Streetsblog New York City

A Connecticut campaign for red light cameras offers a reality-based counterpoint to the growing backlash against automated enforcement.

The CT Livable Streets Campaign worked hard throughout 2009 on legislation allowing municipalities to implement automated red light camera enforcement programs -- a measure they hope will pass in the Connecticut General Assembly's upcoming session.

This will be the fourth or fifth year that red light camera legislation has been introduced in the state, according to New Haven alderwoman and CT Livable Streets member Erin Sturgis-Pascale. She's optimistic about this year as the group has worked with legislators who opposed past measures. The proposed regs were also revamped to include provisions addressing previous objections. As Sturgis-Pascale explains:

One new inclusion that I think is very important is that the revenue that will be generated from the fines will be deposited into a special "Traffic Safety education, enforcement and improvement" fund rather than the general fund of the municipalities. This diffuses the accusations that the fines are only an attempt to fill budget holes by demonstrating that the traffic safety goals are sincere. The money could be used to pay for the RLC equipment and any surplus could fund safety campaigns, traffic calming or other initiatives to improve traffic safety. This is a response to a public safety crisis, not a budget crisis.

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Livable Streets member Sholom Brody files an interesting report from southern Brooklyn, where volunteers with Transportation Alternatives' Brooklyn Committee recently surveyed subway and bus commuters about their attitudes toward bicycling and bike infrastructure.

Neighborhoods like Mill Basin, Marine Park, and Gerritsen Beach are far from the nearest subway line and also have "extremely limited bike infrastructure," says Brody. A network of safe streets for cycling could make biking more attractive and improve access to the subway, so the TA volunteers decided to sound out commuters waiting to transfer to the bus from the Brighton line at the Kings Highway station. They asked for opinions on bicycling, bike lanes, and bike parking (sorry, the survey itself is not online at this time).

While not everyone took up the offer to complete the survey, a significant number of people who filled it out expressed interest in a bike-to-train commute. Committee member Murray Lantner, who designed the survey materials, reports:

With some persistence I conducted 23 surveys in 90 minutes. 17 of 23 surveyed, including one skateboarder, wanted to see more bike lanes in their neighborhoods. 12 of 23 said they would utilize a safe network of bike lanes and bike parking to get to the Kings Highway Station. 10 of 23 said there was a moderate need for more bike lanes in their neighborhoods. The rest mainly said there was little or no need for more bike lanes.

An encouraging observation... younger people were more open to taking the survey and they reflected a more positive attitude towards cycling.

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Back in May, Stella Bonaparte launched a group called Collingswood Streets and began studying bike lane options for downtown Collingswood, NJ, a borough outside Camden. Now she's shared her excellent work on the Livable Streets Community. As she explains in the study:

Collingswood's downtown has returned from near abandonment to become a fashionable local destination in recent years...  As an older town, built to the human scale, Collingswood began as very walkable and bikeable; however, the heavy amount of motor vehicle traffic it receives has diminished this amenity. As a result, the town is exploring adjustments to the physical streetscape in order to improve conditions for people using non-motorized and motorized forms of transportation.

Here's the full Bike Lane Feasibility Study and accompanying Bicycle Parking Recommendations.

Stella sees her work as a first step. "I hope that this will open a dialogue about the many options that are open to the municipality," she told us, "and build some momentum among citizens around advocacy for bike lanes and other bike and pedestrian projects." She says the study has been well received by town commissioner Joan Leonard and local planners. Stella intends to continue her research at Rutgers this spring, examining public support and funding for the bike plan.

In other news, we have a useful new feature for everyone who uses Livable Streets Groups. Admins now have the ability to make wiki pages within their group viewable only by members of the group -- a feature that some users had requested to discuss internal matters. To privatize the page, click the "Make Private" button, which now appears in the top right corner of each wiki page. The change can also be easily reversed.

Don't miss back-to-back opportunities to get involved in changing your city over the next few days.

On Sunday, compete to find bike parking spots in the FixCity Bike Rack Roundup, a contest to push through the FixCity project's pilot campaign for 300 new racks in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Even if you don't live in north Brooklyn, you can help get this experiment in participatory transportation planning off the ground and win nifty prizes like a B's Bikes gift basket (pictured) or an NY Transit Museum multi-tool. If you're coming from south Brooklyn or Queens, you can travel with TA's Brooklyn Committee on their monthly ride or meet them at the Pulaski Bridge.

Then on Monday night, Livable Streets is co-hosting Transportation Alternatives' Community Board Jammy Jam, a party where you can learn about community board membership and complete your application over drinks and dinner. Joining your community board is an incredibly powerful way to help shape our city's planning decisions, and this event will get you through paperwork with fun and ease.

We hope you'll join us for some good times and a better city!

Want to channel your anger over pedestrian and cyclist crashes into productive action? Livable Streets member BicyclesOnly has a plan for you.

BicyclesOnly has launched a working group for Traffic Justice FOIL Requests. Like the federal government and most other states, New York's Freedom of Information Law requires state and municipal agencies to make a wide range of internal documents and information publicly available upon request. BicyclesOnly's Freedom of Information Requests for Traffic Justice StreetsWiki article is an easy how-to for the whole process. He explained to us why FOIL requests are so crucial:

While police declare most crashes to be "accidents" within hours, the details that bear on responsibility for the crash are usually kept from the public for months. By that time, most journalists  and their readers have lost interest. The crash will forever be an "accident." But the detailed information from FOIL requests makes it possible to show that many "accidents" have real and preventable causes, and that police, prosecutors and traffic engineers are failing in their responsibility to address those causes.

He pointed out that Charles Komanoff's seminal work on traffic justice, "Killed by Automobile," would have been impossible without data obtained in this manner. For more information on FOIL requests, follow this link to a video featuring Robert Freeman, executive director of the New York State Committee on Open Government (Windows Media Player required).

The FOIL requests group is a place for people to gather information about crashes, track the progress of requests, and use this information in campaign work, like this letter to DOT Manhattan Borough Commissioner Margaret Forgione. Says BicyclesOnly: "Any Streetsblog reader can help foster balanced, meaningful coverage of traffic deaths by devoting two hours and $5 or so to making a FOIL crash request."

Last week PA Walks and Bikes alerted Pennsylvania residents to an opportunity to give input on the state's new Climate Change Action Plan. The state has produced a report identifying specific actions that would reduce emissions by a target date of 2020.

In his critique, LSC member John Boyle points to some notable omissions in Chapter 6, which focuses on transportation and land use:

There is no mention of bicycling and walking in the plan. There is a desire but no stated goal for reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled. The plan focuses instead on keep-driving actions such as proper tire inflation and "Eco Driving." Enhanced Support for Existing Land Use Policies sounds like a really weak action. Why not strengthen and enforce better Land Use Policies? Why not have a plan to make build more sidewalks and bike lanes?

The plan is open to public comment through November 9. PA Walks and Bikes explains how Pennsylvanians can give input on the group's blog.

Meanwhile in New York, residents will have a chance to make a difference in their neighborhoods at the second annual Community Board Join-Up Jammy Jam, hosted by Transportation Alternatives and the Livable Streets Initiative on November 23. As TA reminds us, community boards are "only as open-minded and effective as the people who sit on them." Join us to apply for your board and enjoy dinner, drinks, and conversation with current board members. Please RSVP by November 18.

In other news, the Livable Streets Community welcomes a new group working for more livable streets all the way over in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In September, dozens of people turned out for the Livable Streets Initiative's first bike rack hunt in North Brooklyn, where we identified about 70 spots that are begging for some nice bike parking. The locations will be submitted to DOT as a bulk order for bike racks. But first, we're raising the stakes.

With your help, LSI and Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) will suggest 300 locations for new bike racks in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Finding good locations for bike parking is tougher than you'd think. The trick is to verify that all 300 spots are actually suitable for racks. This handy "How to Get Your NYC Bike Racks" Streetfilm by Robin Urban Smith explains it all.

So here's the plan: This Sunday, you're invited to join us on a "Tag or Treat" ride. We're going to spread the word by scouring the streets for bikes and attaching notes that explain how to suggest bike rack locations using the FixCity: Bike Racks site. Then on November 22, we're going to collect all the locations submitted through the website and put on a contest. Top prize goes to the person who verifies the most locations as suitable for bike racks (details to come).

If you can't make it to either event, you can still suggest a rack location and verify that it is appropriate online. And starting Monday, if you have a smart phone you'll be able to submit rack suggestions via email, on the spot. Simply snap a photo and send it to racks@fixcity.org. Include the address and name of the nearest establishment in the subject line and any further description in the message body (use the format at right). But first, watch the Streetfilm so you can suggest spots that DOT will actually take advantage of.

The bulk order for North Brooklyn is a pilot project of FixCity. If you'd like to get more involved in this bulk order or organize another one in your neighborhood, contact info@fixcity.org.

Some Inwood & Washington Heights Livable Streets members were torn between attending their own meeting and coming out to support nearby Community Board 8 this Wednesday. Brad Conover filed his own account of the CB 8 success, and Maggie Clarke reported back on the IWHLS meeting, bearing hopeful rumors of pedestrian mall possibilities for Dyckman Street. Maggie writes:

"The more I think about it, the more it would be kind of neat to try to replicate something like Boulder or Denver. They have almost a little park in the middle of the street with seating, trees, flowers, sculptures, little playing areas for the children, etc. Denver's has two lanes of traffic on the outside for buses."

The group was happy to have an intern from State Senator Eric Schneiderman's office in attendance. As Brad Aaron wrote earlier this week, IWHLS is seeing positive results for the hard work they've put into Dyckman Street, among other projects. Sample letters of support, petitions, and the Dyckman Greenway proposal itself are available as attachments to this page. They invite suggestions and comments on their broader goals and projects, and have mapped some of them out here. While efforts so far have proven mostly fruitless, the group hopes to get Community Board 12 on board for safer streets in Upper Manhattan.

In other news, New Haven Safe Streets Coalition posts that their state legislature is looking into stricter penalties for texting while driving; TA's Brooklyn Volunteer Committee launches a new campaign with a Fifth Avenue ride; and we welcome new groups Smart Transit for Northern Kentucky, Livable Saskatchewan, and Rails for Rail.

Photo: kate at yr own risk/Flickr

Join us Saturday for Wikis Take Manhattan: a photo scavenger hunt for free-content images for StreetsWiki and Wikipedia. Prizes include Eye-Fi memory cards, which automatically upload photos from your camera to your computer and to sites like Flickr.

Here's video from last year's event.

Tomorrow's hunt coincides with Open House New York weekend, where you can also catch Livable Streets' Rebecca Jacobs leading a Times Square walking tour for kids age five and up.

So grab your camera and meet us at The Open Planning Project (148 Lafayette St.) at 1 p.m. tomorrow. We'll send you out on a wild chase that may just win you a free bike trip to Tuscany.

Full details and registration here.

Midwood residents beware: a bike thief is on the loose! Transportation Alternatives Brooklyn Committee member Sholom has a heartening and illuminating tale of the recent theft and recovery of his bicycle near the Kings Highway subway station. With the aid of the police, his laptop, a local restaurant owner, and a volunteer community safety patrol called Shomrim, he was able to recover his bike and spread news of the culprit. From Sholom, here are some theft prevention tips:

Bike owners should register their bike: I was fortunate to have a picture that proved that this was my bike. Without it, I would have no way of recovering it even if the Police had recovered it for me. If you own a bike, call your local precinct and arrange for a meeting with the crime prevention officer so that you can get your bike registered. In that case, if it is recovered, you have proof that it is yours.

Don’t just give up: So many bike thefts go unreported. People feel that they will never get it back and just give up immediately. Instead of giving up, you should report it to the Police and check your local craigslist. Many precincts have many bikes that are recovered, but have no owner. If your bike is recovered, you should have a chance of getting it back. Even if it’s not recovered, at least it will be recorded in the stats. The higher the number of thefts reported, the more attention it will get from the NYPD.

Lock your bike in public places: Locking it in a public place with many people can help ensure it’s there when you get back: A thief may be wearier to steal a bike that is locked up in Times Square (where he/she has the chance of being noticed) than on a private quieter street. When I travel anywhere by bike, I am sure to find the busiest street in the area to lock up my bike. 

Read the whole story on TA Brooklyn's blog. In other news: Inwood & Washington Heights Livable Streets needs letters of support this weekend from area businesses in favor of a Dyckman Street Greenway connector; PA Bikes & Walks brings news of an exciting multi-use trail network that would create 1,400 jobs; and Bicycles Only has added more great tips to the ever-growing StreetsWiki article on Urban Bicycling With Children.