Zhaneya Butcher. Photo via Daily News

Prosecutors say Kent Lowrie, 53, was legally drunk when he hit and killed Zhaneya Butcher last summer as the little girl ran toward an ice cream truck on 104th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens. Lowrie pled guilty to manslaughter as part of a deal that resulted in five years’ probation, a $1,000 fine, a six-month license revocation and the mandated use of an ignition interlock device for one year, according to court records. The Daily News reports:

Instead of going to a grand jury, prosecutors opted to offer Lowrie a plea deal. They feared that when a margin of error for the blood-alcohol test was factored in, Lowrie would not have been considered intoxicated and would have faced lesser charges.

There was also no evidence that Lowrie was speeding.

Given that Lowrie faced up to seven years in prison, Zhaneya’s relatives were understandably shocked by the outcome of this case. Implicit in the decision to negotiate such a favorable deal for Lowrie is the fact that, under ordinary circumstances, the driver who strikes a child with deadly force on a neighborhood street is considered blameless by default.

The state legislature has given police and prosecutors new tools to offer a modicum of protection to vulnerable street users like Zhaneya Butcher and, ideally, to deter drivers from acts of deadly recklessness. But as long as those tools go unused, motorists will continue to maim and kill with relative impunity, and victims of traffic violence will be deemed culpable for their own deaths and injuries.

A woman who accompanied Lowrie on Tuesday was quoted as saying, “People should keep their kids in the house and not running between parked cars.” As repugnant a statement as that is, it’s more or less what the criminal justice system is saying, too.

Queens community leader Patricia Dolan was killed last night as she walked to a transportation meeting at her community board. Photo: Times-Ledger/Christina Santucci

Queens community leader Pat Dolan was killed by the driver of a Nissan sedan as she crossed the street last night. Dolan served on Queens Community Board 8, and she was walking to a transportation meeting when she was struck.

According to the NYPD, Dolan was crossing Hillside Avenue southbound at 198th Street when she was struck by the driver, who was traveling east. The NYPD said that “there was no criminality” on the part of the driver, who remained at the scene, but the police could provide no information about whether Dolan was in a crosswalk or had the right of way, or whether the driver was speeding.

Dolan was president of the Queens Civic Congress, and in the wake of her death tributes have been pouring in from across the city. “Pat dedicated her life to Queens,” said Borough President Helen Marshall. Said Comptroller John Liu, “Her leadership and infectious spirit will be sorely missed, and I stand together with my fellow residents of Queens to mourn her untimely death.” Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced that he was dedicating his transportation conference this Friday in Dolan’s memory.

Dolan had made improving transportation access for car-free Queens residents part of her life’s work, reported the Queens Times-Ledger. As director of Queens Connection, she organized transportation for senior centers and advocated for better public transit across the borough. “Dolan did not drive and took public transportation to every one of the countless meetings she attended all around the borough,” the paper wrote.

“Pat’s tireless commitment to a safer, more livable community earned her the respect of all who knew her,” said Transportation Alternatives executive director Paul Steely White. “During her tenure as its leader, the Queens Civic Congress addressed community transportation concerns, like speeding, reckless driving and dangerous conditions for walkers. Her absence will be felt in the many lives she touched in her own community and beyond.”

If you would like to discuss the case and traffic safety in the neighborhood with local police, the next meeting of the 103rd Precinct is December 13 at 7:00 p.m. and the next meeting of the 107th Precinct is this Tuesday, November 22, at 8:00 p.m.

In City Council Member Mark Weprin's district, 61 percent of those surveyed said they like the city's bike lane program. Image: City Council

Several surveys this year by top polling organizations have found citywide support for bike lanes. And in Park Slope and the Upper West Side, questionnaires put out by local elected officials have shown consistent neighborhood-level approval for new bike infrastructure. Now, another member of the City Council has found widespread enthusiasm for the city’s bike lane program among his constituents — and he doesn’t represent the heart of the NYC bike belt.

In fact, the district in question upends the assumption, held by certain members of the tabloid media, that “ordinary New Yorkers” aren’t interested in safer streets for cycling. It’s the turf of Council Member Mark Weprin, whose Queens district hugs the Nassau County line. A recent survey found that 61 percent of Weprin’s constituents support the city’s installation of bike lanes.

“I was somewhat surprised at the results,” said Weprin (not to be confused with his brother, Assembly Member David Weprin, who recently lost the race for Anthony Weiner’s seat in Congress and fought hard against congestion pricing when he sat in the City Council). “You tend to hear from the naysayers. When you go out to civic meetings, a lot of people complain about bike lanes, but obviously that’s not the majority.”

The survey went out by e-mail to a list of thousands of Weprin’s constituents, asking: “Do you support the network of bicycle lanes that the New York City Department of Transportation has installed on city streets?” About 400 people responded. While the methodology wasn’t scientific, Weprin guessed that if anything, it probably oversampled the high-intensity opinions of the bike lane opponents. “People seem to like them,” said Weprin, “including myself.” In the latest Q-poll, which uses random sampling and other scientific statistical techniques, 53 percent of Queens residents said they supported the expansion of the bike lane network.

Weprin's pro-bike lane district sits at the easternmost edge of Queens. Image: NYCityMap.

“It always helps to know that your constituents are behind you when you support an issue,” Weprin said when asked how the survey would affect his actions moving forward. While he cautioned that there might be problems with the location of any given bike lane, Weprin said it’s important “to realize that we have too many cars in this city and it would be more environmental and healthier to have more people ride bikes.”

He also praised the city’s upcoming bike-share program, again reserving the right to critique the particulars of its implementation, should issues arise. “In theory, it’s a great idea to have bike-sharing and have people have an alternative to taking taxi cabs and even subways and buses, because those too are overcrowded on occasion,” said Weprin.

Though the 2 train runs up White Plains Road, the Department of City Planning has proposed downzoning all the areas bounded by yellow on either side of the street. Image: NYC DCP

The Department of City Planning’s commitment to rezoning the city along more transit-oriented lines is a critical component of its sustainability agenda. Allowing more people to live and work next to transit means more people will ride transit and fewer will drive.

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, upzonings have indeed been concentrated near transit. But what the administration gives with one hand, it takes with the other. Over the last decade, the Department of City Planning has also downzoned large swaths of transit-accessible land, preventing further development in these locations. Indeed, under one representative five-year period of Bloomberg and Burden’s city planning, three-quarters of the lots rezoned for greater density were located within a half-mile of rail transit, but so were two-thirds of the lots where development was further restricted, according to research by NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy.

The pattern still holds. In fact, some of DCP’s most recent rezonings are restricting development on blocks literally around the corner from a subway stop.

Take the Williamsbridge/Baychester rezoning in the Bronx, which the City Planning Commission certified last month. There, an elevated train, the 2, runs up White Plains Avenue. Along White Plains itself, DCP proposes to either maintain the existing rules or allow slightly more growth. But turn the corner off the main street even a fraction of a block, and the department is seeking to sharply curtail the opportunity for growth.

At the 219th Street station, for example, the allowable floor area ratio (or FAR), a measure of density, would drop from 2.43 to 1.25 as soon as you move east off of White Plains. Parking minimums would rise, requiring 85 parking spots for every 100 homes (up from a 70 percent ratio). To the immediate northwest of the station, the proposed zoning would be even stricter, with a FAR of 1.1 and a parking space required for each new residential unit.

The story is the same one stop further north at 225th Street. Walk one short block south of the station, turn left and the allowable FAR drops to 0.9, again with a parking space required for each unit.

Two sides of the Baychester Avenue stop on the 5 line are slated for the same extremely restrictive zoning, but in that case there won’t even be any upzoning along a main street to compensate for it.

Those neighborhoods are in the northeast Bronx, near the end of the subway system. Even so, transit is heavily used in the area; in that City Council district, less than half of residents drive to work.

Moreover, DCP is tightening its zoning precisely because developers want to build in these areas. Explaining the need for the new restrictions, the department writes on its website that “the residential neighborhoods in the rezoning area have been experiencing development pressure” and that the new rules are needed to “preserve the scale and context of these areas.”

Richard Gorman, the chair of Bronx Community Board 12, put it more explicitly. “We are all extremely excited about the proposed rezoning,” he told the Bronx Times-Reporter. “We have low-density communities, and we would like to keep that character alive here.”

Surprisingly, City Planning claims that this rezoning is transit-oriented. Said DCP Commissioner Amanda Burden to the Times-Reporter, “In keeping with our commitment to transit-oriented growth, this rezoning would direct development away from residential side streets with small homes, to blocks than can accommodate new commercial and housing opportunities.” DCP did not respond to Streetsblog inquiries for this story.

Williamsbridge and Baychester are far from exceptional cases. Another DCP proposal currently working its way through the public review process will change the development rules for Sunnyside and Woodside in western Queens. That plan includes some significant upzonings near transit, near the 40th Street 7 station, for example. But while DCP pushed for more growth near some rail stations, it proposed restrictions near others.

In the four-block area between the 65th Street station on the M and R lines and the 69th Street station on the 7, for example, DCP is seeking to reduce the allowable density of development while adding a requirement that all new residences include a front yard. The yard must be at least as deep as that of the yard next door and no less than five feet deep.

Every time the Bloomberg administration restricts development near transit, it means people who would want to live or locate businesses there cannot. The forestalled development will be pushed somewhere else, perhaps away from transit, out in the suburbs, or out of the New York region altogether. Those would-be transit riders will drive and New York housing prices will rise. It’s hard to see how actively halting or shrinking development near transit squares with the goals of PlaNYC.

The block of the bike path directly to the east of the Queensboro entrance has been paved. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

Clarence sends along a few more shots from the beginning of construction season. These come from Queens Plaza, where the two-way bike approach to the Queensboro Bridge is extending eastward.

The bike approach, part of a package of public space improvements to Queens Plaza, will eventually connect Vernon Boulevard and Northern Boulevard. The segment between the bridge entrance and Northern Boulevard is well on its way to completion.

Looking east toward Northern Boulevard, one block of the path has yet to be paved. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

The eastern end of the path. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

Biking to the bridge. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

A rendering of the foot of the Roosevelt Island Bridge with new pedestrian refuge islands added. Image: NYCDOT

At the foot of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, DOT is showing off how a few simple improvements can turn a dangerous intersection into a safer one. It’s not a flashy redesign — just a pair of pedestrian refuges and improved crosswalks — but it’s a good example of the street safety improvements that are becoming increasingly common.

Right now, pedestrians crossing 36th Avenue where it becomes the entrance to the bridge must walk 107 feet from sidewalk to sidewalk: six lanes of traffic with no safe place for pedestrians to pause. Satellite photos of the site show that if a crosswalk had ever been painted there, it’s long since worn away.

By building two new pedestrian refuges across 36th, DOT’s redesign makes it so that the longest distance a pedestrian would have to walk in one stretch is only 49 feet. It also allows for the crosswalk across Vernon, which already has a traffic calming bike lane, to shift from a more dangerous diagonal route to one that leads straight across the street. One of the refuges is long enough to include a new area for trees and plantings.

Queens Community Board 1 did not vote on the proposal after DOT presented it to them on March 29, according to the district manager.

For an overhead view of what the intersection looks like now and the plan for the future, head below the fold:

An overhead view of the current intersection layout, with long and dangerous crosswalks. Image: NYCDOT.

The redesigned intersection builds pedestrian refuges to shorten crossing distances. Image: NYCDOT.

Hunter's Point South will have good bike infrastructure, as shown here. But will it be transit-accessible or swamped by parking? Image: NYC Mayor's Office via Flickr.

This morning, the Bloomberg Administration announced the developer for the first phase of Hunter’s Point South, a Long Island City project the city is billing as the largest middle-class housing project since Co-Op City and Starrett City went up in the 1970s. A team led by the Related Companies will be developing the first 900 units at what will eventually be a 5,000-unit complex along the East River.

Whether Hunter’s Point South turns out to be the most recent in a line of auto-oriented projects along New York City’s deindustrialized waterfront, or a project in line with the city’s sustainability goals, will depend on whether developers choose to build all the parking they are entitled to, whether the MTA extends bus service into the complex, and whether the city’s attempts to foster ferry transit across the East River are successful.

The nearest subway station to Hunter’s Point South is the Vernon-Jackson Ave stop on the 7. The northeastern corner of the site is only two blocks away from the station. Those are long blocks, however, making the walk about three-tenths of a mile. That’s not right on top of the subway, but it is walkable. The far end of the 30 acre site, however, will be 0.6 or 0.7 miles from the subway, more than the half-mile rule of thumb for transit-oriented development.

Over the course of the project, the city has been in talks with the MTA to extend bus service, most likely the Q103, into Hunter’s Point South. There is no concrete promise to provide transit to the heart of the project, however, nor have funds to pay for more buses been publicly identified.

But the city’s new subsidized ferry service will stop at the site. Midtown will be only one stop and $3 away, though downtown will be a longer and more expensive ride. If ferry service is popular, many Hunter’s Point residents could use it to get to work. However, since the ferries will cost more than transit, leave only every 20 minutes during rush hour, and shut down after 8 p.m., it remains to be seen how popular they will be. The costly ferry program could even be canceled before Hunter’s Point South is completed.

Hunter’s Point South is planned to include laudable bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The city’s RFP calls for a two-way bike lane protected by a landscaped median to run the length of both 2nd Street and Center Boulevard, the two main north-south corridors through the project. In addition, bike lanes are planned for a pair of cross streets. The RFP also calls for bulb-outs at Borden Avenue and 2nd street to ease crossings.

As with so much of the recent waterfront development in New York City, large amounts of parking could push Hunter’s Point South residents to drive. According to the RFP, the project has no parking minimums, but developers are allowed to build a space for up to 40 percent of the residential units. The project’s environmental impact statement puts that number at 2,660 parking spaces — and therefore 2,660 more cars — if built to the maximum.

DOT's new interactive map of Jackson Heights can display several layers of information, like the number of traffic crashes and pedestrian volumes at certain intersections.

Since 2009, the Department of Transportation has been engaged in a major study of Jackson Heights’ streets and sidewalks. At the request of community groups and with federal funding from Rep. Joe Crowley, DOT has been developing a plan to make the neighborhood safer, less congested, and more transit-accessible. After two years of research and community engagement, DOT will be presenting its first recommendations next Saturday, February 12.

In preparation for the release of those plans, DOT has also launched a first-of-its-kind data portal collecting all the information about the Jackson Heights Transportation Study. (The portal was developed by a division of OpenPlans, Streetsblog’s parent organization.) Everything from community board presentations to raw, block-by-block data about parking occupancy is in one place.

The portal includes a new interactive map of Jackson Heights. Presenting information like vehicle speeds, pedestrian volumes, traffic crashes and parking occupancy, the map helps visualize what happens on the neighborhood’s streets. You can see, for example, how rampant double-parking blocks buses along Broadway: On one block, there are an average of 32 percent more cars parked than there are spaces. According to DOT, even more features should be available after next Saturday.

What’s presented on the 12th could also be extremely exciting. At presentations to Community Boards 3 and 4 last June, DOT proposed classifying all neighborhood streets into four categories laid out in the department’s Street Design Manual.

• Through streets would be redesigned to move vehicular traffic more efficiently, without causing speeding.
• Transit streets would have bus lanes, curb extensions at bus stops and lights coordinated with the buses. 74th and 75th Streets are likely candidates.
• Slow streets would calm traffic with re-timed signals and traffic-calming treatments like neckdowns.
• Some streets could be pedestrianized, with furniture and greenery creating new public spaces.

On top of that, DOT is looking at using curbside space more efficiently by adding more parking meters and extending metered hours, adding delivery zones for commercial vehicles, and using PARK Smart to price peak-hour parking more effectively. They’re also considering adding bike lanes and bike parking in the neighborhood.

Several ideas in this vein have been bubbling up through community-based efforts like the Green Agenda for Jackson Heights, a blueprint for making the neighborhood more sustainable released last spring.

All these possible improvements are only Phase I of the project, meaning they’re considered short-term improvements. Implementation would begin this spring. Phase II will explore larger improvements requiring either capital construction or more intense coordination with other agencies.

Of course, an ambitious list of potential improvements doesn’t necessarily turn into ambitious implementation. We’ll find out on the 12th.

The intersection of Woodhaven Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue where a tow truck driver critically injured an 81-year-old woman crossing the street. Image: Google Street View

Separate crashes in the past 48 hours have critically injured two New York City pedestrians.

On Saturday afternoon around 2 p.m., an unidentified 81-year-old woman was crossing Woodhaven Boulevard in Queens when she was struck by a tow-truck driver turning left from westbound Atlantic Avenue. The woman sustained severe trauma to the head and was last listed in critical condition, according to police. Despite the fact that the circumstances of the crash indicate the victim was crossing Woodhaven with a walk signal and the truck driver failed to yield, NYPD gave Streetsblog the standard line that the crash involved “no criminality” and that it “looks like an accident.”

This morning at around 7 a.m., a minivan driver struck a pedestrian at the intersection of 172nd Street and Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. The victim was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition. NYPD had no further details on the crash at this time.

Update: The Daily News reports that the victim of the Bronx crash was crossing Jerome when he was struck by a minivan driver heading north, then hit again by a southbound driver. The minivan driver said he didn’t see the victim “until he was right in front of me.” No charges were filed.

The new approach to the Queensboro, looking east, with access to the bridge path on the right. Photo: Clarence Eckerson

We’ve got another highlight from 2010 construction season to share with you. A two-way, protected approach to the Queens side of the Queensboro Bridge bike-ped path has been paved, striped and open for business since the end of October.

Clarence took these photos of the new approach, part of a package of bicycle and pedestrian improvements that NYC EDC is carrying out at Queens Plaza and vicinity. The project has been in the works for several years and, when finished, will encompass a major reallocation of real estate from cars and parking to public space, walking and biking. The bridge approach in these photos will be a link in a two-way path running from Northern Boulevard to Vernon Boulevard.

The view looking toward the East River.

And here’s the same angle a few months ago, when construction was getting started:

Photo: bitchcakesny

The same report also stated that the vehicle was being driven by an NYPD traffic agent, which the department denies. We’ll update this post as we learn more.

Update: NYPD gives the location of the crash as 211th Street and 89th Avenue, one block north of 89th Road.

The first 2010 installment of Summer Streets is tomorrow, and I can't think of a better way to get in the mood than to check in on this inspiring grassroots victory for livable streets in New York City.

These are pictures Clarence took last Friday at the 78th Street Play Street in Jackson Heights. The play street started out as a car-free experiment on summer Sundays in 2008, giving kids and families some more space to play and socialize in one of New York's most park-starved neighborhoods. As a candidate for City Council, Dan Dromm supported the play street, and in office he joined hundreds of constituents on a march to the local Community Board, helping to win a vote for making the street car-free seven days a week, all summer long.

This summer, the street has gradually gained popularity as a public space, and now it attracts up to 200 people at a time, according to Dudley Stewart, president of the Jackson Heights Green Alliance. High school students who help supervise activities for younger kids throughout the week estimate that over the course of a busy day, several hundred people come over and enjoy the street.

"In the evenings you can have 100 people," said Stewart. "People are there well after eight." Even after the play equipment is put away, he said, people will linger on the benches, toddlers will play on the astroturf, and kids will ride bikes up and down the street.

Have a look at more of Clarence's pictures after the jump. Wouldn't it be great if kids had free reign on the street all year round, and traffic never invaded this space again?

The proposed redesign for the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Queens. Image: NYCDOT

Also known as the J.J. Byrne Memorial Bridge, this span over Newtown Creek is currently a danger zone for cyclists. Heading toward Queens, the Greenpoint Avenue bike lane ends abruptly at the bridge, throwing cyclists into mixed traffic where the road widens from two lanes to four. The confusing intersection on the Queens side of the bridge, where Greenpoint Avenue meets Van Dam Street and Review Avenue, is one of the locations most prone to crashes that cause severe injuries in the entire borough.

Currently, the Greenpoint Ave bike lane ends right at the Greenpoint Ave Bridge. Image: NYCDOT

As part of a badly needed resurfacing of the bridge, DOT has proposed putting the bridge on a road diet using new markings. Two of the bridge's travel lanes and its striped median would be narrowed. The other two lanes would be turned into bike lanes with no physical protection but plenty of room: six feet of travel width with a nine foot buffer. On the Queens side, the intersection would be simplified and include new pedestrian crossings.  

The redesign, unsurprisingly, has already drawn some controversy. According to the Brooklyn Paper, truckers have objected to bike lanes on Greenpoint Avenue, both those proposed for the bridge and those already built on the Brooklyn side. Of course, Greenpoint Avenue is already only two lanes wide on either side of the bridge. Moreover, in addition to improving safety on this bridge, the new bike lanes may help relieve some pressure on the narrow bike/ped path of the Pulaski Bridge, which is terribly overcrowded.

DOT's website has the redesign slated for November implementation. We haven't received any replies from the department in response to requests for more information about the status of the plan. 

The site of this morning's crash: 53rd Avenue in front of Bayside's PS 162. Photo: Google Street View

The mother of a student at PS 162 in Queens is in critical condition after a driver struck her in front of the school this morning. The crash occurred as the parent was crossing 53rd Avenue between 201st and 202nd Streets at around 9:10 this morning, in view of students and teachers, according to a press release from Council Member Mark Weprin.

The driver, who remained at the scene, has been charged with failure to yield and driving with a suspended license, according to the NYPD. Eyewitnesses cited in Weprin's release said the driver was speeding.  

Weprin called on the Department of Transportation to install speed humps, traffic lights, or other measures to calm traffic in front of the school. Whatever the right solution is for PS 162, New York City sorely needs better enforcement to prevent reckless drivers from injuring people on city streets. The crash this morning is also a reminder that the city's commitment to Safe Routes to School must still be strengthened significantly to ensure that it's safe for children and families to walk to every one of its thousands of public, private, and parochial schools.

Plans for a new pedestrian area between Hoyt Avenue South and Astoria Boulevard. Pedestrians already crowd this space, which is only set off from traffic by striping (visible under the simulated sidewalk). Rendering: NYCDOT

NYCDOT has proposed a significant street redesign for the base of the RFK Bridge (a.k.a. the Triborough) in Astoria [PDF], a package that should improve public space, enhance safety for pedestrians and cyclists, and speed bus service across the bridge.

The redesign is the product of a DOT-sponsored safety workshop held in early 2009. Many of the pedestrian safety improvements will add greater protection to the paths that Astoria residents are already walking. A new sidewalk will link a senior center with the Astoria Boulevard subway station, for example, while a new pedestrian plaza will bring planted curb space between Hoyt Avenue South and Astoria Boulevard, where pedestrians currently stand between lanes of traffic as they cross to the train. 

The skinny arrows show new bike lanes for approaches to the Triborough Bridge. Buffered lanes are shown in blue, with regular painted lanes in orange and sharrows in light green. Image: NYCDOT

Cyclists crossing the Triborough will find safer bridge approaches, thanks to the addition of new bike lanes [PDF]. The DOT plan calls for buffered lanes along Hoyt Avenue North and South, and on 21st Street between Ditmars Boulevard and 20th Avenue. Regular painted lanes and sharrows are also slated for nearby streets.

New traffic signals will help get bus riders to their destinations faster. A special bus-only phase will give the buses a head start on traffic at the intersection of Hoyt Avenue North and 29th Street. Currently, buses have to pick up passengers along the right side of Hoyt Avenue North before quickly cutting across four lanes of traffic to get onto the bridge. Under the proposed redesign, buses would drive in a bus-only lane between 31st and 29th Streets, where the traffic signal would turn green for buses a few seconds before regular traffic. The only other exclusive bus signals in New York can be found at Columbus Circle and along the Select Bus Service route on Fordham Road.

Queens Community Board 1 hasn't voted on the proposal yet, but the bike, bus, and pedestrian improvements have proven uncontroversial so far. Changes like narrowing travel lanes to make room for cyclists or giving buses a head start didn't spur many comments when presented to the board's transportation committee on May 19, said district manager Lucille Hartman. One aspect of the proposal did draw criticism -- converting two blocks of Astoria Boulevard to one-way flow, a change DOT drew up to relieve bridge traffic congestion.

NYCEDC required a suburban level of parking at the Flushing Commons development. Image: Rockefeller Group Development Corporation.

The project, known as Flushing Commons, is a mixture of retail, housing, and office space slated for downtown Flushing, one of New York's fastest growing business districts. It's also one of the most transit-rich areas in Queens, making it a prime location for great walkable development.

But Meyer's project is slated to include a suburban level of parking, which will induce shoppers to drive to an area  that's already overrun by traffic. And if some Flushing leaders get their way, the project will include even more -- and cheaper -- parking.

Meyer believes the area is ready for walkable development, but notes that 50-year-old beliefs about transportation and development still prevail. "We're almost in a time warp," he said, adding that "Flushing is not the way it used to be," but "emotions and misconceptions" lead people to think excessive parking is a necessity.

Zoning rules require 700 spaces at Flushing Commons, according to Meyer, but the project will build far more -- 1,600 spaces -- because the parking-obsessed Economic Development Corporation demanded that level of parking. 

Flushing Commons would build up to 620 residences, 275,000 square feet of retail space and 234,000 square feet of commercial space just two short blocks from the busiest subway station outside Manhattan. The site is served by 21 different bus routes and is a short walk from the third-busiest pedestrian intersection in all of New York. The property, currently a 1,100-space surface parking lot, is owned by the city, hence the active involvement of EDC. 

"This is not a single-use suburban development site," said parking policy expert Rachel Weinberger, co-author of a recent report on parking innovation in American cities. "And yet EDC seems to be once again pushing suburban-style development standards."

In addition to the 1,600 parking spaces, the city has convinced the developers to add 200 spaces to a nearby municipal lot. Still, many residents and local merchants say that isn't enough.

In fact, at the typical 350 square feet per spot, the parking is already set to consume more space than the retail and office space combined, a real waste in such a transit-rich location. If more parking gets built, Flushing Commons will become a parking garage with mixed-use development attached, rather than the other way around.

Flushing Commons would replace a city-owned surface parking lot in the heart of transit-rich downtown Flushing -- and build even more parking in the process. Image: Google Maps.

The addition of so much parking will be mitigated by the developers' decision to price it more effectively, which is what really seems to be upsetting some in Flushing. Currently, the lot only charges $1 per hour or $4 per day, which Meyer says just leads to commuters filling the spots all day. "You don't put a commuter lot in the heart of a burgeoning central business district," he said. "'The High Cost of Free Parking'? Flushing's the poster-child for that."

In order to attract more shoppers, Meyer's firm is instead increasing the amount of short-term parking and pricing parking at higher rates, though still slightly below market prices.

This attempt to get motorists to pay the cost of the parking they use has elicited some of the loudest complaints. Then-Council Member John Liu spoke out against charging more for parking as early as 2007.

Putting a rational price on parking should temper demand, allowing the developer to build fewer spaces. But EDC's requirements have pre-empted any attempt to give less space to vehicle storage. (EDC should learn from previous mistakes, like the Gateway Center mall in the Bronx, where parking isn't free and most customers walk to shop, leaving parking spaces unused, eating up land and money.)

Streetsblog has a request in with NYCEDC about why the agency required so much parking at a site so well-served by transit.

Less parking at Flushing Commons wouldn't just promote livable streets, it would also make it easier to build at this transit-rich location. "The parking is a money loser -- we know this because the original plan included even more parking, which was cut back to make the project profitable," said Weinberger. 

Given the demands from EDC, however, building less parking isn't an option at Flushing Commons. Shoup-quoting developers can only do so much for sustainable growth when the city itself demands that up-and-coming downtowns like Flushing emulate suburbia.

Assembly Member José Peralta is running for Hiram Monserrate's State Senate seat on a transit platform the Fare Hike Four would approve of.

New York's state legislators have played an especially critical role in the transit funding crisis. In the last two years alone, the legislature has foiled two potential revenue streams for transit, congestion pricing and bridge tolls. The solution Albany could muster -- a regional payroll tax -- has come up far short of expectations. Then the state stole $143 million from the MTA in December to balance its own budget problems. Neither the state nor the city has kept up its share of funding for student MetroCard costs.

Our elected officials are the ones with the most power to help fund the MTA and avert drastic cuts, or at least put a fix on the agenda. Here's a sampling of what they said at the hearing in Queens last night.

Assembly Member José Peralta is currently running to replace Hiram Monserrate in the State Senate. Transit riders would be hard-pressed to do worse than bridge toll foe Monserrate, but they might have no choice.  Peralta's campaign website touts his opposition to congestion pricing, and he was a particularly vocal opponent of tolls on the East River bridges.

Last night, Peralta missed no opportunity to land a blow against the MTA -- telling the board "some of you aren't even paying attention" was the applause line of the night. "You have my word as a state legislator that we will continue to fight this," Peralta promised the crowd. His solution? Give the state more control over the MTA -- an idea that should draw grimaces from anyone familiar with Albany's recent history of governance.

Plenty of other electeds used their three minutes at the microphone exclusively to attack the MTA. None of these pols mentioned the role their legislative houses played in the MTA's fiscal crisis. Some choice excerpts:

• Assembly Member Grace Meng berated the MTA for cutting student MetroCards, telling the board that students "should expect that we've made a serious investment in their education." Of course, the state legislature where Meng serves has led the way in slashing the investment in student transport.
• A rep from State Senator Shirley Huntley's office argued that previous fare hikes should provide enough funding to withstand the financial battering brought on by the recession and years of legislative neglect.
• City Council Member Elizabeth Crowley told the board that unless the MTA "eliminates its most wasteful spending," kids will be hitchhiking to school.
• Council Member Karen Koslowitz's representative attacked the "years of mismanagement" at the MTA.
• Council Member Leroy Comrie, who voted against congestion pricing, focused on the MTA's proposed layoffs: "You're creating more unemployment."
  
• Another congestion pricing foe, Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., mustered the most indignant attack of the evening -- and was rewarded with a nice chunk of screen time on the Fox 5 11 o'clock news. "How dare you take our trains, take our buses, take our student MetroCards, while at the same time giving raises and giving friends and family free rides?” he asked. "How dare you?" Later on, in a moment that didn't make it into the Fox 5 segment, Vallone at least had the good sense to blame Albany as well, unlike many of his colleagues. 

Many officials didn't scapegoat the MTA directly, but neither did they offer anything resembling a constructive solution. Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who opened the evening, typified this approach. "At a time when we are encouraging mass transit," said Marshall, "we shouldn't be cutting eight bus routes." Instead, she said, Queens need more from the MTA: new local and express buses, reopened LIRR stations, longer subway platforms, more ferry service. How to fund it all? "There has got to be a way," was all Marshall could offer.

Photo: Noah Kazis

Others, notably City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and transportation committee chair Jimmy Vacca, endorsed the Straphangers Campaign plan to redirect $140 million in flexible funding from the MTA's capital budget to its operating budget. While Quinn claims that the plan is enough to eliminate the cuts to Access-a-Ride, student MetroCards, and the worst cuts to subway and bus service, it's hard to see how a one-shot stimulus fix can stretch that far, let alone address the structural budget problems that are plaguing transit.

Only a few officials put responsibility in the right place or offered real prescriptions for maintaining transit service. "The city and state should not cut student fares," said Council Member Peter Koo at a rally outside the hearing. Surprisingly, Assembly Member David Weprin -- a leading congestion pricing foe as a member of City Council -- not only called for additional funding from the city, state, and feds, but said that he supported the Ravitch Commission's plan to generate more revenue, which included bridge tolls.

Of the electeds, no one emphasized the need for new revenue streams as directly as Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "I didn't come here just to criticize the MTA for proposed service cuts and fare hikes," he said. "We need to find a way to make it financially viable." Stringer did not mention congestion pricing or bridge tolls, however, calling instead for Albany to reinstate the commuter tax, which he claimed would raise $500 million for the MTA.

Unlike many of their representatives, the students who gathered outside the hearing avoided attacks on the easy MTA target. The high schoolers held signs with pictures of the governor and mayor. "We're focusing our attention on Mayor Bloomberg," said Kevin Kang, one of the student activists, "because he's in charge of the whole education system. He needs to step it up so that whether the MTA funds [student MetroCards] or not, it gets resolved."

Photo: Noah Kazis

In fact, reports the Daily News, vehicles are responsible for more patient injuries at Elmhurst Hospital Center than any other cause, according to hospital figures.

Last year, 256 people were treated at the hospital for a pedestrian injury -- the highest number in almost 10 years. That's up from 240 in 2008 and 215 in 2007.

"Pedestrian injury is the No. 1 injury mechanism that came into this hospital during 2008 and 2009," said Dr. Jamie Ullman, director of the hospital's department of neurosurgery. "We haven't seen any decrease in the problem."

Ullman and other hospital staff are hosting their second annual pedestrian summit today, meeting with transportation and law enforcement officials in hopes of reducing casualties. Figures from 2008 reveal crashes concentrated in several spots, including Queens Boulevard and 63rd Drive, Roosevelt Avenue near 64th and 69th Streets, and Northern Boulevard near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Physical improvements to Northern Blvd. and other areas haven't helped, Ullman says. She is calling for a PR campaign aimed at both pedestrians and drivers.

"While 7% of the Elmhurst Hospital pedestrian injury study patients died from their injuries, the average length of stay for the survivors was 10 days, indicating a significant amount of time was taken away from each person's livelihood and families," Ullman wrote in a report for Metro Parents Magazine.

Though hospital researchers expected more injuries among children and the elderly, the majority of victims range in age from 19 to 64. A DOT statement related by the News did not specifically address the study's findings.

Queens Community Board 6, meanwhile, is considering plans for street improvements in Rego Park and Forest Hills, as residents of Astoria continue to lobby NYCDOT for safer conditions. On Monday, Abundio Mendez-Perez, 32, was hit and killed by the driver of a minivan at Broadway and 21st Street in Astoria. No charges were filed.

Cadets will have a hard time getting to New York City's next police academy, now under construction, without driving. Image: NYT/Michael Fieldman Architects and Perkins+Will.

The facility will be designed to attain a LEED Silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The press release touted its green roofs, rainwater harvesting, and energy-saving building envelopes. Good stuff. But how green can this complex be when it also contains a 3,000-space parking garage?

The current police academy, located on East 20th Street, is a convenient walk from the subway at Union Square or 23rd Street. At the new site, the nearest subway station is more than a mile away. Those 3,000 parking spaces will be a huge enticement for police recruits to drive to the academy, and they'll come at enormous taxpayer expense.

Consider: St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx plans to spend $25.7 million (including $19.8 million in tax-free stimulus bonds) to build a 605-space garage. Assuming the costs at College Point are roughly the same, that works out to more than $125 million upfront for the police academy garage. Then there's all the taxpayer money that will go into keeping this parking deck clean, well-lit, and operating smoothly. The price tag varies, but running a commercial garage costs in the neighborhood of $500 to $800 annually per space, according to the Victoria Transport Policy Institute [PDF]. Let's be conservative with this NYPD garage and go with $300 per space each year. If you're talking about a 3,000-space garage -- and we are -- that's about $1 million to publicly finance driving to the new "state-of-the-art" police academy. Every year, forever.

NYPD's public information office didn't have an answer when we asked whether parking will be free at the new academy. We have to surmise that it will be. The city, after all, only expects 2,000 recruits in each class. A 3,000-space garage does not appear to be designed, then, with inducements to carpool or take transit in mind.

If the city did put a price on parking at the new academy, it could probably build a garage half the size of the one it's moving ahead with, according to parking experts we consulted. That's about $60 million in construction savings and at least $500,000 in annual operating savings. (Intriguingly, the EIS for this project calls for a smaller, 1,800-car garage, which raises questions about the legality of a 3,000-car garage.)

At the presser for the groundbreaking last week, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler told reporters that the city would talk to the MTA about increasing bus service to the police academy. Coming amidst a total meltdown in transit funding, the suggestion seems far-fetched. But if the city had steady revenue coming from its parking deck, it would feel a bit more plausible, and the next police academy would be significantly more green.

Clarence Eckerson sends these shots of DOT street safety improvements taken on a recent ride near the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Above is the newly traffic-calmed intersection of Joralemon and Hicks -- part of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project -- which now sports two sidewalk extensions. (According to the Post, a third corner was slated for a curb extension, but DOT changed plans after residents said they were worried about how fire trucks would negotiate the turn.) Says Clarence: "I am sure the speed reductions will be dramatic, the equivalent of a chicane."

Heading towards Queens, the city's stock of bi-directional, protected bike paths is on the rise. Williamsburg Street West now connects Kent Avenue to Flushing Avenue, allowing cyclists to ride contraflow to Kent safely and legally. This is also a segment along the future Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

More pics after the jump.

On Kent Avenue, cyclists entering the bike path from South 4th Street now have a high-visibility entry point, which should help remind drivers not to park here and block the way.

A new planted median calms traffic on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City. At some intersections these long median strips are equipped with pedestrian refuges, Clarence informs us, concluding his tour of stuff that, apparently, has some unnamed council members calling for the DOT commissioner's head.