A vote is expected tomorrow on Intro. 2007-631, which would reduce the maximum idling time from three minutes to one minute when the vehicle in question is "adjacent" to any public or private school. The bill, from Council Member John Liu, appears to enjoy wide support, but opposition remains. A 9:30 a.m. rally on the steps of City Hall will precede tomorrow's vote. Says Rebecca Kalin of Asthma Free School Zone:

Idling is harmful to health and environment; it's wasteful and against the law. Now, we can add "dangerous to pedestrians." The Chinatown tragedy might never have happened if the driver had simply turned the key.

A separate bill, Intro. 2008-881, by Daniel Garodnick, would empower city traffic agents to enforce idling laws through the use of their hand-held computers. As it stands, according to a press release from the council member, the Department of Environmental Protection is the "lead agency" in citing vehicles for exceeding legal idling limits. Since DEP has 38 inspectors covering the entire city, it's not surprising that very few citations are issued (536 in 2007, says Garodnick).

The council's Committee on Environmental Protection recently held a hearing on Intro 881. Again, cross-checking co-sponsors, a number of supporters of 881 have also signed onto the parking meter "grace period" bill. Let's hope they don't try to dole out more leeway for idlers too.

In separate letters issued this month to the Department of Environmental Protection, Thompson and Stringer present lists of unanswered questions pertaining to Local Law 41, adopted by the City Council in May 2005. The law required that all tour buses with engines that are at least three years old be retrofitted with best available technologies to reduce diesel particulate levels, and gave companies until January 2007 to either do the retrofits or apply for waivers.

Over three years later, only one company, Gray Line, has brought any of its buses into compliance. According to a DEP report, as of last August just 61 of the 204 tour buses on New York streets meet the law's requirements. The report, Thompson wrote, "shows a very disturbing lack of progress and, in fact, a widespread non-compliance with the law."

According to a 1999 study referenced in a recent New York Post article, a typical Gray Line bus "emit[s] about 25 times more diesel particles than the average bus."

Thompson takes the DEP to task for its tardiness in issuing the first of its required annual reports pertaining to Local Law 41. It was eight months late and, judging by the follow-up questions submitted by Thompson and Stringer, left many issues unaddressed, such as whether DEP is recommending license revocation for companies that aren't obeying the law.

"Tour Buses No -- Tourists Yes" is not only concerned with air pollution, but also noise pollution and physical safety. In September, sight-impaired West Village resident Lloyd Burlingame told NY1:

"I have to depend on my hearing to know when to cross the street and these tour buses, between the racket they make and these guys blathering, I put myself in danger every time they're here and I try to cross the street. So it's a particular problem for people like me."

Also in the NY1 report, City Council Member Alan Gerson said he wants legislation that would regulate tour bus times of operation, routes and frequency. (Enforcement, apparently, is another matter.) And said Villager Milton Polsky: "We have nothing against the tourists, but we'd like to see them walk and enjoy our wonderful sights here."

Photo: Richard Hsu/Flickr

A sidewalk addition will keep traffic from turning onto Hanson Place from Flatbush and Fourth Avenue.

Streets near the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the LIRR's Atlantic Terminal are set to receive a basket of pedestrian improvements that may get underway as soon as November. Speaking last night to the CB2 transportation committee and about a dozen other residents, DOT's Chris Hrones laid out plans for new pedestrian spaces and traffic signals -- including a Barnes Dance (exclusive walk signal) at the intersection of Flatbush and Fourth Avenue.

The presentation [PDF] met with a generally positive reception -- applause, in fact -- although some in the audience voiced disappointment that the improvements do not address the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenue, and others expressed concern about traffic backing up onto local streets as a result of the changes. Hrones said DOT would be able to incorporate feedback into its plans, but that the work is scheduled to proceed in about three weeks. No vote was held.

The pedestrian spaces will be created by closing short segments of roadway to traffic. Cars will no longer be able to turn onto Hanson Place from the intersection of Flatbush and Fourth Avenue, where a new permanent sidewalk will be constructed. Pedestrians will also be able to cross Flatbush and Fourth Avenue more easily, with the implementation of a 31-second exclusive walk phase. Pedestrians currently have an eight-second interval to cross Flatbush before turning vehicles get a green light.

New signal timing will let pedestrians cross Flatbush and Fourth without worrying about turning traffic.

A short distance up the street, another road segment will be closed to traffic, keeping cars from turning onto Third Avenue from Flatbush (top right). Permanent pedestrian plazas are on the drawing board (bottom right), but the Department of Environmental Protection has scheduled a project at the same location that will delay construction until 2013 or later. In the meantime, barriers and striping will set aside space for pedestrians.

Committee members welcomed the new signal timing in particular. One asked for new crosswalk striping to reflect people's desire to walk straight across the street, and another requested a countdown timer so pedestrians can tell how long the exclusive phase will last. They worried, however, that traffic agents would ignore the signal timing and wave cars through since their mandate from NYPD is to keep traffic moving.

When the subject of the Atlantic and Flatbush intersection came up, Hrones said that location was outside the scope of the project.

"At this point there's not something that jumps out that will help address the issue," he said. "In the course of this exercise we didn't find any silver bullets."

Graphics: NYCDOT

"Streets to Live By" marshals data from several cities to make the case for investing in livable streets in New York.

Today Transportation Alternatives released "Streets to Live By" [PDF], the report previewed last week in the Observer. It seeks to define what makes a street livable and to synthesize a broad range of data, culled from numerous cities, on the effects of policies that put pedestrians first.

This doc is a big one, and we're still sifting through it. An early impression: The evidence gathered here related to economic development, health, and social wellbeing suggests that a number of city agencies should be shepherded into the livable streets fold. From the report's recommendations:

Improvements that support livable streets, whether through new construction, street rebuilding or zoning amendments, should be the standard. Coordination and creative problem solving between these agencies, including the Department of City Planning (DCP), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of Design and Construction (DDC), Economic Development Corporation (EDC), Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Department of Sanitation (DOS) would be best led by the DOT and the Mayor’s Office of Planning and Sustainability.

The report also names the Department of Health and the Department of Small Business Services as agencies that can forge stronger ties to a livable streets agenda, and calls for a livable streets training program aimed at the city's community boards. "We recognize that the jurisdiction of each agency only goes so far," says T.A.'s Shin-pei Tsay, "and we hope there can be greater collaboration between them."

Megan Chuchmach reports:

The auditorium at PS 24 in Riverdale was packed Tuesday night, as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his commissioners entertained an estimated couple hundred Bronx residents at a town hall-esque style meeting organized by the Northwest Bronx Democratic Alliance and the Riverdale Community Association.

There was no dancing or singing, but the Mayor did crack a couple jokes and laughed off the possibility of a run for President. All jokes aside, Bloomberg did what he came to do: answer questions and discuss issues ranging from community to city levels.

The night seemed to get off to a good start, beginning with a first question addressing Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, which has received a cool reception in the northwest Bronx neighborhood.

Bloomberg said the plan intended "to raise money to give people the mass transit that is the alternative to them driving their cars." When another audience member raised the issue of limited Riverdale parking, the pro-mass transit Bloomberg responded that fewer parking spaces mean less people buying and driving cars. Period.

Bloomberg admitted the issue of tolls was highly contentious in the plan, but said he didn't want to leave office without at least attempting to fix the City's gridlocked transportation systems.

"I don't know better than anybody else how much people will change their driving habits," Bloomberg said. "But I do know how much money it will bring in." The proposal, he said, brings in $354.5 million alone from the federal government, which chose the City as a pilot city to test the plan.

And, besides, he added, "If we're going to do something about the air that we breathe, then we've go to do something."

Other audience members raised the issue of ever-increasing Croton Filtration Plant problems, which Emily Lloyd, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, said was a result of a soft dollar and intensive New York market.

Lloyd blamed the cost hike -- which, she admitted, has increased by about 130 percent -- on the rising prices of labor, copper and equipment.

"No, I'm not happy about the rising costs," Bloomberg said, before suggesting that a substantial part of the problem is people who neglect to pay their water bills.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, a vocal anti-congestion pricing advocate who had been rumored to be hosting an anti-congestion pricing rally before the meeting but did not, characterized the excuses as baseless.

"Prices have gone up, but they haven't gone up that much," Dinowitz said after the meeting. "Labor has not doubled. Materials have not doubled. Nothing has doubled." He said Commissioner Lloyd failed to tell audience members the truth: Her Department is "incompetent to deal with the investigation." In September, Dinowitz similarly accused Bloomberg of lying about the federal government's deadline for congestion pricing funding.
Other residents voiced concerns about small businesses being driven out of the area by big box and chain stores and a lack of gifted and talented programs in the school district. They were part of the lucky. Six audience members' questions were randomly drawn. Bloomberg assured everyone that their other questions would be returned via phone or email very soon.

"Everyone will get a response," Bloomberg repeated.

Dinowitz said that wasn't enough.

"I don't like when you screen the questions," Dinowitz added. "It's not as open."

That didn't bother Marilyn Turner and Matilda Cascio, two longtime Riverdale residents who came after seeing a flyer in their buildings announcing Bloomberg's visit.

While Cascio voiced concern over Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal, she admitted the Mayor made it sound "very plausible." Her friend agrees.

"He's the only honest politician in the country today," Turner added.
"He's socially conscious and he seems to want to leave the world a better place than he found it."

While Bloomberg's well-rehearsed responses to the issues raised were to be expected, Turner, who had never seen the Mayor live before, voiced surprised at something else.

"He's much warmer than he comes across on television," she said smiling.

-- Reporting and photo by Megan Chuchmach

Lloyd has been at the DEP since February 2005. One of her biggest challenges there has been overhauling the agency's deeply troubled water billing system, which is so flawed that millions of dollars in outstanding fees and fines have gone uncollected. From 1992 to 1994, a time when budget problems meant the city was struggling to meet its recycling goals, she was commissioner of the NY Department of Sanitation. She has also served as a top administrator at Columbia University, as director of business development for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and as commissioner of Traffic and Parking in Boston.

Kent says that Lloyd would be an ideal candidate at a time when the DOT needs vision coupled with proven leadership ability. "She has great authority," Kent said. "We worked with her on the Port Authority, turning that from one of the worst public spaces into one that works pretty well. She's able to put a team together that can get difficult things done. She also has a sense of community and community responsibility, which is a skill that transportation people haven't really worked on."

A DEP spokesman said Wednesday that Lloyd was attending a conference on global warming in San Francisco and was unavailable for comment.

Some light reading from the Christian Science Monitor before tomorrow's rumored Office of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability conference:

The city's Department of Environmental Protection, which manages the city's freshwater supply and wastewater -- 13,000 miles of pipe, total -- formed a task force to look at the long-term effects of climate change. Among other things, the DEP was concerned by the damage storm surges might inflict on a city surrounded by water. Although city officials declined to discuss concrete solutions for this article saying they were still in the "assessment" phase, scientists foresee potential fixes ranging from raising key infrastructure and building dikes, to flood gates and temporary seals over tunnel entrances. One group proposes raisable flood barriers large enough to protect all of Manhattan Island.

And the winner of a recent competition for engineers and architects to envision New York City in 2106, ARO, doesn't attempt to keep the water out. Rather, they envision building in, on and around it.