Mayor Bloomberg has already shown how much his administration can accomplish in just a few years. Since Janette Sadik-Khan's appointment to head the DOT in 2007, the city has striped hundreds of miles of bike lanes, reclaimed acres of street space for pedestrians and improved bus travel for tens of thousands of New Yorkers. "More of the same" is no longer a dirty phrase when it comes to local transportation policy. During the next four years, the mayor needs to accelerate this progress, and introduce a few key innovations to maximize the value New Yorkers get from their new streets.

There is plenty of room to build on the Bloomberg administration's record of support for safer, greener streets. Photosim of 34th Street: Luc Nadal and Marc De Decker, ITDP.

Well, the release of DOT's Street Design Manual back in July was an especially auspicious development. This groundbreaking playbook contains templates that can transform streets in neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs. The manual is an engineering document, but it also makes sense as an outreach tool. Community groups concerned about street safety could use the manual as a menu, requesting traffic calming solutions for their neighborhood from DOT. Liberal use of these new designs, applied through a smart community-based process, could pay huge dividends all over the city.

For a fraction of the cost of subway line construction, buses could move millions, if the mayor throws his weight behind BRT.

One sensible way for the NYPD to roll out this approach to traffic enforcement would be to start in areas frequented by children and seniors. Seniors make up 12 percent of New York's population, yet account for 39 percent of pedestrian fatalities. And according to the Department of Health, auto traffic is the leading cause of injury-related death in children ages 1-14. DOT's Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes for Seniors programs have spawned imitators around the country, but our city is no longer the national leader. Other cities are now far ahead of New York when it comes to implementing these street safety programs. Combined with police enforcement, short-term and inexpensive improvements such as leading pedestrian intervals, reductions in signalized crossing speeds, and a citywide slower speed limit in school zones would prioritize pedestrians, save the lives of children and seniors, and get New York City back in the forefront of planning streets for safety.

Greater safety helps more New Yorkers feel at ease riding on our streets. As the city's bike network matures, a large-scale public bike-share system is a no brainer. Bike-sharing weaves cycling into the larger transportation network. In Paris, Velib tripled cycling in a few months with 20,000 bikes spread over 1,400 stations. Montrealers took more than a million rides on Bixi in fewer than six months, and similar gains have been repeated around the globe. The same explosive growth would happen in New York overnight, if Mayor Bloomberg backed bike-share in a big way. Seventy-four percent of trips here are five miles or less, meaning they're very bikeable and easily converted to bike-share trips. If he builds it, they will come.

The same is true of new and better bike facilities. Since the city installed the Ninth Avenue cycle track, biking on the West Side has gotten safer, and so has walking. In Brooklyn, the Kent Avenue protected path is having an identical effect. Traffic-protected bike lanes on Queens Boulevard, through upper Manhattan, down the Upper West Side, and all along the East Side -- where there is a dearth of safe space for cyclists -- would encourage thousands more New Yorkers to ride.

Mayor Bloomberg is a MetroCard guy, but it's much easier to spot him on the subway than riding the bus. That should change in the next four years. Although 2.4 million people ride New York City Transit buses each weekday, the bus system is the city's most underperforming transportation resource. Improvements like pre-paid boarding and signal priority, which have been installed along Fordham Road in the Bronx, could speed service on bus routes around the city. And a true Bus Rapid Transit network, with dedicated lanes for buses and level boarding for passengers, would add another dimension to our transit system. For a fraction of the cost of subway line construction, buses could move millions, if the mayor throws his weight behind BRT.

Mayor Mike has a lot on his plate in the coming weeks, months and years. But if he wants to keep New York City moving toward a sustainable future and shore up his legacy as the Livable City mayor, then safer streets, robust bike-share and better buses are the fastest way to get there.

NYC bike-share on the horizon? DOT says it will explore a "large-scale" public bike system for Manhattan and environs. Image: Department of City Planning.

In an update to the strategic plan released this month, DOT lays out several new benchmarks, including some glimpses of the agency's goals for the rest of 2009 and 2010. The document isn't available online yet, but Streetsblog has a hard copy so I thought I'd share a few highlights:

• Bike modeshare targets are more ambitious than before. The goal is now to double bike commuting by 2012 and triple it by 2017 compared to 2007 levels. The previous goal was to double cycling by 2015. If annual increases stay close to last year's 35 percent clip, the new target should be easily achievable, especially if the next item turns into something concrete...
• DOT will "explore opportunities for a large-scale public bicycle system in Manhattan and surrounding areas." The agency had previously signaled its interest in launching a bike-share network, but I believe this is the first official hint of the scale they're contemplating.
• 8-10 new rapid bus corridors will be selected by the end of this year. (DOT had already posted a timeline for this process on its website.)
• DOT will increase the number of 20 mph zones around schools from 25 to 75.
• More templates from the Street Design Manual will take shape on city streets. "Shared streets" are mentioned as a potential new design treatment.
  
• Summer Streets will expand "to additional days and areas."
• To keep cabs out of bus lanes, the city will make greater use of bus-mounted enforcement cameras. (The city launched a pilot enforcement program along these lines on 34th Street back in February.)
• Some single-space parking meters, which are being decommissioned by the thousands as more muni-meters are installed, will be converted to bike racks.
  
• PARK Smart, a performance parking program that DOT has piloted in Greenwich Village and Park Slope, will help manage the curb crunch in more neighborhoods.
  

Transportation advocates welcomed the new goals. "Increasing 20 mph zones around schools is really exciting," said Transportation Alternatives' Wiley Norvell. "It's a good, concrete metric for boosting Safe Routes to School. That's definitely something that's lagged and needs acceleration."

Norvell also applauded the accelerated timetable for boosting bike modeshare. "It's great to see the DOT setting more ambitious targets, given that the installation of bike lanes has ramped up cycling significantly," he said. "New York City needs to keep moving the goalposts when it comes to bicycling. The goals of 2006 were rendered obsolete by 2008. The goals of 2009 will probably seem obsolete by 2011."

Image courtesy of Howard Frumkin [PDF].

Livable Streets Education was among the presenters, and we learned quite a bit ourselves about the safe routes to school movement. We wanted to share with Streetsblog readers some insights that we picked up from two of the headliners at the conference.

Graphic: Richard Jackson [PDF]

It can all seem overwhelming. But as Jackson pointed out, there are plenty of ways to make these problems feel more manageable. As he said, it really comes down to asking yourself: "Can I walk to buy milk?"

Another keynoter, Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health, elaborated on the same theme. Rather than generate fear, despair, anxiety, he said, we need to communicate the changes we must make with accuracy and balance. We don't want people to mentally check out or give up when they hear the facts -- we need constructive engagement.

That's where "Safe Routes to School" comes in: It's a solution that's easy to grasp and feels like something we are capable of achieving. We can demand sidewalks, we can set up “walking school buses” to get kids to school. These are doable steps with benefits ranging from improved cardiovascular health to reduced carbon emissions. And it will help raise a new generation to appreciate the experience of walking, biking, and meeting your neighbors.

You can learn more about how to support the Safe Routes to School movement by checking out the National Center for Safe Routes to School and the Safe Routes National Partnership. You might also want to consider asking your senator to support Senate Bill 1156, the Safe Routes to School Reauthorization Bill.

If you know of New York City teachers who want to get their classes directly involved in these issues, check out Livable Streets Education’s fall project, We’re Walking Here NYC. New York is a city of walkers, a fact that students can celebrate on Walk to School Day, coming up on October 7. Look for a post with further details next week.

Photo: Staten Island Advance.

Staten Island's newest speed trap is snaring unsuspecting drivers who must drop from a highway speed of 50 mph to 30 mph on the off-ramp, to a 20-mph crawl outside a school zone off the South Avenue exit of the Staten Island Expressway.

Police have been issuing summonses to lead-footed drivers who missed or ignored the new diamond-shaped yellow signs alongside Goethals Road North in Graniteville, where the new Staten Island School of Civic Leadership for grades K-8 opened earlier this month.

The tickets were given out as part of a targeted enforcement initiative, police said. While officers won't be outside the school every day, it will be on their rotating list of "hot spots," because of the nature of the school zone, and because a pedestrian was hit on the street in the past.

So, enforcing the speed limit near an area swarming with kids -- everyone can get behind that, right? Not if you identify with those "unsuspecting drivers" more than the K-8 students who have to navigate the streets near their school. Proving that no form of traffic enforcement can avoid scorn from a certain subset of motorists, many Advance commenters take the speed trap as evidence of a city campaign to "milk the taxpayer."

As irresponsible as it may be to call speed enforcement a revenue-generating exercise, some of the complainers kind of have a point. This stretch of Goethals Road North is definitely sending some mixed signals. Those 20 mph school zone signs compete for drivers' attention with huge green highway signs on a street that looks designed for maximal vehicular flow. The stepped-up enforcement is great, and let's hope the cops keep it up, because the students at the School of Civic Leadership need it. They also need a street designed to put drivers on notice that doing 40 is totally wrong and unacceptable.

Photo: Josh Brustein/New York Times.

There are no estimates about how prevalent bicycle commuting is among parents, students and teachers at New York City’s schools, but a morning spent in front of P.S. 261 gives credibility to Ms. Faux’s claim that she is not an anomaly. P.S. 261, which has about 830 students, is one of 34 schools to have requested that the Department of Transportation install bike racks through the department’s CityRacks program. Last spring, the department installed five bike racks in front of the school, giving parents an alternative to the chain-link fence that they had been using to lock up bicycles to that point.

The school’s principal, Zipporiah Mills, said that the racks had made it easier on parents, and that the popularity of bringing children to school on bicycles had been growing for several years.

Also among the parents Brustein interviews: Livable Streets Education director Kim Wiley-Schwartz, who's raising two kids to ride bikes.

This actually got me thinking about Saturday night's bike slam design battle. Team New York, you were on to something with this whole Safe Zones thing. How many more parents and childrens would bike to school if they had safe routes to travel?

Adam Marino: middle-schooler; revolutionary.

They were informed that they were "out of compliance," and had a lengthy discussion over where Adam’s bike could be locked.

"I was extremely bothered," Kaddo Marino said, "after reviewing the way we were met at the school. It was very intimidating to be met by these three men, one of whom was a trooper."

The Marinos aren't alone. A recent New York Times back-to-school piece profiles similar cases in which parents who permit their kids to walk and bike are met with raised eyebrows, or worse. One mother in Mississippi was threatened with a child endangerment charge for letting her 10-year-old walk a mile to soccer practice after passersby saw the boy and called 911. Another in Vancouver, British Columbia, was left waiting and worrying for her first grader after school officials prevented him from walking himself home -- a distance of six houses.

Issues of liability and fears of abductions are often raised to explain the resistance to a practice that was commonplace 40 years ago, when 41 percent of American kids walked or biked to school. But the facts, as cited by the Times, don't support the paranoia. While about 115 children are abducted by strangers each year, some 250,000 are injured in car crashes. Many parents get this, and some are wondering: If schools and districts are so obsessed with the responsibilities entailed by enabling students to bike or walk, why aren't they more concerned about having kids arrive in -- much less driving their own -- cars?

The most obvious answer: car culture. While some communities mentioned in these stories are, and should be, concerned over street safety (advocates in Saratoga Springs, for instance, are rallying around the Marinos), the response in most cases has not been to make improvements, but to castigate families who want their kids to navigate the world outside the confines of a motor vehicle. This reaction -- to escalate the simple act of a child riding a bike to the level of civil disobedience -- can only make sense in an environment where it's considered normal to shuttle the kids by car down the driveway to meet the school bus.

Last year, the number of placards issued by the Department of Education -- some 63,000 -- was reduced to bring it in line with the number of on-street spots allotted to schools. The DOE cuts were part of a broader crackdown intended to bring order to a largely unregulated system rife with abuse, wherein placards issued regularly exceeded available spaces and parking agents often could not tell a legitimate permit from a fraudulent one.

While the United Federation of Teachers eventually came to an agreement with the city, CSA balked at the cuts, and won an arbitration ruling in August determining that the placards should be reissued under the terms of its contract. But as Gotham Schools reports, the ensuing two weeks brought no resolution, and yesterday CSA filed a lawsuit against the city, DOE, and Mayor Bloomberg.

"Nobody has gotten an answer from the City about why it won't honor the arbitration," a spokeswoman for CSA, Chiara Coletti, wrote in an email. Coletti said that the decision not to reinstate the 6,500 permits came from the mayor's office.

Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, did not address whether the city felt it was in compliance with the arbitrator's decision, but said the current system should continue.

"For most City agencies and their workers the system has worked well for over a year, yet the CSA has stubbornly tried to hold onto their perks and has refused to work with us to combat misuse and abuse. The current system for the Department of Education limits the number of placards to the number of parking spots at schools, a fair and reasonable policy that we think should continue. We have not yet received the legal papers for this case," Post wrote in an email.

In a press release announcing the suit, CSA President Ernest A. Logan said that, without the placards, administrators "who travel from school to school, particularly those working in the outer boroughs, could be forced to continue cruising around city streets for hours a day, polluting the environment, and sacrificing time that they need to serve our children."

And just how many administrators travel during the school day? Considering that CSA by its own account represents a total of about 6,400 school supervisors, it's obviously far fewer than the 6,500 placards -- or even the 5,000 reported by the Post -- the union is demanding. Not to mention the fact that the fewer permits issued, the less trouble floating administrators would have finding a spot. But who cares about facts and logic when you can just yell "My parking perk is good for the children!" and leave it at that. 

This May and June, Livable Streets Education led a six-week project with seventh graders from the Mott Hall II school, a public school located on 109th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. We asked them to imagine a public realm that was greener, safer, and better for their community. Working in groups, they helped create photo simulations of their ideas, then wrote letters to local officials with their recommendations.

Here’s a look at their work and how they made it:

When we introduced the students to progressive concepts in street design, they immediately had strong opinions about how to improve their streets. While many adults appear to perceive public spaces as inflexible and static, young people are less encumbered. They tend to see the full range of possibilities for the use of their streets.

This spring, Livable Streets Education worked with teacher Tim Devaney at De La Salle Academy in Manhattan to bring real world issues into the classroom and the classroom into the real world. This after school program allowed students to explore, observe and interact with the streets and public spaces around their school, and provided firsthand lessons in science, sustainability, civics and language arts. Watch as they learn -- and teach -- on the subjects of street safety, street beautification and air quality.

Get in touch to bring Livable Streets Education to your school, public event or other venue suitable for livable streets learning.

One hopes that crossing guard in orange isn't a House GOPer. (Photo: CA DOT)

The cuts have next to no chance of moving forward, given that Republicans are out of power in the White House and Congress. But they amount to the next step in the GOP's political rebuilding process. Which begs the question: Does the party really want to stake its future on cutting Safe Routes to School?

The House GOP plan suggests that Obama save $183 million per year by eliminating federal participation in the program, which just last month was strongly endorsed for re-authorization by two Republican senators.

House Republicans argue that helping children walk or bike to school has "traditionally been viewed as" the task of local governments. Presumably, dedicated federal funding for kids' safety amounts to creeping Big Government for the GOP -- but dedicated federal funding for kids' health care, now that's just fine.

Other transportation proposals on the Republican chopping block today were the $25 million in bike and pedestrian funding given to four communities in the 2005 transportation bill and the U.S. DOT's Transportation Enhancements initiative, which currently costs $833 million annually.

Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, was unruffled by the House GOP proposal (which took the form of a letter to Obama rather than a bill):

Given the impact that Safe Routes to School initiatives can have on children’s physical activity levels, traffic safety and congestion, air quality around schools, and school budgets, we are confident that Safe Routes to School has bipartisan support in Congress.

Late Update: Despite the House GOP's proposal, Republican Sen. Richard Burr (NC) is not budging from his support for expanding the federal Safe Routes program. Burr said through a spokeswoman that

I would certainly be disappointed in funding cuts for this program, as I am seeking to increase funds within the Safe Routes to School Program Reauthorizations Act.  This program is beneficial for all Americans because it promotes activity and helps ensure children are able to get to school safely. In North Carolina, this program builds safe routes across the state, and I’m confident the program will do just as much good across the country.

Can public art also mean public safety? A weekend addition to a Brooklyn street could be the start of something big. Clarence Eckerson explains:  

In what is being called the first event of its kind in New York City, Livable Streets Education teamed up with Community Roots Charter School and P.S. 67, with a helping hand from New York Cares and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership, to paint a magnificent mural on St. Edwards Street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The project, which was designed by art students, was done with the blessing of NYC DOT under its new Urban Art Program. These short term public art installations are referred to as "Arterventions."

Not only did these students beautify their school's street, they also identified it to motorists as a thoroughfare frequented by school-age pedestrians in a way that mere signage and conventional markings do not. There are hundreds of school zones across the city that could benefit from the same treatment.

The city recognizes the risks posed by idling vehicles near schools. Why not replicate this low cost, high impact project to lessen the hazards of vehicles in motion?

Laying down a fresh coat on Portland's Sunnyside Piazza.

While DOT isn't calling the mural a street reclamation, the spirit is similar to Portland's "intersection repair" and Ocean City's "traffic safety quilt". Those projects created can't-miss signs for drivers to slow down and look out for people. And is there anywhere in New York City that could use some eye-popping, windshield-piercing street art more than school zones? Let's hope that tomorrow's pavement painting is the first of many.

Rose Saad

I realize more and more that people do not care about the air that they breathe. I would be willing to stand up for being an advocate for keeping the air that we breathe clean and safe. People are smoking, fumes from cars are being spewed out, and factories are creating gases and toxins that are also affecting the air quality. What can we do as people? People should be more considerate about others when it comes to smoking, thinking first about where they are and who will be affected. People should also take more public transportation and not be so attached to their cars. Cars create a lot of air pollution and just think about our lungs and how they are dealing with taking in dirty fumes. And I think car manufacturing companies need to be more mindful when it comes to the amount of cars that are being produced. These car factories produce terrible waste into the air. People think buying a Prius is being environmentally wise, but in the end the factory burns so much waste and that is not good. Everyone needs to do some thinking about the air that we breathe and how we can make it cleaner and healthier for all.

Bravo to IndyKids, and especially to Rose, who shows a greater grasp of the perils of car dependence than many who should know better.

How's this for understanding modal harmony?

Livable Streets Education has been working with New York City students, encouraging them to explore and question the environments around their schools and in their neighborhoods -- and to voice the changes they want to see on their streets. We recently asked first graders at P.S. 87 to give advice to pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers, and to illustrate their words of wisdom. Here's a montage of their wonderfully perceptive responses (and if you're a fan of kids' drawings, don't forget the companion piece from kindergartners).

If you would like to get your school involved, please contact Kim Wiley-Schwartz at 212-796-4211 or kwileyschwartz@openplans.org.

This week's 'toon is a short Streetfilm of drawings from students at PS 87 on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where Kim Wiley-Schwartz of the Livable Streets Education program asked kindergarteners, "What would you do if there were no cars in the street?"

Livable Streets Education encourages students to explore and question the environments around their schools and in their neighborhoods, and to voice the changes they want to see on their streets. To find out more, contact Kim at 646-734-6486 or kwileyschwartz@openplans.org.

More than two dozen students braved 32-degree cold this Sunday for the launch of NYU's bike-share program. The ride took them down Second Avenue and over the Manhattan Bridge to see some of Brooklyn's new bike lanes.

The NYU system consists of 30 bikes and two stations -- a dorm at 7th street and a bike parking lot behind Tisch Hall. Lindsi Seegmiller, the student who coordinated much of the program, says she got the bikes almost-new from Hub Station, which used them for free rentals during Summer Streets. To borrow one, students or faculty make a reservation online. Then, at the station, they swipe their NYU ID, opening a cabinet that holds the key to a chain lock attached to the bike they reserved.

In May, Seegmiller told Streetsblog that she hopes the program will expand and get the University, which runs its own bus service, to think more about biking.

Count up-and-coming livable streets advocates like Seegmiller as one reason to be thankful this year. What's on your "I'm thankful for/I'd be more thankful if" list? Enjoy the holiday, we'll see you Monday.

Robin Urban Smith files this report from P.S. 76 in the Bronx, where students wrapped up a month-long bike safety course with a playground "rodeo" on Wednesday. This June, Michael Needham Jr., a fifth-grader at the school, lost his life after a speeding car hit him while he was riding with friends near the Allerton library.

Watching this Streetfilm made me wonder if bike safety can be worked into gym classes throughout the city. It also brought to mind the words of former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa:

In Bogotá, our goal was to make a city for all the children. The measure of a good city is one where a child on a tricycle or bicycle can safely go anywhere. If a city is good for children, it will be good for everybody else. Over the last 80 years we have been making cities much more for cars' mobility than for children's happiness.

As seen on this weekend's Uptown Treasures tour: At the American Academy of Arts and Letters in Washington Heights, K-5 students from Hamilton Heights Academy and P.S. 28 (along with at least one parent or guardian) added a livable streets flavor to the "If I Were President" display.

"If I were president there would be a no car day. If any cars droven on no car day that driver will get a fine and no car day will prevent less gas problem!"

From the adult contributions.

Naturally, some ideas were better than others.

Photos: Brad Aaron 

For the third time this year, residents of Inwood and Washington Heights Monday night presented the Community Board 12 Traffic and Transportation Committee with a vision for a traffic-calmed Dyckman Street. One with a separated bike lane connecting the Henry Hudson and Harlem River bike paths, sidewalk bulbouts, leading pedestrian intervals, and street trees. A destination corridor where people can shop, stroll and mingle without constantly feeling under siege by untamed auto traffic.

And for the third time this year, the committee asked these residents to come back when they have a better idea of what they want.

Members of Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets were hopeful that an audience with Paimaan Lodhi, urban planner with Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer's office, would help the case for the Dyckman Greenway Connector. But after distributing copies of "Sustainable Streets" guidelines to committee members (it was hard to tell if any of them had heard of the DOT program), Lodhi deflated those hopes. Any action by Stringer's office, he said, would require consensus from CB12.

Just how likely is consensus to emerge that an innovative, people-friendly design for Dyckman, similar to the Ninth Avenue bike path, would be a boon to Upper Manhattan, where just 20 percent of households own a car? To get an idea one only has to tune in to Jim Berlin, the most outspoken member of the transpo committee, if not the whole of CB12. Last night a neighborhood mom told the committee that she feared a pedestrian bridge over Dyckman at Tenth Avenue, used by students at her child's elementary school, was unstable. Berlin, minutes after declaring that any plan to alter Dyckman should not impede auto traffic, agreed that the condition of the bridge is a concern, as it "keeps kids away from a ridiculously dangerous intersection where a school should never have been built in the first place."

In other words, to Berlin and other CB12 members, Dyckman Street is already a connector -- between the West Side Highway and the FDR. Its function as a neighborhood street, used by school children and hundreds of thousands of other non-driving Upper Manhattanites, is purely incidental.

But uptown livable streets advocates have two things working in their favor. One is that Dyckman Street is already slated for new bike lanes, which will presumably connect existing lanes on its east and west ends. Another is that, according to DOT's Josh Orzeck, an unrelated study of Dyckman intersections is currently underway, which Orzeck said would "greatly affect" any redesign plans. Committee members lit up at the mention of the study (which, oddly, Orzeck had apparently not referenced before), for it gave them the perfect opportunity to put off the Greenway connector plan until at least next spring.

Which brings us to another CB12 transpo committee trait. To be fair, chairman Mark Levine -- who is far and away the most enlightened member when it comes to livable streets issues -- had to leave the meeting early, but there was barely a single issue discussed Monday night on which the committee did not delay, defer or deflect. ("Have you spoken with the precinct?" "Isn't that up to DOT?" "Shouldn't the parks/safety/some other committee be involved in this?" "Asking the MTA/NYPD for anything is useless.") Granted, I have only covered CB12 for a short time. But I've attended enough board, commission and committee meetings to recognize a do-nothing body when I see one, and I have to say the CB12 Traffic and Transportation Committee bears a striking resemblance to a do-nothing body.

If the Dyckman Greenway Connector and September's Greenmarket fiasco, which originated with the transpo committee, weren't enough evidence, consider last night's deliberations concerning Bennett Avenue. A handout circulated by Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets highlighted seven issues that contribute to dangerous conditions on Bennett, which runs parallel to Broadway for approximately a dozen blocks north of 181st Street in Washington Heights. Among those issues was poor visibility at intersections, where drivers park close enough, sometimes illegally, that other drivers and pedestrians have trouble seeing oncoming traffic.

Berlin, having already given a confounding speech about how infrastructure should not be used to accomplish what the police should be (but, conveniently, are not) doing, allowed that DOT may want to "daylight" intersections on Bennett to improve safety, rather than installing what the committee deemed to be prohibitively expensive bulbouts. However, he said, daylighting would be a "problem" -- particularly at night -- as it would eliminate on-street parking spots. After a modicum of back and forth, mostly regarding the hopelessness of accomplishing much of anything, the committee handed Bennett Avenue off to Orzeck with no clear direction or recommendations.

And thus, the circuit of inaction was again completed.

The Prospect Park Youth Advocates led a joyous procession over the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday afternoon on their way to deliver more than 10,000 letters to Mayor Bloomberg in support of a car-free park. The youth advocates and students from Freedom Academy and the Brooklyn Academy for Science and the Environment were joined on the steps of City Hall by council members Tish James and David Yassky, calling for a Prospect Park that is "safe, healthy, green, and absolutely car-free."

After leading a call-and-response of "No more cars -- Where? -- In Prospect Park" at the head of the procession (backed by the strains of the Brooklyn Steppers Marching Band), youth advocate Oswald Bowman gave the opening remarks. "I don't have a backyard, but I do have Prospect Park; Prospect Park is my backyard," he said. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't like no one driving through my backyard."

Bowman and fellow youth advocates Michael Cheng and Farah Karimova spoke about gathering signatures and documenting the hazards of cars in the park this summer. Transportation Alternatives' Paul Steely White gave three reasons why Bloomberg should heed their message (download a PDF) and instruct DOT to institute a three-month car-free trial:

• Park users face a potentially deadly risk from cars, which travel on the loop drive at speeds as high as 47 mph and sneak into the park during car-free hours when people have been lulled into a sense of security.
  
• The presence of cars in the park suppresses physical activity, taking up space during the hours before and after work and school when people have free time.
  
• Closing the park to cars will not result in unacceptable traffic impacts.

This last point was echoed by Yassky, who noted that previous expansions of car-free hours have not yielded the excessive traffic on nearby streets that opponents predicted. "The best evidence of why we should have a car-free Prospect Park is that we're already halfway there and it has been tremendous," he said. "We have seen it work part of the way, now let's do it all the way."

And now for more photos. (You'll have to wait for Robin Urban Smith's Streetfilm for some audio and video of the Steppers. In the meantime, you can see their 2005 incarnation in Dave Chappelle's Block Party.)

Photos: Ben Fried