt to provide the MTA with greater financial stability. Now our transit system is shrinking, and the fiscal disaster that the state has unleashed on bus and subway riders seems poised to grow worse.

While several good pieces of legislation can make it through the gauntlet this month, bills authorizing bus lane enforcement cameras, complete streets policies, and more effective legal protections for pedestrians and cyclists have all met untimely demises in recent legislative sessions as well.

So Streetsblog readers probably have a lot they'd like to ask their representatives in the state capitol, and the challengers they may face. With primaries for every seat in the Assembly and the State Senate coming up on September 14 (mark your calendars!), it's time to start putting those questions to the people who want your vote. In July, Transportation Alternatives and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign will send a survey to every registered candidate in the MTA service region -- the five boroughs plus seven downstate counties.

TA put out a candidate survey for NYC electoral contests last year -- receiving answers from 73 contenders -- but this is something of a first, I believe, for Albany races. If you'd like to help formulate the questions, TA and Tri-State want to hear your ideas.

Word is that they're especially interested in what you'd like to ask Andrew Cuomo, Rick Lazio, Carl Paladino, and any Baldwin brother who might throw his hat into the governor's race. Tops on my list would have to be: "How are you going to stop state government from crippling our transit system by plundering dedicated MTA taxes?"

What's on yours?

The intersection of Bleecker and Carmine is located in New York's most dangerous county for older pedestrians. Photo: A. Strakey/Flickr.

Older pedestrians across America are at higher risk of being killed in a car crash, but the problem is particularly acute in downstate New York. Nationally, pedestrian fatality rates are 1.5 times as high for Americans 60 and older than for those under 60. In downstate New York, older pedestrians are killed 3.7 times as often. The pedestrian fatality rate for those over 75 is even higher, almost five times that of those under 60. 

Between 2006 and 2008, 290 pedestrians aged 60 or over were killed by drivers in downstate New York.

Culling information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tri-State found that of the 12 downstate counties, Manhattan had the highest rate of pedestrian fatalities among senior citizens. Because seniors walk more in New York City, the need to build streets where they can get around safely is all the more striking.

"In most of the country, once you age out of driving you're kind of stranded," said Tri-State's Michelle Ernst. "New York is great because you can walk, but that means that more older people are exposed to the dangers of being hit and killed by an automobile." Brooklyn had the second highest rate of pedestrian fatalities among older residents, followed by Nassau County, Staten Island, and Orange County. County-by-county fact-sheets are available on Tri-State's website.

Tri-State offered a number of recommendations for how to address the crisis of senior safety. In Albany, they highlight complete streets legislation, which has strong backing from AARP, and vulnerable user legislation, like Hayley and Diego's law.

At the local level, they recommend instituting or expanding programs like New York City's Safe Routes for Seniors, which targets pedestrian infrastructure in neighborhoods with high concentrations of older residents. "NYCDOT has been a leader in this field," said Ernst, highlighting infrastructure improvements like pedestrian refuge islands and longer crosswalk times as particularly important for older pedestrians.

Finally, Tri-State called for shifting federal funds from the Highway Safety Improvement Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program to pedestrian safety.

AARP is due to release a similar report on older pedestrian fatalities in five upstate counties as well. That report could "spur some activity with some upstate legislators" said Will Stoner, AARP's Associate State Director for Livable Communities. Assembly Transportation Committee chair David Gantt, whose support is critical for passing complete streets legislation, represents Rochester. 

Ernst stressed that taking these steps can help take the fear out of crossing the street and make New York a safer place to grow old. "It's grandparents," she said. "They've seen so much in their lives that to be struck down while walking down the street is just really tragic."

The smart growth bill pending in Albany would cut down on subsidies for sprawling greenfield development. Image of subdivisions outside Riverhead, in Suffolk County, NY: Google Maps

The complete streets bill, sponsored by Brooklyn Senator Martin Malavé Dilan, would require that all new and reconstructed roads "accommodate all users," old or young, whether they walk, bike or drive. If passed, the law would "make complete streets the norm rather than the exception," said Nadine Lemmon, Tri-State's Albany legislative director. As Streetsblog reported last month, the legislation is moving quickly through the State Senate, but hasn't progressed beyond the Assembly transportation committee, chaired by Rochester Democrat David Gantt. 

The public infrastructure act, sponsored by Westchester County Senator Suzi Oppenheimer, Brooklyn Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Buffalo Assembly Member Sam Hoyt, would shift state infrastructure spending -- on roads, sewers, schools and housing -- away from far-flung sprawl and toward projects in line with smart growth principles. More than a dozen state departments, agencies, and authorities -- including heavyweights like the state DOT, the Port Authority, the Department of Education and the Empire State Development Corporation -- will be required to focus their spending on existing infrastructure in developed areas.

Under the smart growth bill, infrastructure projects would also need to protect the state's environmental resources, foster compact, mixed-use development, and reduce automobile dependency. Agency heads can only ignore these criteria if they sign a written justification of their decision. "We're going to make it very hard to build another sewer line into another greenfield," said Peter Fleischer, the executive director of Empire State Future, New York's smart growth coalition. 

Fleischer added that unlike past smart growth legislation that's come out of Albany, this one has some teeth. "It clearly instructs state departments, agencies, and corporations," he said. "It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room." 

The smart growth legislation has picked up some momentum in the legislature recently. In early April, the bill cleared the Senate environmental conservation committee with bipartisan support; Queens Republican Frank Padavan joined all the committee's Democrats in voting yes. It now moves on to the finance committee, chaired by Brooklyn Democrat Carl Kruger. In the Assembly, the bill passed through the environmental conservation committee and is awaiting action by the ways and means committee, chaired by Upper Manhattan Democrat Denny Farrell. Among the 40 Assembly sponsors are six Republicans and one Independence Party member.

The decision to link the two bills isn't just strategic. Advocates see the two policies as complementary. "It starts to move real money away from doing the wrong thing in the wrong places," said Fleischer, "which would allow efforts like complete streets to be funded so you can do the right things in the right places." 

Eric Alexander, the executive director of Vision Long Island, thinks the combination could be transformative across his region. If both were passed, he said, it would "unleash a series of municipal initiatives for traffic calming or even opening up street grids." The efficacy of local street redesigns, though, can't be realized until the state stops subsidizing sprawl so much, he said. "Our first message was 'Stop hurting us,'" said Alexander. "Don't continue to widen roads." Alexander highlighted road and sewer construction as especially sprawl-inducing, but was also intrigued by the possibility of shifting economic development dollars from industrial parks to downtowns. 

"Even the market forces are saying let's not sprawl out," said Alexander, "so for the government to subsidize it is idiocy."

NHTS data from 2001 and 2009 shows a major increase in sustainable transportation. Image via Mobilizing the Region.

Last year, 11.9 percent of all trips were on foot or by bike, while 4.2 percent of trips were on transit. Both figures signify major increases.

The National Household Travel Survey, the source of the new stats, is the gold-standard for transportation data. As Mobilizing the Region reported, while the Census only tracks how people get to work, the NHTS gathers data on all trips taken. It also distinguishes between, say, driving to a park-and-ride bus area and walking to the local bus stop.

The downside to the NHTS is how infrequently the survey is conducted, which makes it difficult to determine how much the 2009 data reflects a larger trend, and how much may be due to temporary changes brought on by fluctuating gas prices and the recession.

The high quality of NHTS data means that it can supplement NYC DOT's own numbers, which have shown a large rise in cycling over the same period. We've put in a request to the state DOT and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council to get access to city-level data once it becomes available. 

AARP volunteer Marlene Ramsey tracks safety conditions on Third Avenue. Photo: Noah Kazis.

Third Avenue is seven lanes wide at this location, so it's perhaps no surprise that so many tragedies occur there. Small fixes, though, could make a big difference. Volunteer Marlene Ramsey identified the crosswalks, badly in need of repainting and more visible zebra stripes, as the biggest problem with the intersection. Standing next to her, Alice Wade requested countdown timers for walk signs. Without them, she said, "I have to rush across the street and be scared I'll fall."

Some of the surveyors had personal experience with the hazards of Third Avenue. Volunteer Bobby Lee, who lives between Second and Third Avenues, explained his motivation for fighting for safer streets. "There was an older adult in my neighborhood who got run over by a bus," he said. "The bus driver was traumatized and the older adult was dead." Susan Ryckman, who lives on Third Avenue, reported, "I had two close calls walking here today. It really is dangerous."

The survey results will be released in the near future, and AARP will send the findings to NYCDOT in hopes of making Third and 49th safe for pedestrians. But the work won't end there. The volunteers, all of whom were new to transportation activism, will soon put their experience to work on their own blocks, conducting walkability surveys.

AARP volunteers from the other four boroughs, as well as from nearby suburban counties, will also perform similar surveys. Together, says AARP's Will Stoner, these activists will help advocate for a statewide complete streets bill in Albany in the current legislative session, part of a campaign for livable streets at the local, state, and federal levels that should pay big dividends for all street users. "If you design a roadway for someone older," said Stoner, "it'll be safer for people with baby carriages or really anyone else."

Nine pedestrians were killed on Third Ave. in Manhattan between 2006 and 2008.

According to a TSTC analysis of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data from 2006 to 2008, Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and Manhattan's Third Avenue saw nine fatalities each, with Broadway close behind at eight. Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, Kings Highway in Brooklyn and Staten Island's Hylan Boulevard all had seven deaths during the three year period.

Kings Highway is a new addition to the list; the rest were singled out in TSTC's 2008 report, which encompassed 2005-2007 data.

"The most dangerous roads for walking are either major suburban roadways dotted with retail destinations but designed exclusively for fast-moving car traffic or extremely busy urban roads," said author Michelle Ernst. Topping the list again were Hempstead Turnpike in Nassau County and Sunrise Highway in Suffolk County, with 13 and 11 fatalities, respectively.

TSTC and other advocates called for the New York State DOT to increase investments in pedestrian safety and, while lauding NYCDOT for its efforts, agreed that more can and should be done. "The design of these streets encourages dangerous driving behavior like speeding and failure to yield," said Transportation Alternatives' Paul Steely White. "In a region where many families don’t own cars, that so many streets should be hostile to walking is appalling."

Marking the release of the report, volunteers from AARP today assessed conditions on Third Ave. using a walkability survey developed by the AARP Public Policy Institute. Results will be shared with city officials. Seniors across the metro region suffer a disproportionate number of deaths at the hands of drivers. 

The full report, along with county fact sheets and links to interactive Google Maps, is available here.

More lanes, or more housing and parks? Image of proposed Deegan Expressway widening: NYSDOT. Image of the community plan for a de-commissioned Sheridan Expressway: SBRWA.

The DOT is considering tearing down the little-used Sheridan, a decision that would clear trucks off local streets and make room for housing, shops, and parks by the Bronx River. But the capital plan sets aside just $2 million for the project. As advocates said in testimony today, that's only enough cash to muddle through the studies already underway.

To repeat: The capital plan includes $266 million to widen a highway in an asthma-choked area of the Bronx, and $2 million for a project that could dramatically improve neighborhoods pummeled by truck traffic. Addressing a State Senate committee today, advocates made the case for a different approach.

"We call on the NYS DOT to reinstate funding for the Sheridan project by reducing the size and scope of the Major Deegan Expressway project," said the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance in a written statement. "With scarce resources, the agency must do a better job of prioritizing transportation investments that promote the safety, health and well-being of New York City residents."

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign submitted detailed commentary on the full capital plan, which you can read here. Here Tri-State explains why the New York State DOT, which doesn't expand highways to the same degree as other DOTs, still has a weakness for widening certain types of roads.

NYS DOT often plans large or over built rehabilitation projects under the guise of "bringing the roadway up to modern design standards." While certain modern design changes can help improve safety, spending millions of dollars, in some cases hundreds of millions, to simply widen interchanges, intersections, or build additional lanes does not make sense. Such projects often do little to solve congestion in the long-run, and come with very high price tags at a time when we have no money to waste.