Streetsblog New York City

Arthur Avenue in the Bronx is famous for its Italian food. Now, it’s also notable as the only place with NYC’s latest parking technology: sensors in the ground providing real-time data about parking availability, and a system that enables parkers to pay by phone. Mayor Bloomberg, Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, and Frank Franz, manager of the Belmont Business Improvement District, launched the programs earlier this week. While the technologies could help advance curbside parking reforms, the pilot programs aren’t being paired with new pricing or enforcement strategies that would reduce double-parking and cruising for spots.

Mayor Bloomberg and Janette Sadik-Khan at Tuesday's parking technology announcement on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. Photo: NYC Mayor's Office/Flickr

The promise of the new tech is that it can cut traffic by managing access to the curb more efficiently. Real-time sensors can be used to set parking prices so spaces are always available and drivers don’t double-park or circle around looking for open spots. Pay-by-phone systems, meanwhile, can help the medicine of dynamic parking prices go down easier by giving motorists a convenient payment option. In Miami, which is ahead of the curve on pay-by-phone tech, motorists “are very enthusiastic about the service, which includes texted reminders that parking time is expiring and the option to pay to extend time,” according to a 2011 report issued by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy.

The pay-by-phone pilot was first announced in 2011, following DOT’s 2010 Request for Expressions of Interest for a sensor program that could be used to set prices, assist enforcement, and integrate with parking placards. The pilot programs in the Bronx, however, are not paired with changes to the price of metered parking, which remains $1.00 per hour everywhere in the city except Manhattan below 110th Street and commercial streets in Park Slope that are part of the Park Smart program.

The pay-by-phone pilot covers 321 spaces, most within the Belmont Business Improvement District, and about a quarter in the nearby municipal parking lot often used by City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca. Drivers can pay for time in 15-minute increments up to the designated lime limit via smartphone app or a toll-free number, receive notifications via e-mail or text before their time expires, and pay for additional time from their phones. Because pay-by-phone participants don’t have display receipts from muni-meters, parking enforcement officers will be equipped with license plate scanners to verify that drivers are paid up.

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Over the weekend, the first Citi Bike stations were installed. And before you could say, “the New York Post,” NYC DOT put out a report today reviewing the extensive public planning process that informed hundreds of bike-share station siting decisions. The next time you see a story about a handful of people complaining about the placement of a bike-share station, remember all the thousands of New Yorkers who participated in this process.

One of 159 public meetings where New Yorkers told bike-share planners where they want Citi Bike stations to go. Photo: DOT

Also buried in the report is a significant piece of news about pricing: DOT revealed that Citi Bike will offer $60 annual memberships (a discount from the regular $95) to NYCHA residents and members of Community Development Credit Unions.

In 2011 and 2012, Streetsblog reported on the online portal where New Yorkers could suggest bike-share stations and the public workshops where participants mapped out where they wanted stations to go. Here’s what the report says about how DOT used that information to come up with a preliminary map of 600 bike-share stations:

Eighteen months of meetings, demonstrations and discussion, 14 community planning workshops, and more than 10,000 online suggestions produced a vast quantity of information on where New Yorkers wanted to see Citi Bike stations. DOT’s first task was to code and synthesize the workshop results from nearly 3,000 possible station locations. Locations that received red “No” arrows during the workshops were removed and locations that received significant numbers of green “Yes” votes were highlighted. Suggestions for other stations not depicted on the maps were vetted by DOT staff to ensure they met the technical criteria.

Comments received via the Website or recorded by note-takers at the workshops were added in. Stations that received votes via the Website were prioritized over stations that had not. DOT planners then used a Geographic Information System (GIS) program to create a predictive model for how big each individual station would need to be. The model analyzed the surrounding land use (residential, commercial, parkland, schools, etc.), population, tourism rates and subway turnstile counts and other transit use throughout the program area. The model also made use of newly available taxi GPS data on origins and destinations of trips, as well as durations and times of day throughout the city.

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Fourth Avenue could get a road diet along 13 blocks in Bay Ridge, with added pedestrian islands and curb extensions. Images: DOT

Elevated from today’s headline stack: The Brooklyn Paper has a recap of DOT’s presentation to the Fourth Avenue Task Force last week, outlining options for the major avenue in Bay Ridge. The changes include a left-turn lane at 75th Street, a concrete pedestrian island at 86th Street, and a road diet along 13 blocks that would replace a four-lane configuration with two lanes plus turning bays.

The recommendations came after a January 24 workshop [PDF] where residents said their top concerns included speeding, double parking, and pedestrian safety. DOT’s measurements back up the concerns: on Fourth Avenue between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., up to 63 percent of drivers clocked in over the 30 mph speed limit.

A source who attended the meeting says the ideas were mostly well-received, and Bay Ridge has an active contingent of neighborhood street safety advocates, led by Maureen Landers. But of course, a presentation about traffic calming in Bay Ridge wouldn’t be complete without an appearance from Community Board 10 member Allen Bortnick, who infamously lobbied to acquire the curbside parking space in front of his home. While DOT’s models show the change will have a minimal impact on the street’s automobile capacity (as engineer Dan Burden explains in this Streetfilm, road diets help traffic flow in a smoother, more orderly fashion), Bortnick saw a conspiracy. “Sadik-Khan is really Sadist-Khan, and she never met a car she liked,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “They’re duping the public.” So, mystery solved. Bortnick, appointed to CB 10 most recently by Council Member Vincent Gentile, is the one person in New York who takes Post columnist Andrea Peyser seriously.

Fourth Avenue, running six miles from Atlantic Avenue in Park Slope to Shore Road in Bay Ridge, has already received a makeover in Sunset Park, and a companion effort is underway in Park Slope. The next step in Bay Ridge: DOT will modify the plan to address feedback before presenting to CB 10. A date has not yet been set.

Earlier this week, DOT released its 2012 bike counts [PDF], including a new dataset — counts from the winter months. The agency has been tallying cyclists in December, January, and February for five years, and this year released the winter counts, in addition to April-through-October counts, for the first time. The data show that warm weather counts at the DOT’s screenline (the four East River bridges below 60th Street, the Hudson River Greenway at 50th Street, and the Staten Island Ferry) plateaued in 2012, while winter counts continued a steady upward trajectory.

DOT's winter bike count was up 23 percent over a year ago, while the warm weather bike count stayed flat. Image: DOT

Overall, the screenline count from April 2012 to February 2013 rose 4 percent over the year before. These gains are smaller than annual increases since 2008, but still bring the all-year bike count to 58 percent above 2008 levels. Compared to 2011, the numbers show a small drop in bicycling during the warmer months of April through October – about half a percent – but a 23 percent gain during December, January, and February of this winter.

DOT conducted its first screenline bike count in 1980. In 1985, the agency began collecting data annually. Since 2008, DOT has set up 10 weekday counts each year between April and October, running from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. By overhauling its method, the agency could collect more reliable data. However, the screenline count remains a geographically-limited tool and doesn’t measure the full citywide cycling trend.

As part of its 2008 methodology change, the agency began collecting wintertime data, offering a fuller view of year-round patterns. These cold-weather numbers show that the difference between warm weather and cold weather cycling volumes is shrinking.

From 2008 to 2011, the winter bike count was between 40 to 47 percent of the size of the warm weather bike count. In 2012, that number jumped, with the winter count equating to 57 percent of the April-through-October count. There is still room for improvement. In Copenhagen, the winter retention rate is 80 percent.

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Circles indicate motorists speeding near schools. Click for full-size PDF. Image: NYC DOT

Motor vehicle occupant deaths increased by 46 percent from 2011 to last year, NYC DOT said today, as the agency emphasized the need for automated enforcement with the release of 2012 traffic fatality counts.

There were 274 traffic deaths in NYC in 2012, compared to 245 in 2011. Motor vehicle occupant fatalities increased from 50 to 73. The number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths was mostly unchanged: 166 in 2012 compared to 163 in 2011. Pedestrian fatalities were up in 2012, while cyclist deaths decreased.

Speeding was the leading single factor in traffic deaths, contributing to 81 fatal crashes.

Other factoids from DOT:

• Most fatal crashes involved “speeding and disregard of red lights or stop signs, driver inattention and/or alcohol.”
• Speeding was a factor in 65 percent more crashes in 2012 than in 2011 (81 compared to 49).
• Fatal hit-and-runs increased 31 percent from 2010 to 2012.
• For the third year in a row, no pedestrians were killed in crashes with cyclists.

NYC traffic fatalities. Image: NYC DOT

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NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance are reportedly targeting a crossing guard for her supposed role in the death of 6-year-old Amar Diarrassouba, who was killed by a truck driver in East Harlem Thursday morning. Meanwhile, a local businessman and community board member who waged a campaign against pedestrian refuges and protected bike lanes on First and Second Avenues has publicly pinned the blame on the victim’s 9-year-old brother.

Amar Diarrassouba

Robert Carroll was issued summonses for failure to yield and failure to exercise due care, according to the Post. Reports say Carroll was turning right from E. 117th Street onto First Avenue when he hit Amar with a rear tire of the tractor-trailer. Amar and older brother Youssouf were crossing First Avenue east to west, on their way to nearby P.S. 155.

Community Board 11 endorsed protected bike lanes and pedestrian refuges on First and Second Avenues from 96th to 125th Streets in September 2011, but rescinded its support two months later, when restaurant owners Frank Brija and Erik Mayor, who are also on the board, organized against the project.

Brija and Mayor, owners of Patsy’s Pizza and Milk Burger, respectively, said businesses were not contacted about the proposal for protected lanes and pedestrian islands, a claim refuted by DOT. They also said the safety measures would make traffic congestion worse and increase asthma rates.

The board ultimately endorsed the plan, which had broad community support, a second time, in March 2012. Construction was supposed to begin last spring, but was pushed back after the board waffled. While it’s impossible to know how the First Avenue redesign would have affected this crash, a narrower roadway may have saved Amar’s life by forcing Carroll to make a tighter, slower turn.

On Streetsblog and Twitter this morning, attorney Steve Vaccaro noted that, had the project proceeded as planned, the crash that killed Amar Diarrassouba might not have happened. In response, Mayor tweeted: “Steve you are pathetic to place blame on us. The child was being walked by his nine year old brother who did not pay attention.”

Erik Mayor, owner of Milk Burger and member of CB 11, waged a campaign against safety measures for the intersection where Amar was killed.

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Image: NYC DOT

Last night, the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 voted unanimously in favor of a new PARK Smart zone for Atlantic Avenue, Smith Street, and Court Street, and for a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway segment connecting Van Brunt Street to Valentino Pier in Red Hook.

The new PARK Smart zone, which Stephen covered earlier this week, works differently than PARK Smart in Greenwich Village and Park Slope, where on-street parking rates rise when demand is highest. NYC DOT’s proposal for Cobble Hill and Boerum Hill is to have rates rise progressively after the first half hour. The goal is to reduce traffic by discouraging long-term parking and all-day meter feeding in curbside spaces that should be turning over frequently. Brooklyn CB 2′s transportation committee voted for the plan on Tuesday.

DOT also presented plans for a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway segment that would loop out to Valentino Pier from Van Brunt Street. We have a request in with DOT for last night’s presentation (Update: Here it is), but in the meantime, below is a map of this part of the greenway from DOT’s implementation plan [PDF]. It looks like the segment that the CB 6 committee voted for last night includes capital projects 12, 13, and 14 (not 14a), or parts thereof:

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Allstate has joined Progressive Insurance as the second company to offer New Yorkers the chance to save money with usage-based car insurance. Like its cousin, pay-as-you-drive insurance, usage-based insurance rewards people for driving less. On top of that, by constantly monitoring how people drive, it creates incentives based on behaviors that can’t be tracked by traffic tickets or crash reports alone. The New York City Department of Transportation is promoting the concept in its effort to cut down on dangerous driving.

Slow down! You might just save 15 percent on car insurance. Photo: Randy Le'Moine Photography/Flickr

New York City residents drive fewer miles than residents of the suburbs or other major cities. But city motorists who drive only occasionally are probably still paying the same amount for insurance as people who drive every day.

With usage-based insurance, participants install a small device, compatible with all cars built since 1996, that records driver behavior. This includes miles driven, time of day, time behind the wheel, braking behavior, and speed. The device is not GPS-enabled, so the insurer does not know if a driver is speeding on a given street.

Progressive’s Snapshot program, which has signed up more than one million drivers in 44 states and the District of Columbia, evolved from an earlier pay-as-you-drive program the company offered. In 2010, it became the first-of-its-kind insurance product in New York. In October 2012, it was joined by Allstate’s Drive Wise.

Usage-based insurance is opt-in: In the ten states where Allstate offers the program, 20-25 percent of new customers choose to enroll. A third of Progressive’s customers who are offered the program choose to enroll, though a Progressive spokesperson could not say whether all customers are invited to participate.

By rewarding drivers who drive less, insurers are giving their customers an incentive to walk, bike, or take transit. “You get a discount on your insurance if you use other modes of transportation,” said Allstate spokesperson Allison McMahon. Usage-based insurance customers can save up to 30 percent over traditional insurance; Progressive says participating customers save an average of $150 per year with the program. A selling point used by the insurers is that usage-based customers can only see their rates go down — the behavior captured by the in-car devices cannot cause a driver’s rate to increase above what it would be if that driver did not participate in the program.

In California, which has created a regulatory framework for pay-per-mile insurance programs, a Brookings Institution study found that this type of insurance can lead to a reduction in driving and carbon dioxide emissions, as well as savings for low-income households.

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On-street parking reform for Atlantic Avenue, Court Street, and Smith Street in Brooklyn moved ahead last night with a 6-0-1 vote from Community Board 2′s transportation committee in favor of a new DOT PARK Smart zone. The proposal [PDF], prompted by a request from the owner of Sahadi’s, aims to curb traffic and increase on-street parking availability for retail shoppers by allowing meter rates to rise after the first 30 minutes.

DOT aims to curb traffic and increase parking turnover by discouraging drivers from parking on commercial streets for hours at a time. Blue lines indicate streets that will receive the PARK Smart reforms; orange lines show streets included in the study that will not be seeing any parking meter changes.

Presently, Atlantic Avenue west of Fourth Avenue and Court and Smith Streets between Atlantic Avenue and Sackett Street includes a mix of one- and two-hour limits, with rates at $1 per hour. Today, with limited enforcement of time limits, it’s common for some motorists to park all day on busy commercial streets — even as nearby garages sit mostly-empty — while retail customers circle for available spots.

“People are staying all day on both sides of Atlantic,” said DOT PARK Smart manager Manzell Blakeley. ”People are really staying for four or five hours.”

The PARK Smart proposal would discourage long-term parking with a pricing structure that ramps up charges for longer stays. The area would receive a uniform two-hour limit, and rates would remain at 50 cents for the first half-hour. But the second half-hour would cost $1, the third would also cost $1, and the fourth would cost $1.50. A driver looking to skirt the rules and keep paying the low rate for long stays would have to feed the meter every 30 minutes.

Charlie Sahadi, who owns Sahadi’s food store on Atlantic Avenue, said that it can be difficult to know how customers get to the store, though he often hears complaints from customers who have to circle for parking. He mentioned the problem to State Senator Daniel Squadron, who connected him with DOT’s PARK Smart staff.

“If you’re in the retail business, you depend on customers coming in and buying stuff,” Sahadi said. “My aim is to get more foot traffic on the street.”

Sahadi thinks DOT’s progressive rate structure will make it easier for his customers find parking, and is glad that it can be tweaked in the future. “One of the beauties of PARK Smart is, it’s flexible,” he said. “It’s worth a shot.”

To come up with the new policy, DOT interviewed over 100 business owners and held an open house to get feedback. The agency also used time-lapse photos of the area’s streets — a new data-collection method for PARK Smart — to determine parking occupancy and duration rates.

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Shu Ying Liu was killed by a driver turning right at Ninth Avenue and 41st Street. Community Board 4 asked DOT for exclusive pedestrian crossing time here in 2008. Image: Google Maps

Manhattan Community Board 4 has renewed its call for safety improvements at the Hell’s Kitchen crossing where an elderly woman was killed by a driver last week. The request comes five years after a resolution that asked for exclusive crossing time for pedestrians at the deadly intersection, and is the latest episode in a years-long, and largely futile, campaign by neighborhood residents for split phase signals.

Shu Ying Liu, 69, was struck by a dump truck driver on the morning of February 5 as the driver made a right turn from Ninth Avenue to 41st Street, according to reports. Jack Montelbano, of Bayonne, was later arrested for leaving the scene.

“Ms. Shu Ying Liu lived on 54th Street in Hell’s Kitchen,” wrote Christine Berthet, of CB 4 and CHEKPEDS, in an email to Streetsblog. “She used to be the managing editor of a large magazine in China. According to both her attorney and her son, she was an optimist, cheerful with an outgoing personality.”

“She was doing research in healthy food, healthy living and was coaching and teaching her children to live a healthy life. Her son would talk to her once or twice weekly and relied on her for advice on health.”

In early 2008, a resolution adopted by CB 4 said that a recent reconfiguration of the intersection of Ninth and 41st, which sees heavy traffic from New Jersey-bound cars, trucks, and buses, posed a danger to pedestrians. The board asked for “emergency interim measures,” including a neckdown on 41st Street, to reduce crossing distance, and a shift in location for the crosswalk on the south side of the intersection, to increase pedestrian visibility.

Finally, the resolution stated: “On the west side, install a turn arrow red signal to give pedestrians a dedicated phase to cross safely.” If the crash that killed Liu occurred as described by the media, with adequate exclusive crossing time it’s less likely she would have been in the driver’s path.

“This issue is not new — there have already been 46 injuries and two fatalities in recent years at this corner,” reads a letter from CB 4, sent to DOT yesterday [PDF]. “The time has come to tackle this issue with urgency.”

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