Queens driver Ian Glasgow fled the scene of a near-fatal crash last month in what prosecutors said was a conscious attempt to avoid a DUI charge. The penalty for hit-and-runs is less than for drunk driving. Image: Daily News

If you get drunk, get behind the wheel of a car and get into a crash in New York State, you should flee the scene. Not morally, of course, but legally the repercussions will be less severe. A drunk driver who stays at the scene of a crash can be charged with a felony; sober up and take the hit-and-run charge and the worst you’ll face is a misdemeanor.

As Staten Island defense attorney Mario Gallucci told the Staten Island Advance, “As a defense attorney, you love it when they leave the scene, because it helps your case.”

Earlier this week, though, the State Senate passed legislation sponsored by Brooklyn Republican Marty Golden which would eliminate that perverse incentive. Golden’s bill would increase the penalty for leaving the scene of a crash, currently a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in prison, to match that of causing injury while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, a Class E felony that can carry up to four years of jail time.

“This bill makes a very important change to the law in terms of aligning DUI and hit and run penalties in non-fatal or serious injury cases,” said Transportation Alternatives general counsel Juan Martinez.

Golden’s bill passed the State Senate last year as well, but died in the Assembly. The Assembly version, introduced by Brooklyn Democrat Steven Cymbrowitz, currently has 23 sponsors and is before the transportation committee.

In the Senate, the bill passed by a vote of 58 to 1, with Brooklyn Democrat Velmanette Montgomery the only nay.

This afternoon, Golden held a press conference urging the Assembly to pass his legislation. He stood at the corner of 72nd Street and 7th Avenue, where a hit-and-run driver killed Amjad Barakat, a 33-year-old father of two.

Joining Golden was Republican Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis, who represents the area and is a supporter of Golden’s bill. Malliotakis also has legislation pending to create a three-strikes law for drunk driving convictions, revoking someone’s drivers license and vehicle registration for ten years after a third DUI. That bill passed the State Senate last year but has not yet this year.

“Anyone that would get behind the wheel and gamble with the lives of others on the road deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Malliotakis in a statement. “With the holiday weekend coming up, now is the most important time to focus on safety for drivers and pedestrians. Whether it’s a repeat drunk driver, or a person who flees the scene of a crime, the message must be loud and clear – reckless drivers will end up behind bars.”

Said Golden, “This week, another person was left to die on our streets after getting hit by a car. And all too often, we hear of families destroyed by drunk drivers. This must be the year that the Empire State stands up against hit and runs and drunk driving.”

Graphic by Carly Clark

At the February City Council hearing on NYPD traffic enforcement, council members and the public learned that a driver who injures a pedestrian or cyclist in New York City is not normally cited under the state vulnerable user laws unless an officer witnesses the violation. NYPD officials said department protocol prohibits precinct officers from issuing tickets under VTL 1146, the state statute that includes Hayley and Diego’s Law as well as Elle’s Law, because the citations are prone to being dismissed in court.

Legislation pending in Albany would amend Hayley and Diego’s Law by making clear that officers may issue tickets for careless driving whether or not they observe an infraction. Meanwhile, thousands of pedestrians and cyclists are injured in traffic every year with barely any repercussions for motorists. Though the department’s prohibition on careless driving citations does not apply to the Accident Investigation Squad — the 19-officer unit assigned to conduct full-scale investigations in instances where someone dies or is believed likely to die — NYPD rarely employs VTL 1146 to assign responsibility to drivers who injure and kill.

In 2011, the first full year after Hayley and Diego’s Law went into effect, 161 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on New York streets. NYPD issued just 84 citations for careless driving last year, according to preliminary data obtained by Transportation Alternatives from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. That number represents a drop from 2010, when officers issued 98 citations under VTL 1146.

“It is appalling that the number of 1146′s would go down after the passage of the Hayley and Diego amendments to it,” says attorney Steve Vaccaro. “Hayley and Diego’s Law was a clear indication that the legislature wanted enforcement against drivers who injure carelessly. The flat trend in 1146 citations means NYPD doesn’t care. It is also a reflection of the fact that staffing of the officers who write the bulk of the 1146′s — the AIS detectives — is far too low.”

In March, City Council Member Steve Levin announced a number of measures intended to reform the way NYPD handles traffic crashes, one of which was a bill to require that at least five officers per precinct be trained to conduct AIS-scale investigations. That bill has since been reduced to resolution status, as has another that would have mandated that NYPD investigative protocols conform to state law.

Graphic by Carly Clark

The gap between 1146 citations and pedestrian and cyclist injuries is enormous. In 2010, the latest year for which injury data are available, 13,892 pedestrians and cyclists were hurt in collisions with drivers — a large enough number that the 98 VTL 1146 tickets issued that year hardly merit consideration. Says Vaccaro: “The number of 1146 citations represent a fraction of one percent of the universe of cases in which the statute might apply — crashes involving a motor vehicle and a vulnerable street user in which the driver’s failure to use due care was a contributing factor.”

Juan Martinez, general counsel for Transportation Alternatives, describes a scenario that plays out across the city on a daily basis: “A cop gets to the scene of a crash. There are witnesses who want to tell their stories, to see justice. The cop wants to do justice. A lot of times there isn’t a lot of mystery — the wheels are over the pedestrian. But their hands are tied by the policy.”

Martinez says the prohibition against beat cops writing careless driving citations is contradicted by an opinion from the state attorney general, as well as case law.

“Because of this NYPD policy the law has been rendered impotent,” Martinez says. “The benefits to safety, which the sponsors and supporters of the law expected, we haven’t seen the effects on the streets.”

The amendment to Hayley and Diego’s Law is sponsored by Senator Dan Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh. To date, they are the only sponsors in their respective houses. Still, in a statement to Streetsblog, Squadron expressed hope that the bill will clear the legislature.

“Our bill to strengthen Hayley and Diego’s Law was one of the 311 bills that the Senate Republican leadership attempted to shelve by sending it to the locked vault of the Rules Committee,” said Squadron. “But there’s still over a month left in this legislative session — and we’re continuing to push to provide law enforcement with the necessary tools to effectively crack down on careless driving.”

Sens. Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe worked hard to negotiate an agreement on transportation enhancement funding -- a deal now threatened by House Republicans. Photo: Transportation Issues Daily

Transportation Enhancements is the primary source of funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. It comprises less than two percent of total federal transportation funds but has been a source of bitter contention, nearly derailing talks in the Senate. The two sides eventually made a deal under which TE is subsumed under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program’s “additional activities” category. Per that agreement, states can opt out altogether, and some road uses compete with bike and pedestrian projects for funding. An amendment to maintain some local control over the funds made it somewhat more palatable for advocates.

Sen. James Inhofe, the conservative top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, warned House members at the outset of the conference that “the conservative position is to pass this thing,” even if members are not 100 percent satisfied with the compromise. The changes to the enhancements program constituted “the most meaningful reform to conservatives” in the bill, he said.

Transportation conference chairwoman Barbara Boxer said today that lawmakers “have a chance” to make the bill longer than two years, as the Senate bill is written. She also said that 80 percent of the EPW Committee’s portion of the bill is not controversial and has been agreed to. According to Boxer, House Speaker John Boehner told her last night that he has instructed House negotiators to get a bill done.

Still, a staffer familiar with the ongoing conference talks has told Streetsblog that TE is again an issue of contention. Freshman Republicans have made a point of expressing their dissatisfaction that any funding whatsoever remains in the bill.

In addition to TE, Republicans took issue with one of the most popular bill elements among transportation reformers: the provision allowing for more flexibility for transit agencies in times of high unemployment. The Senate bill allows agencies in such cases to spend federal funds normally reserved for capital improvements on operations. GOP opposition to these programs is part and parcel of the urban/rural divide, according to Streetsblog’s source, who said some House members are bent on redistributing money from urban areas to rural districts.

Image: NYPD

Seventeen vulnerable users were killed on city streets in April, according to the latest NYPD crash data report [PDF].

City-wide, 12 pedestrians and five cyclists were fatally struck by drivers: three pedestrians and one cyclist in Manhattan; three pedestrians and one cyclist in the Bronx; four pedestrians and two cyclists in Brooklyn; one pedestrian and one cyclist in Queens; and one pedestrian in Staten Island.

Across the city, 934 pedestrians and 316 cyclists were hurt in collisions with motor vehicles. Per NYPD policy, few if any of these crashes were investigated by trained officers.

Five motorists and six passengers died in the city in April; 1,662 and 1,799 were injured, respectively.

There were 16,244 motor vehicle crashes in the city last month. After the jump: contributing factors for crashes resulting in injury and death.

Image: NYPD

DOT's newest PSA campaign urges cyclists and pedestrians to pay attention and follow the rules of the road.

“Heads Up.” That’s the Department of Transportation’s newest message for cyclists and pedestrians, which will appear on six billboards, 300 bus shelters and 250,000 coffee cup sleeves around the city.

The new campaign marks a more positive tone than DOT’s “Don’t Be A Jerk” campaign, which many cyclists felt unfairly stigmatized bike riders. It’s also an expansion of emphasis from that campaign, aiming to influence pedestrian behavior as well.

Cyclists are urged to use lights at night, yield to pedestrians, travel in the direction of traffic, and stop at reds (“because it’s always better to arrive fashionably late,” says the ad). Pedestrians are told to watch for turning cars while crossing the street and not to cross mid-block. We’re not too optimistic about the effectiveness of any PSA campaign to convince New Yorkers not to walk the straightest route between point A and point B.

While the warning about turning cars indirectly acknowledges the danger posed by drivers who fail to yield, there is currently no equivalent PSA aimed at motorists. DOT will continue its current motorist public education campaigns, “That’s Why It’s 30,” focusing on speeding, and “You The Man,” supporting designated drivers.

Image: NYC DOT

Hylan Boulevard Select Bus Service, launching this September, will only run in bus lanes for some of its route. Using a unique package of improvements, it should still cut travel times on the corridor by 20 percent.

New York City’s fourth Select Bus Service route will travel down Staten Island’s Hylan Boulevard as soon as this September. The improvements are expected to speed travel times by 20 percent along the island’s second-busiest route, according to a report by the MTA [PDF].

As on existing SBS routes, the Hylan service will make fewer stops than local or even limited buses and drive in dedicated and camera-enforced bus lanes. But as befits a borough with different transportation infrastructure and needs than the Bronx and Manhattan neighborhoods that currently have SBS routes, the plan for Hylan Boulevard will use a distinct mix of bus improvements to achieve 15-minute time savings on the full length of the S79 route.

Hylan Boulevard SBS won’t have off-board fare payment, for example. The MTA has argued that because only a few riders will board at any given stop, it won’t be worth it to have them pay on the sidewalk rather than on the bus. Around 8,800 people ride the S79 on an average weekday.

Nor will the buses have the benefit of bus lanes on the whole route. Bus lanes will be painted where they can help bypass congestion, but not in lightly trafficked areas. Nor will bus lanes be added where the effect on auto traffic would be the most intense. The three areas with bus lanes will be Hylan between Clove Road and Lincoln Avenue, Richmond Avenue near the Staten Island Mall, and the southbound side of Richmond where it approaches Hylan.

Instead, “advance signals,” which allow buses to stop closer to a red light than private vehicles, will give transit a boost at intersections. Advance signals make it easier for buses to move away from the curb after stopping and can be used to allow buses to jump a queue of stopped cars. Transit signal priority, which holds the green light a little longer for approaching buses, will be added in 2013.

The Department of Transportation will also install badly-needed pedestrian infrastructure along the SBS route, making it easier and safer to get to and from the bus in the first place. New sidewalks, curbs, pedestrian refuge islands and bus shelters are planned at many locations along the corridor.

Finally, Staten Island will continue to be the beneficiary of the MTA’s experiments with information technology. The borough was the first to receive a full roll-out of BusTime, which provides real-time bus location information online or by phone. Now, the MTA will use the Hylan Boulevard SBS as a pilot for putting real-time information, similar to the route information on newer subways, onboard the bus itself.

One option being considered for Webster Avenue Select Bus Service would have the buses run in the center of the street, potentially speeding service even more than existing SBS routes. Image: NYC DOT/MTA

Webster Avenue could be the place where Select Bus Service reaches the next level. At a community meeting Wednesday evening, the Department of Transportation and the MTA presented three visions of improved bus service for the corridor [PDF]. Two of the templates can already be found on the streets of New York — bus lanes running curbside and bus lanes offset from the curb by one lane — and bus riders are seeing travel times improve 15 to 20 percent thanks to those improvements. But the potential for a real breakthrough lies in the third template — buses running in the center lanes with elevated platforms — which would be a major step toward true bus rapid transit.

The world’s best bus rapid transit systems all run in the center of the street, where speeds and reliability are significantly better (see Streetsblog’s report on Mexico City’s Metrobús system for an example). Away from the curb, there are significantly fewer obstacles from parking, loading, and turn conflicts.

Since bus riders wouldn’t be able to wait on the sidewalk to board the bus, DOT would build new protected platforms in the street. If the platforms are built totally level with the bus floor, as on the subway, this would make boarding the bus much faster, especially for the elderly or disabled. As on all SBS routes, passengers would pay their fares before boarding, allowing buses to spend time moving rather than waiting for each passenger to dip their MetroCard in turn.

Median-running bus lanes and platform-level boarding are two of the most important features of world-class BRT identified in the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s BRT Standard scorecard. Existing Select Bus Service routes haven’t met the threshold for bus rapid transit according to ITDP’s system; the Webster Avenue route, it seems, could break the mold.

The Webster Avenue project is still in a very early stage and all three options are little more than concepts at this point. However, the potential for serious transit improvements is especially high here, because there’s already strong political support for Select Bus Service. Both State Senator Gustavo Rivera and Assembly Member Vanessa Gibson have endorsed Webster Avenue SBS, though they have not spoken about particular designs. More than 50 people participated in Wednesday’s open house, said a DOT spokesperson, and were broadly supportive of the transit improvements.

Whether DOT opts for the full center-running option or not, any transit improvements are sure to be appreciated. The existing bus service, the Bx41, is the most unreliable in the Bronx, according to the Straphangers Campaign. Travel times on the five-mile corridor can vary by as much as 20 minutes, the DOT said [PDF]. There are currently about 19,000 riders on an average weekday and 24,000 daily riders on the weekend.

Select Bus Service on Fordham Road, the city’s first enhanced bus corridor, reduced travel times by twenty percent using a curbside bus lane design. Ridership increased by seven percent.

Federally-funded improvements at East New York's Broadway Junction would improve bus service and add pedestrian space at the important transit hub. Image: NYC DOT

The Department of Transportation unveiled a new design for one of Brooklyn’s most important transit hubs at a community board meeting Monday evening. By turning a single block of Van Sinderen Avenue into a one-way street, DOT plans to improve bus service and build new pedestrian space at East New York’s Broadway Junction, which serves five subway lines and five bus routes [PDF].

As it is, there’s not enough space near the main bus stop in the area. Livery cabs, which don’t have any designated curbside space, crowd out the buses that are supposed to stop there, forcing them to load and unload in traffic lanes. The sidewalk is packed with pedestrians and vendors; there’s no room available for badly-needed bus shelters and seating. Busy Van Sinderen is also difficult for pedestrians to cross.

Under DOT’s proposal, the block of Van Sinderen between Truxton and Fulton Streets would be converted into a one-way street with only one southbound lane reserved for private through traffic. Two lanes would be dedicated to buses, allowing plenty of room for them to pull around other buses loading and unloading at a different stop.

Both the sidewalk and the existing median would be expanded into the roadway, creating room for new bus shelters and dramatically shortening the distance to cross Van Sinderen.

Finally, DOT plans to designate space along the north side of the median for both drop-offs and pick-ups, to accommodate livery drop-offs and the NYPD vehicles currently parked along the block.

The design should unclog the intersection and make it far easier to transfer from the subway to the bus. One bus route, the B20, would have to detour on the northbound run due to the conversion of Van Sinderen to a one-way.

Construction on the project is expected to begin next year and conclude in 2014.

The project dates back to 2008, when Congressman Ed Towns hosted a community meeting aimed at improving the station. Towns got an $800,000 earmark to support the planning of the project and last year, the Federal Transit Administration put up $3.4 million from its competitive Bus Livability Grant program.

The Department of City Planning is currently at work on a project to encourage transit-oriented development around the East New York LIRR station, two blocks away.

Image: NYC DOT

This stretch of Fourth Avenue, currently three moving lanes in each direction plus turn bays, is one of the deadliest streets in Brooklyn, with seven pedestrians killed in traffic between 2006 and 2011. Some of the current medians are less than two feet wide. Under the plan, the narrowest medians would at least triple in width, and wider ones would expand too. The pedestrian space will be reclaimed by converting 17-foot wide combined parking and travel lanes on each side of the street into 13-foot wide parking lanes, though three travel lanes will be maintained northbound during the morning rush, from 38th Street to 17th Street. The changes would be implemented with low-cost materials — epoxy, gravel, planters, flexible posts — and DOT can complete them by this fall.

At a hearing hosted by CB 7′s Fourth Avenue Working Group on Monday, neighborhood advocates said the changes were a long time coming.

Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of the environmental justice non-profit UPROSE, said she could remember discussing traffic calming and greener infrastructure for Fourth Avenue with CB 7 district manager Jeremy Laufer 15 years ago. “This is not new,” she said, urging the board to vote for the plan. “We’ve been talking about these things for a long time in Sunset Park. If we miss the opportunity, we might not get these improvements.”

Lined with schools, subway stations, churches, and stores, Fourth Avenue is full of destinations for this bustling neighborhood of predominantly car-free households. DOT has been working intensively with neighborhood groups and local schools to develop the Fourth Avenue plan. A workshop in February brought together English-, Spanish-, Cantonese-, and Mandarin-speakers to gather ideas about what needs to change on the avenue.

“Almost everyone who goes to school on Fourth Avenue walks there,” said project manager Jesse Mintz-Roth. ”The narrowness of the medians came out over and over in the workshops.”

Last week, three children were struck by a turning driver at Fourth Avenue and 44th Street, one of whom was injured. The crash was fresh in the minds of several participants at Monday’s hearing, including Yesenia Malave-Lee, PTA president at P.S. 503, who said the threat of traffic violence looms over every parent walking their kids to school on Fourth Avenue. “I’m all for the changes being made here,” she said.

The city plans to redevelop this 125th Street site, currently an underutilized 450-space garage with some small retail on the ground floor, while replacing each and every parking space. Image: Google Street View

The New York City Economic Development Corporation’s commitment to replacing any parking spaces the agency builds on top of is a one-way ratchet toward ever-increasing amounts of automobile infrastructure. For projects at Flushing Commons and the Lower East Side’s SPURA site, slated to be built over surface parking lots, EDC has pushed for the new developments to include hundreds of parking spaces in addition to replacing the old parking.

In an RFP released Tuesday, EDC went a step further and asked for developers to try and replace every space included in a four-level garage located in the heart of Harlem at 125th Street. The request for so much parking seems to be based not on any transportation needs in the largely transit-dependent neighborhood, but rather on political negotiations with the local City Council member, Inez Dickens.

The low-slung garage, located between Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and Lenox Avenue, currently houses 450 parking spaces, with a few small retail shops fronting Harlem’s main commercial street. The site is owned by the city and the state, and by all accounts it’s underutilized. Under current zoning, it could become a 363,000-square foot commercial building, assuming it takes advantage of bonuses for providing space for the arts.

City Council Member Inez Dickens. Photo: City Council

In a section of the RFP noting the city’s development goals, EDC asks that proposals seek to “maintain as many parking spaces as possible with the objective that as many of the spaces as possible be located below grade.” Garage today, garage forever.

The impetus for that parking provision appears not to stem from EDC itself nor from any demonstrated demand for parking, but rather from Council Member Inez Dickens and negotiations over the controversial rezoning of 125th Street in 2008.

In a 2008 letter to Dickens, then-Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber mentioned the garage as one of the “Points of Agreement” from the rezoning negotiations, included in the RFP. In the letter, the administration committed to maintaining the current number of parking spaces and placing them underground. The preparation of an RFP for the site, Lieber promised, would be done in consultation with Dickens.

In fact, the language in EDC’s new RFP leaves more wiggle room to build less parking than the 2008 letter suggests, requesting that developers preserve only as many spaces as possible, rather than all of them.

Given that flexibility, it is not clear that the future developer will actually rebuild all 450 spaces. The current garage has only one underground level, in addition to two above-grade and one on the roof. Putting all four floors of parking below ground would be extremely expensive.

Nor is demand for parking on the site particularly high. The garage “doesn’t fill up regularly,” said Kristen Sokich, the regional vice president of garage operator ProPark America, though he noted it had recently been full more often due to a large but temporary corporate account. Only 22.5 percent of area households own a car.

Dickens’s office has not responded to Streetsblog inquiries about the garage redevelopment.

After two readers sent us pictures of bike cops in March, we promised to give a Streetfilms T-shirt to the person who sent us a third pic. It took two months, but today we received the photo that puts the bicycling police officer story over the hump — now it’s a trend! Congratulations to Hilda, who takes the prize in dramatic fashion with this shot of four officers on bike patrol. We might have to throw in an extra T-shirt for the calf tattoo.

There seems to be a concentration of cycling officers in Midtown. All of our reader-submitted photos (the first of which also came from Hilda) were taken between 34th Street and 44th Street, west of Sixth Avenue. I saw a bike cop on Hester Street on my way to work last week, though, so they range downtown too. We’ll see if NYPD’s public information office will divulge whether the department has actually beefed up its bike patrols or if these guys have been out on the streets, unheralded, all along. While we’re at it, we’ll ask if they track how many officers participate in Bike to Work Day this Friday.

A rendering of the kind of development possible under the Economic Development Corporation's plans for the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. EDC calls for 500 parking spaces at the site: more than the zoning code allows.

The Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, or SPURA, is the largest undeveloped, city-owned area south of 96th Street. Located along the south side of Delancey Street at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, SPURA currently consists of five empty lots, the leftovers of a 1967 slum clearance project. Though mid-century towers-in-a-park style housing was built elsewhere on the site, these lots have remained vacant since the tenements were torn down 45 years ago, displacing a population that was two-thirds black and Hispanic.

Since the 1960s, one proposal after another has been floated for the SPURA site, only to fall victim to the complicated politics of development in an economically-divided neighborhood that has grappled with the challenges of both disinvestment and gentrification — and which happens to be represented by powerful Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Parking remains the only use of the lots.

Now, however, the potential for progress appears closer than ever. A plan from the city Economic Development Corporation [PDF], based on principles put forward by Community Board 3 [PDF], is moving through the city’s land use review process, as outlined in this very helpful post from The Lo-Down. CB 3 will vote on the plan, which differs in certain ways from what it proposed, Wednesday night. The borough president will also weigh in before the City Planning Commission and the City Council take binding votes.

It’s exciting to see anything moving forward on the site, and there’s much to like about this proposal for a major mixed-use development. EDC would build 900 new units of housing, half of which would be designated affordable housing. Another 660,000 square feet would be used for retail, offices and community facilities. Unlike the urban renewal projects nearby, these buildings would engage the pedestrian realm with active ground floor uses and a continuous street wall.

But on one issue, at least, EDC’s plan for SPURA goes awry: parking. The agency is requesting special permits allowing the construction of 500 parking spaces, all underground. That total is higher than what is allowed under the city’s zoning code and higher than what was requested by the community board.

Building additional automobile storage would inevitably mean more cars on the already-deadly Delancey Street and more congestion on the already-clogged Williamsburg Bridge. At the same time, four subway lines meet at the corner of Essex and Delancey, offering ample transit access to the site.

Currently, there are around 400 public surface parking spaces on the site, according to the Lo-Down (there is also a smaller amount of parking set aside for trucks). CB 3, for its part, asked only for the new project to replace the spaces for private cars and not the spaces for commercial vehicles and trucks.

The city’s zoning code would allow even fewer parking spaces on the site. Under Manhattan’s parking maximums, no more than one parking space is allowed for every 4,000 square feet of commercial space or five residential units. Under those ratios, parking at the proposed SPURA project would be capped at 345 parking spaces.

EDC argues that the agency needs to both replace the existing parking and provide additional spaces for those using the new development. “The ULURP application meets the Community Board’s guidelines for replacement parking below ground while allowing for some additional parking to meet a portion of the demand expected by the new development,” said EDC spokesperson Kyle Sklerov. The 100 additional spaces are less than the new demand for parking spaces pseudo-scientifically predicted by the project’s environmental impact statement, and Sklerov would not say how EDC determined that was the correct number of new spaces to provide, nor did any official EDC documents about SPURA.

EDC has argued in the past that it should replace all the parking that previously existed on a development site and then build any parking it predicts will be necessary for the new growth on top of that (see, for example, Flushing Commons in Queens). That logic ought to be thrown right in the dustbin.

First, it represents a one-way ratchet toward car-dependency. If the number of parking spaces in New York City can only increase, that leaves only two options: an ever-growing number of cars in the city, or acres of costly, unused garages. Neither is an attractive or sustainable future.

Second, EDC’s desire to replace all parking spaces represents a unique double-standard for development. Imagine a developer knocking down a three-story rowhouse to build apartments in an area where the zoning caps heights at ten stories. The developer wouldn’t get to build a 13-story building to replace the lost housing. Why are the zoning code’s limits on parking treated so differently than its limits on housing?

Investigations into the deaths of Stefanos Tsigrimanis and Clara Heyworth were compromised by the NYPD "likely to die" policy.

In March, Council Member Steve Levin sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly questioning the practice of assigning the Accident Investigation Squad only in instances where someone is killed or is believed likely to die. Currently, crashes that result in injuries that are not considered fatal are handled by precinct cops who are not trained to conduct full-scale investigations. According to testimony presented at the February council hearing on NYPD traffic enforcement, held three months ago today, that policy is inconsistent with state traffic code.

Wrote Levin: “As [a full] investigation is only authorized to be carried out by AIS and as AIS limits itself to the investigations of those accidents in which one has either died or is deemed likely to die instead of all accidents that result in serious injury, I do not see how the NYPD can reasonably claim to be in compliance with Article 22, Section 603-A of the New York Vehicle and Traffic Rules.”

While requesting that Kelly initiate a change in the “likely to die” rule, Levin was also preparing legislation to amend the NYPD patrol handbook to conform to state law. However, according to a Levin spokesperson, “The bill will move forward as a resolution because it has been determined that the City Council does not have jurisdiction to amend the NYPD Patrolman’s handbook.”

Delayed AIS deployment in cases where injuries were initially not thought to be life-threatening has severely compromised fatal crash investigations. When a doctor told officers that cyclist Stefanos Tsigrimanis wasn’t in mortal danger after he was hit by a driver in Brooklyn, AIS did not return to the scene for 46 days. Because NYPD did not know that Brooklyn pedestrian Clara Heyworth had died after she was struck by an unlicensed driver who was believed to be drunk, AIS was not dispatched until at least three days after the crash.

“Council Member Levin does hope that the NYPD is responsive to the resolution and recognizes the need to more vigorously investigate accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and motorists,” the spokesperson said.

Another nascent bill mandating that at least five officers per precinct be trained to conduct AIS-scale investigations will also take the form of a resolution, according to the spokesperson.

Other issues raised at the February hearing, both pertaining to public disclosure, will be addressed through legislation. One bill would require that the names and contact information of each precinct’s traffic safety officer be posted online.

The second bill would amend Jessica Lappin’s NYPD crash data law. Levin’s office says the bill would require that all traffic crash reports include a “detailed list” of moving violations issued at the scene, and that reports must indicate whether AIS, the patrol supervisor, the precinct detective squad or the highway unit were summoned. Reports would also show whether a breath test from a calibrated machine was administered at the scene and, if so, the results of the test.

In addition, the council would change the way NYPD reports crash data. Under the amended law, reports would include data calculated citywide, as well as by borough and precinct. The amendment would require that data reports be posted on the NYPD web site in an open data format, rather than PDF files (it’s possible this provision will be superseded by an upcoming vote on a separate bill). All monthly and annual reports would be posted on the NYPD web site for a period of five years.

At the hearing in February, NYPD attorney Susan Petito told Lappin that the department is concerned that data released on a spreadsheet could be manipulated “to make a point of some sort.”

Photo: Niles Ray

Reader Niles Ray sends in this bird’s-eye view of bike lane construction on Eighth Avenue at 37th Street.

The extension of protected bike lanes on Eighth and Ninth Avenues was proposed by DOT last year, and won subsequent community board approval. The lanes and pedestrian islands will provide safer passage for cyclists and pedestrians north to 59th Street, providing access to the huge numbers of jobs in west Midtown.

Under a plan selected by the MTA, bus rapid transit would run along Staten Island's North Shore, with local bus routes feeding into the dedicated infrastructure. Image: MTA

The MTA announced yesterday that if it builds a new rapid transit line along Staten Island’s North Shore, it will opt for bus rapid transit over light rail, an MTA spokesperson told Streetsblog. The obstacle now, as always, is money.

The proposed BRT line would run along Staten Island’s North Shore, which is twice as densely populated as the rest of the island. Even though no rapid transit exists in the area, over a third of residents take transit to work, relying entirely on buses.

Along much of the route, the busway will use the existing right-of-way of now-shuttered rail service. In some places the tracks are still there; in others, they are overgrown with vegetation or even underwater. At the western terminus of the right-of-way, the system would turn inland and run to the West Shore Plaza in mixed traffic.

In a presentation delivered yesterday at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, [PDF] the MTA outlined its decision to pursue bus improvements over light rail. Though light rail would be marginally faster than buses — and likely higher-capacity — the busway option has two decided advantages, according to the presentation.

In Port Richmond, bus rapid transit would run on an existing elevated structure, refurbished for buses. Image: MTA

First, by using an “open” busway design, in which multiple bus routes can shared the dedicated transit infrastructure before branching off, the busway can speed trips for people across more of the island. As such, the MTA predicts higher ridership on the BRT option than on light rail. Second, the MTA estimates the capital costs of the busway to be far lower than light rail: $371 million versus $645 million.

North Shore bus riders would see their travel times to the St. George ferry terminal cut by around half.

At the same time as the MTA is pursuing the restoration of rapid transit to the North Shore, the city Department of City Planning and Economic Development Corporation are at work on a wide-ranging plan to revitalize the area, including pedestrian and bicycle improvements and efforts to promote mixed-use development. If both the planning and transit improvements move forward, the area could be truly transformed.

At least on the transit side, however, this project isn’t going anywhere without money (it also needs to go through design and engineering work and environmental review before it could be “shovel-ready”). MTA chief Joe Lhota has repeatedly said that the debt-strapped authority’s next capital plan will focus on improving the existing system, not expanding it. While a Staten Island busway is an order of magnitude cheaper than current MTA megaprojects like the Second Avenue Subway, right now there’s no indication at all of how the MTA will fund its capital needs.

Converting the left lanes of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard into turn lanes would allow for the installation of median extensions at intersections, shortening crossings for pedestrians. Image: NYC DOT

After more than three years of delay and debate, safety improvements may finally be coming to one of Harlem’s deadliest avenues. Under a plan tentatively okayed by Manhattan Community Board 10′s transportation committee last night [PDF], Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard will get wider medians, shorter crossing distances, and narrower traffic lanes in an attempt to improve safety for all users of the street.

The need to redesign Adam Clayton Powell is pressing. Since 2006, ten people have been killed in traffic crashes on the boulevard, according to DOT, compared to two on nearby Frederick Douglass Avenue and three on Lenox Avenue. The victims, all pedestrians, were mostly senior citizens close to home. Their average age was 62, and nine of ten lived within a block of Adam Clayton Powell. “Seniors are tough and resilient,” said DOT Planning and Operations Coordinator Naomi Iwasaki, “but we all know they’re our most vulnerable street users.”

The problem is rampant speeding. During the morning rush hour, the average speed on the street is 36.8 miles per hour heading southbound and 39 miles per hour northbound, according to DOT Bike Program Coordinator Hayes Lord. After 8:00 p.m., when traffic is lighter, average speeds spike to 52 and 49 miles per hour: highway speeds on a neighborhood street, far exceeding New York City’s 30 mph limit. The speeds reflect the interstate-like design of the street — three 12-foot wide moving lanes in each direction.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard is a deadly speedway with lanes wide enough to meet standards for interstate highways. Under a DOT proposal, the lanes would be narrowed and the medians extended to shorten the crossing distance for pedestrians.

In response, DOT proposed converting the left-most lane in each direction, where most of the deadly crashes took place, to left turn lanes. At intersections, this would free up space for pedestrian medians to be widened with paint and planters or flexible posts, reducing crossing distances. And by moving through traffic out of the left lane, the change is expected to reduce dangerous weaving and help prevent the most common kind of crash on the boulevard, rear-end collisions.

Where drivers can’t make left turns because of one-way cross-streets, pedestrian space can be extended on both sides of the median using the same materials. This would further shorten crossing distances at those intersections, a particular boon for the large number of seniors and children who live in the neighborhood.

At all intersections, the paint-and-planters treatment would be used to extend the median into the intersection, providing more protection for pedestrians in the crosswalk. Traffic lanes would be narrowed to 10 feet for left-turning traffic and 11 feet for through traffic.

The plan is not DOT’s most ambitious street redesign, particularly given the extremely dangerous conditions on the street today, but it adds significant space for pedestrians. Previous efforts to change Adam Clayton Powell have fallen short at the community board. In 2009, the full board of CB 10 overturned its transportation committee and voted against a proposal to replace traffic lanes with buffered bike lanes.

At a workshop held last September, many participants argued for preserving the speedway conditions on Adam Clayton Powell. “As a driver, I like that,” said board chair Henrietta Lyle at the time.

This plan, too, drew skepticism from many board members. “On Sunday mornings, if we have double parked cars, that’ll mean we’ll have just really one good lane going down,” worried Lyle, who also praised the plan on safety grounds. “You’re taking a boulevard and turning it to one functional lane,” echoed board member Barbara Nelson. “We have a bad asthma rate because of the congestion.” Among members of the public who attended, more than one said that most pedestrian fatalities were probably the fault of jaywalkers.

But support for the plan was strong, particularly among Harlem’s leading community organizations. “Our seniors were highly concerned about the issues on Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard,” said William Hamer, director of senior services with the Abyssinian Development Corporation. “It’s important for us to take a proactive position.”

“I think the improvements are great for Seventh Avenue,” said Jael Sanchez of the Harlem Children’s Zone. “I struggle to cross the streets. There’s not enough time for me as a 32-year-old to get across.”

The committee ultimately decided to draft a resolution incorporating support for the overall concept and some of the criticisms raised at the meeting — in particular, worries that planters couldn’t be maintained properly — and bring it to the full board in June.

Absent criminal charges or a consumer complaint, the Taxi and Limousine Commission takes no action against cab drivers who harm pedestrians. Photo: Daily News

On May 2 at about 9:54 p.m., a 70-year-old woman walking her dog was crossing Jane Street near Hudson Street when she was hit by the driver of a yellow cab, according to FDNY and published reports. The victim suffered head trauma and was transported to Bellevue. Two days later, we were informed by a reader that, according to the 6th Precinct, the woman died from her injuries. NYPD would not confirm the fatality.

A story in DNAinfo reported that the cab driver was not charged. Unless a cabbie faces criminal charges, or a consumer files a complaint, the Taxi and Limousine Commission has no lawful basis for action against a driver who harms a pedestrian, a TLC spokesperson told Streetsblog. Potential sanctions include the suspension of a driver’s TLC license, and additional actions can be taken based on the outcome of a case.

The spokesperson could not immediately determine whether action is pending against the driver involved in the West Village crash. There are two “drivers of record” for the cab in question, the spokesperson said.

At least two other cab crashes have killed city pedestrians this year. Dan Fellegara, 29, and 5-year-old Timothy Keith were hit by yellow cab drivers in Manhattan in Brooklyn, respectively. An unnamed cyclist was also fatally struck by a livery cab driver in Queens. Police and prosecutors filed no known charges for any of those deaths.

The inability of the Taxi and Limousine Commission to act against dangerous cab drivers in the absence of a complaint, given that the affected consumer may or may not be alive to file one, is of a piece with the NYPD policy of exonerating motorists who kill based on nothing more than their own testimony.

Using information about the West Village crash obtained from FDNY, NYPD and the Daily News, including photos depicting the cab’s medallion number and, reportedly, the driver, I filed a reckless driving complaint with the TLC, in my name, via 311. Our hope is to learn what happened at Hudson and Jane on the night of May 2, and at the very least establish a record of the incident with the TLC.

Complaints against cab drivers can take months to play out. In the interim, Streetsblog will keep you updated on what we know of this reported fatality.

This story originally stated that TLC action against a cab driver is contingent on the outcome of a criminal case. The copy has since been corrected.

Signal failures cause more significant delays than anything else on the subway system. The MTA plans to prioritize signal upgrades in its next capital plan, if Albany provides the money. Photo: Librado Romero/New York Times

Has your subway been delayed recently? Blame New York City’s aging transit infrastructure, especially its outdated signal system. Then start fighting to make sure Albany fully funds the MTA’s next capital plan.

A new report from the Straphangers Campaign shows just how prevalent signals failures are on the subway system. In 2011, the MTA sent out 4,580 e-mail and text message alerts informing riders of significant delays on the subway system (in general, these are delays of ten minutes or more; see the whole methodology in this PDF). Straphangers deemed around 3,000 of those under the MTA’s control, letting the agency off the hook for things like police investigations or water main breaks. Over a third, 1,062, were related to signals.

It’s perhaps no surprise that signals, which tell train operators when to stop and when to go, are causing delays across the system. They’re ancient. As of two years ago, a quarter of the system’s signals were more than 70 years old, according to New York City Transit chief engineer Fredrick Smith.

The good news is that the MTA has identified upgrading the subway system’s signals as a top priority. “It’s about signals,” MTA chief Joe Lhota told City And State last month. “If we’re going to have more throughput, we’re going to put more trains on the same track, and we’re going to have to have more modernized signals.”

The bad news is that upgrading signals is expensive work — the MTA is spending over $3 billion on New York City Transit signals and communications work in its current capital program — and there’s no plan yet for how to fund the next capital plan. The debt-saddled authority can’t afford to borrow billions, like Governor Cuomo did for the current round of spending, and put the next five years of upgrades and repairs on a credit card.

Some revenue stream, whether Sam Schwartz’s toll plan, James Brennan’s transportation bond issue, or Lhota’s own suggestion of a sales tax, will be needed. Otherwise, those signals are just going to get worse and the delays more frequent.

This is the first year that Straphangers has collected this data, which is also broken down by line and borough, but in the future it will also allow riders to measure changes in the reliability of the subway system over time.

It’s unusual for conferences to meet in public, and leaders have indicated that this won’t be the only meeting they have in front of television cameras. Still, the sausage-making always happens behind closed doors. Here’s what we’re looking for today:

Could the transportation bill be Rep. John Mica's downfall? Photo: Roll Call

Will anything come of it? “The first day will tell you exactly nothing,” Scott Slesinger, NRDC’s director of legislative affairs, told reporters last week. “You’ll walk out of there convinced that there’s no way they’re going to do a bill.”

In fact, the conventional wisdom right now is that this whole process will end in yet another extension, probably until the lame-duck session after the November election. But this conference committee could lay the groundwork for that bill. Both parties want to get a bill done, but Republican leaders are worried that their base will revolt at the sight of them negotiating with Democrats. So, in public they’ll be all hard-line rhetoric and uncompromising conservatism, and when the cameras are off they’ll horse-trade.

How strong is the Senate’s hand? The House has pretty limited leverage in this process because they didn’t pass a real transportation bill. The Senate is bringing to conference a bill that got a remarkable vote of confidence from senators across the political spectrum, and “the House sent over beach ball,” according to NRDC’s David Goldston.

“The House can’t figure out how to get even its own members together so they send these partial things over to the Senate to cause trouble,” said Goldston, “while the Senate has a bill that’s been passed by about three-quarters of the members of the Senate and was written by [Senators Barbara] Boxer and [James] Inhofe. The fact that Boxer and Inhofe were able to write a bill together is one of the least-appreciated stories of this Congress. So, peace breaks out but people say, ‘We’d rather continue to have war.’ That’s unfortunate.”

Sister Mary Celine Graham

On the morning of June 22, 2010, police investigating a string of gunpoint robberies stopped a minivan occupied by Dyson Williams and William Robbins near W. 142nd Street and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard, according to a press release from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. As officers questioned Robbins outside the vehicle, Williams, who was in the passenger seat, got behind the wheel and drove away.

Police reportedly pursued with lights and sirens. At W. 122nd Street and Lenox Avenue, Williams collided with another vehicle and careened into a group of people.

Four bystanders were injured. Sister Mary Celine Graham, 83, was killed.

Williams was charged with murder, along with a host of other charges related to the crash and the robberies. Today in state Supreme Court, he pleaded guilty to second degree murder, robbery and assault. Williams, 22, faces 18 years to life in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for May 30.

“Murder was not committed with a gun or a knife in this case, but a car,” said Vance. “Before the deadly crash, the defendants in this case had embarked on terrifying gunpoint robbery spree in Harlem. Dyson showed an utter disregard for human life and his actions had tragic and deadly consequences.”

Robbins was also charged with murder. Since he was not in the vehicle at the time of the crash, experts said the case against Robbins will test the boundaries of the state’s felony murder statute. Robbins is next due in court on May 14, according to an online court database.

In the aftermath of the crash, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said no departmental rules were broken. Kelly characterized the chase that preceded the collision as “appropriate police tactics.”

The crash that killed Sister Mary Celine was one of a series of NYPD chases around that time that resulted in injury and death. Six months earlier, Karen Schmeer was fatally struck by men suspected of taking over-the-counter allergy medicine from a CVS pharmacy on the Upper West Side. In August 2009, restaurant worker and father of three Pablo Pasares was run over in Long Island City by a man after an alleged drug buy. According to witnesses, a suspected car thief was fleeing police when he hit and killed 38-year-old Greenpoint mother Violetta Kryzak in April 2009. In February 2009, a video camera captured an apparent Staten Island chase that led to the death of a couple with young sons. In June 2009, nine people, including five pedestrians, were injured when officers responding to a call in a marked NYPD squad car collided with another car and ended up on an East Village sidewalk.