Streetsblog New York City

Community boards in Manhattan and Brooklyn will host three bike-share planning workshops this week, and will take up traffic calming and pedestrian safety in Soho. Staten Island SBS and NYMTC long-range bike-ped planning are also on the agenda. The week ends with the annual memorial for fallen New York cyclists.

• Tuesday: Manhattan Community Board 1 will hold a bike-share planning workshop for Tribeca, Battery Park City, City Hall and the Financial District. 6-8 p.m. 
• Tuesday: The Manhattan CB 2 transportation committee will discuss box-blocking and traffic calming on Broome and Kenmare streets. 6:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: Manhattan CB 3 will review pedestrian safety measures for Delancey Street. 6:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: At a public meeting, DOT and MTA staff will present the final plan for Hylan Boulevard Select Bus Service. 7 p.m.
• Wednesday: Manhattan CB 5 hosts a bike-share planning workshop for Midtown, Times Square and the Flatiron District. 6 p.m.
• Thursday: The third bike-share workshop of the week will take place in Brooklyn, care of CB 6, which covers Park Slope, Gowanus, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Red Hook. 6:30 p.m. 
• Thursday: NYMTC will hold a public information session on bike and pedestrian infrastructure for the 2015-2040 Regional Transportation Plan. 6:30 p.m.; also available online.
• Sunday: The NYC Street Memorial Project will hold the 7th Annual Memorial Ride and Walk to honor city cyclists who lost their lives in the last year. The event starts at 11 a.m.; check the Ghost Bikes web site for schedule updates.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

It’s a bike-centric week on the Streetsblog calendar, with the latest planning workshop for bike-share locations in central Brooklyn and a community board discussion of new crosstown bike lanes in Midtown Manhattan. This weekend, you can help make ghost bikes to commemorate cyclists who lost their lives on the streets of New York.

The big-picture discussion this week is happening at NYU Law School, where Jon Orcutt and Charles Komanoff will be the stars at a forum about the city’s attempts to curb congestion through road pricing, bike lanes, parking policy and transit service. During the conversation, Komanoff will unveil details of “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz’s new road pricing plan, featured in the New York Times today.

• Tonight: Manhattan CB 6′s transportation committee debates a proposal to stripe crosstown bike lanes on 29th and 30th Streets. 7:00 p.m.
• Tuesday: Help plan where bike-share stations will go in Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens at a workshop hosted by Community Boards 8 and 9, as well as City Council Members Letitia James and Al Vann. 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
• Wednesday: DOT’s Jon Orcutt and congestion pricing advocate Charles Komanoff discuss the city’s efforts to speed people’s commutes at a forum held by NYU Law. 12:25 p.m.
• Also Wednesday: On the Upper East Side, CB 8′s transportation committee discusses two motorist proposals to annex curbside space: removing a bus stop and reducing metered parking hours. 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday: In preparation for a commemorative ride, the NYC Street Memorial Project is holding a work day to make and install ghost bikes honoring slain cyclists. 11:00 a.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

There are two big calendar items in Brooklyn this week, both on Tuesday. With NYC DOT looking for input on how to manage the needs of Prospect Park users, the Prospect Park Road Sharing Task Force will present recommendations that “put people first.” Meanwhile, DOT staff will unveil a pedestrian plaza proposal for Ocean and Parkside Avenues to Community Board 9. Also on the calendar:

• Tonight: Community Board 3 hosts a bike-share planning workshop for the East Village, Lower East Side, Little Italy and east Chinatown. 6:30 p.m. And: The first in a series of events from the Carbon Squeeze, a group of Upper West Siders who have banded together to uncover practical ways to reduce their carbon output. 7 p.m.
• Tuesday: The aforementioned Prospect Park Task Force forum begins at 6:00 p.m.; the CB 9 pedestrian plaza event starts at 7:00.
• Also Tuesday: The public will have two opportunities this week to comment on the draft environmental impact statement for the Tappan Zee Bridge. Discarding years of planning, Governor Andrew Cuomo is pushing a super-sized Tappan Zee that includes no plans for transit, no known price tag and no definitive funding formula. Tuesday’s hearing will take place in Rockland County (4-9 p.m.); the second is on Thursday in Westchester (4-9 p.m.). Comments will also be accepted by e-mail until March 15. See TSTC’s Tappan Zee site for details.
• More Thursday: The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) holds its annual meeting, “Infrastructure at a Crossroads: Financing the Region’s Transportation Needs,” featuring state DOT commissioner Joan McDonald. 11 a.m.
• Saturday: Queens Community Board 2 hosts a bike forum, where the public can share ideas with DOT staff. 10 a.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Tomorrow’s a packed day on the Streetsblog calendar, starting with a morning event at NYU’s Rudin Center with City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca. Wondering how Vacca intends to keep the pressure on NYPD to reform its crash investigation protocols? Or how the council member squares his public stances on street safety with his legislation adding red tape for street safety projects? Or what’s up with all the parking bills? Tuesday morning is your chance to ask.

This is also a big week for bike-share planning, with Manhattan Community Board 3 and Brooklyn Community Board 2 hosting public workshops to discuss where public bike stations should go.

• Tuesday: The Rudin Center hosts a conversation with James Vacca. 8:30 a.m. RSVP online.
• Also Tuesday: Where should bike-share stations go in East Midtown and the Upper East Side? Community Board 6 and local electeds host a public workshop about station siting with NYC DOT. 6 p.m.
• More Tuesday: NYC DOT’s Park Smart program has cut traffic while allowing more drivers to access shops in Park Slope. At this presentation to Queens Community Board 2, DOT will explore bringing smarter prices for curbside parking to the congested streets of Long Island City. 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Community Board 2 hosts a public workshop to plan where bike-share stations should go in Downtown Brooklyn and surrounding neighborhoods. Two sessions: one beginning at 6 p.m. and another at 7 p.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Even with new laws on the books designed to hold dangerous motorists accountable, NYPD still, by and large, allows drivers who maim or kill other people to get right back behind the wheel with little or no repercussions. Stories abound of police failing to follow up with crash witnesses, neglecting to use the legal tools at their disposal, and generally ignoring the seriousness of traffic violence as a widespread hazard. Public awareness of the problem heightened this winter as the family of slain cyclist Mathieu Lefevre pursued information from NYPD about the crash that killed their son, revealing mishandling of key evidence and bizarre inconsistencies in the investigative file.

On Wednesday the City Council Public Safety Committee and Transportation Committee are holding a joint oversight hearing looking into NYPD crash investigations and traffic enforcement. If you would like to testify at the hearing, you can send an e-mail to TA’s Juan Martinez by this evening, with the subject line “Feb. 15.”

• Monday: Join the East Village Community Coalition and Local Spokes for a workshop to envision the East Village as a better neighborhood for cycling. 6:00 p.m.
  
• Wednesday: Peter Vallone and James Vacca hold a joint oversight hearing on NYPD crash investigations and traffic enforcement, titled “Proceeding with Caution – An Examination of NYPD’s accident response and enforcement of traffic rules relating to cars, bikes, and trucks.” 10 a.m.
  
• Also Wednesday: A one-block extension of the 2nd Street bike lane, the permanent design of Forsyth Plaza, and a speed bump on Orchard are on the agenda of the Manhattan CB 3 Transportation Committee. 6:30 p.m.
• More Wednesday: The Museum of the City of New York hosts a panel about NYC DOT’s innovative reallocation of city street space, featuring “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz, NYC DOT deputy commissioner Bruce Schaller, and the RPA’s Jeff Zupan. Reservations required. 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday: NYC DOT takes its bike-share presentation to Chinatown for public information sessions in Mandarin and Cantonese. The Mandarin presentation starts at 3 p.m., and the Cantonese one starts at 4.
• Also Thursday: The public workshop to help design Fowler Square in Fort Greene is an important one for local residents to attend. Community Board 2 has voted for the plaza, but a small yet vocal contingent of opponents disrupted a plaza workshop last year. 6 p.m.
• And More on Thursday: Join Assembly Member Marcos Crespo and Transportation Alternatives’ Rider Rebellion for a town hall discussion about how to improve transit in the Bronx. 6:30 p.m

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Following the death of Dashane Santana, the transportation committee of Community Board 3 will hold a special meeting this Wednesday to address conditions on Delancey Street, where drivers are aggressive and crossing times are short. Responding to media coverage and pressure from residents and electeds, DOT is scheduled to present its plan to make Delancey safer for pedestrians.

Also on the calendar this week:

• Monday: Join Manhattan Community Board 2, local residents and business owners at a roundtable planning workshop to help decide how bike share should work and where stations should be sited in the West Village, Tribeca and and SoHo. Street-savvy participants are needed for this key meeting, which starts at 6 p.m.
• Also tonight: The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 will take up the DOT proposal for crosstown bike lanes on East 29th and 30th streets from 1st to 8th avenues, as well as a request from the 13th Precinct for an eastbound left turn lane marking on East 20th Street at 1st Avenue.
• Tuesday: The Manhattan CB 2 transportation committee will discuss how to mitigate “congestion, noise and hazardous conditions from intense vehicular traffic on the Kenmare-Lafayette-Broome Street section of the route from the Williamsburg Bridge to the Holland Tunnel.”
• Thursday:  NYC DOT will present its Classon Avenue traffic calming proposal to Brooklyn Community Board 8. 
• Also Thursday: DOT and electeds will hold a public workshop to discuss the future of Fourth Avenue between 15th and 65th streets.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

The big activity on the livable streets calendar this week — and perhaps for weeks to come — is bike-share station selection. The first local workshop, hosted by Manhattan Community Board 4 and West Side elected officials, will begin to determine where stations will be located in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea. One of the major questions to work out is whether bike-share stations will be placed on the sidewalk or in what are now parking spaces. Encompassing both Penn Station and the Port Authority Bus Terminal as well as the hard-to-reach Hudson River waterfront, CB 4 should have some very popular bike-share sites.

• Tuesday: People who live and work on Manhattan’s West Side can help choose where bike-share stations will go in Hell’s Kitchen and Chelsea at a workshop hosted by Community Board 4. 6:00 p.m.
• Wednesday: Second Avenues Sagas author Ben Kabak interviews former MTA open data expert Sarah Kaufman about how technology is reshaping public transportation, part of a series at the New York Transit Museum. 6:30 p.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Last April, the federal government announced a $3.5 million grant to a consortium of New York and Connecticut governments to promote transit-oriented development. In New York City, planning is focused on commuter rail stations in the Bronx and East New York. Tonight, HUD Regional Director Adolfo Carrión hosts a town hall meeting to gather public input on how to shape growth in the Bronx. Later in the week, Governor Cuomo hosts what is sure to be a fascinating presentation on public-private partnerships — but it will be closed to the press.

• Tonight: Adolfo Carrión hosts a town hall meeting in the Bronx to discuss the ongoing efforts, funded by the federal government, to promote transit-oriented development around the borough’s Metro-North stations. 6:00 p.m.
• Wednesday: DOT brings its bike-share demonstration to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, showing commuters the new transit option they’ll have access to later this year. 3:00 p.m.
• Friday: Andrew Cuomo hosts his fellow Democratic governors for a conference promoting public-private partnerships in infrastructure construction. 8:00 a.m.
• Saturday: DOT’s bike-share demo moves down to the Lower East Side’s Essex Street Market. 12:00 p.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Having set up a process for neighborhoods to request 20 mph zones, the city Department of Transportation has sparked a citywide discussion about appropriate traffic speeds on residential streets. That discussion will come to Park Slope this weekend in a public forum held by the Park Slope Civic Council weighing the merits of a slow speed zone and how it might be implemented in that neighborhood.

Also: Tonight the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 2 will consider a proposal from local residents to stripe a bike lane on Lafayette Avenue, and the city’s extensive public outreach for its bike-share program continues, with discussions in both English and Spanish.

• Today: James Vacca’s City Council Transportation Committee won’t discuss the MTA budget, but will tackle four separate ways to make it more convenient to park illegally. 1:00 p.m.
• Tonight: Brooklyn CB 2′s transportation committee discusses the proposal for a bike lane on Lafayette Avenue, which has 1,400 signatures supporting it. 6:00 p.m.
• Wednesday: Manhattan Community Board 4′s transportation committee discusses both bike-share and bike lanes. 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday: A panel hosted by the Women’s City Club tackles the funding challenges facing the MTA’s capital program. 12:30 p.m.
• Also Thursday: The Department of Transportation continues its bike-share outreach with a Spanish-language presentation at Grand Street Settlement 6:00 p.m.
• Saturday: The Park Slope Civic Council discusses whether, where, and how to bring 20 mph zones to the neighborhood. 11:45 a.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

Tops on this week’s livable street calendar is the second annual Youth Bike Summit, held this weekend by Recycle-A-Bicycle. Last year, teens learned everything from map-making techniques to organizing strategies. Also: Former Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch will speak on the economic perils of declining infrastructure, sounding a call he’s made repeatedly for proper transportation funding.

• Tuesday: The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 7 discusses a proposal to turn part of 59th Street one-way, continues debating electric bicycles, and hears a presentation from Streetsblog publisher Mark Gorton on the place of the automobile in New York City. 7:00 p.m.
• Wednesday: To mark the opening of an exhibit on New York City’s plans for bike-share, the American Institute of Architects hosts a conversation between DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Alta Bicycle Share President Alison Cohen. 6:00 p.m.
• Also Wednesday: The Department of Design and Construction gives Manhattan CB 3′s transportation committee an update on the Forsyth Street Plaza planned for the foot of the Manhattan Bridge. 6:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Former Lieutenant Governor and MTA chief Richard Ravitch speaks to the Transportation Research Forum about the economic consequences of underfunding infrastructure. 11:45 a.m.
• Friday to Sunday: Recycle-A-Bicycle hosts the second annual Youth Bike Summit, a national conference that brings young people together to explore “how bicycling can be a legitimate and safe form of transportation for today’s youth.” Rep. Nydia Velazquez will give the conference’s keynote address on Saturday. Friday, 5:00 p.m. Saturday, 8:30 a.m. Sunday, 10:00 a.m.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.