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.

Council Members Vincent Ignizio (l) and James Oddo scientifically prove that bikes can't fit on Jefferson Avenue in Dongan Hills. Photo: SI Advance

For its part, three times in the past two months the Advance has editorialized against bike infrastructure, while criticizing NYPD for enforcing laws intended to keep drivers out of bike lanes. Here's a passage from the first screed, published July 4, entitled "The City's Bike Obsession":

More people should ride bicycles, for a number of reasons. But in the real world, that's not going to happen to the degree the cycling true believers fantasize about. Many people simply can't. And the great majority of those who have the physical ability have no desire to ride bicycles for transportation or sport -- especially on city streets. So hard-core cyclists will always be a finite minority, no matter how many bike lanes the city creates. And the notion that all these new lanes will promote a massive surge in cycling is pure fantasy.

Not only do they object to safer cycling conditions on the grounds that so few Staten Islanders bike -- in part because it isn't safe -- Advance editors claim that helpless motorists are bound to occasionally act out against cyclists who insist on exercising their right to the road.

You really have to read this August 21 editorial in its entirety for the full effect, but here's a sample:

An ugly incident of road rage recently on Father Capodanno Boulevard underscores the folly of the Bloomberg administration's over-the-top infatuation with dedicated bicycle lanes.

The particulars of the incident -- this time between a motorist and a bicyclist -- are in dispute. The bicyclist says the enraged motorist got out of his car and pushed him off his bike.

The motorist, who was arrested and charged with assault and harassment, insists he merely tried to pull the bicycle off the street after the bicyclist had gotten off it.

What seems certain, however, is that the confrontation was the direct result of the city's contradictory and confusing policies regarding the rights of bicyclists and drivers, respectively.

In other words, if a driver stops and exits his vehicle to physically accost a cyclist in a bike lane, Mayor Bloomberg made him do it. Amazingly, the Advance stops short of calling for charges against Graziuso to be dropped. Perhaps a cyclist-induced temporary insanity defense is in order.

Foran urges cyclists and others interested in safer street conditions -- bike riders aren't the only vulnerable ones, after all -- to contact the mayor, DOT Commish Janette Sadik-Khan, and Council Member John Liu to show support for Staten Island bike lanes and continued enforcement of the law. And it couldn't hurt if Messrs. Ignizio, Oddo and Molinaro, and the editors of the SI Advance, were admonished to tone down their rhetoric, before the next like-minded road rager decides to take action.

Photo: SI Advance via MTR.

Last month, the state DOT opened the dedicated bus lane on the Staten Island Expressway to cars with two or more passengers. Tri-State's Michelle Ernst has more:

The conversion aims to appease some politicians and drivers who’ve pressured NYSDOT to open the bus lanes to cars since the lanes were opened. But even the commenters in the Staten Island Advance recognize that it will do little to alleviate congestion in the general purpose lanes, and will completely obliterate any time savings currently enjoyed by Staten Island’s bus riders.

The Expressway was widened to add the bus lane in 2005. Now, opening the busway to private cars turns that transit enhancement into a de facto highway expansion. Before the change, average bus speeds in the dedicated lane averaged 50 mph despite lax enforcement of the bus-only policy. With any multi-passenger car allowed in the lane, and even more license for solo drivers to break the rules, buses may soon move at the same speed as the regular traffic lanes -- 25 mph.

"There's already plenty of people carpooling on the Expressway," Ernst said. "This is just going to pull cars from the regular lanes and induce more traffic." The state DOT, for its part, says bus-exclusivity will be restored if riders end up saddled with slower rides.

So where did the political pressure come from? The Advance reports:

Many people welcome the change. Sen. Charles Schumer, Rep. Michael McMahon and Councilman James Oddo are three elected officials who have been outspoken in their support of the switch to HOV lanes.

Mr. Oddo said upon hearing of the DOT's plan, "Maybe they've woken up," adding, "You have to maximize the infrastructure."

Someone should inform the efficiency-minded Oddo that buses carry a lot more people than cars, and that potentially cutting their speeds in half is no way to "maximize infrastructure." Meanwhile, at least one of those Advance commenters is pinning responsibility on -- you guessed it -- the MTA.

Here's State Senator Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican, explaining why he supports tolls on the East River bridges. For Staten Island drivers looking at a $3 hike in cash tolls to cross the Verrazano (or a $1.32 hike for locals with E-ZPass), the sight of other motorists getting a free pass into Manhattan must be a source of perpetual gall and resentment.

Lanza spends most of this video, however, in standard MTA-bashing mode, lashing out at the agency and unnamed politicians in other boroughs who "support" the doomsday scenario. Not a word about his fellow Senate Republicans, who refused to budge on an MTA rescue package that needed only a few more votes to pass. Lanza himself is on the record opposing the payroll tax in the Ravitch plan, so, by his own logic, you could say he also "supports" higher tolls on the Verrazano.

When you're about to set off a scenario of mutually assured destruction, the person who blinks first helps everyone win. Lanza could play a big part in walking the State Senate back from the brink of doomsday, and holding down the one-way toll on the Verrazano. All he has to do is reconsider the Ravitch plan and rally a few other Republicans to do the same. Hard to see how anything else would fulfill the promise he makes here to fight the MTA austerity plan "every step of the way." We called his Albany office to inquire about his plan and expect a response later today.

Photo: New York Daily News

On Thursday, as Nathan Pakow, 47, waited for a bus at the intersection of Seaview Avenue and Capodanno Boulevard in the Ocean Breeze area, an out-of-control car driven by 19-year-old Joseph Catrama came up onto the sidewalk, pinning Pakow against a metal pole. Pakow was later pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital.

Catrama, a licensed driver for a little over a month, was suspected of speeding at the time of the crash. Police initially let him go, but a short time later a charge of criminally negligent homicide was issued, and Catrama surrendered to authorities.

Last Monday, 84-year-old World War II veteran Howard Adrian was hit by an SUV driver turning left at the intersection of Burgher Avenue and Hylan Boulevard in Dongan Hills. Adrian died Monday evening. A quote from the driver seems to paint the victim as the culpable party.

About two dozen relatives crowded the waiting room of Staten Island University Hospital's Intensive Care Unit in Ocean Breeze ... some sobbing, others raging against the driver who hit him.

That man, Michael Pierre of Castleton Corners, said he had just pulled out of the parking lot of the TD Bank on the corner; he made the left, he said, after the two cars ahead of him started moving.

"He [Adrian] tried to rush, you know, to cross the street," Pierre said.

No charges had been filed against Pierre as of last week, as Adrian's relatives and neighbors continue to grapple with the most basic of questions.

Alex Harris, who lived in the apartment above Adrian on Delaware Avenue, wondered why the driver didn't stop for Adrian as he crossed.

"Why wouldn't you slow down? You're not speeding to make a left turn," he said.

In what she half-jokingly called "probably the first-ever co-presentation" between their two agencies, Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan stood with New York City Transit President Howard Roberts earlier this week to unveil the city's current Bus Rapid Transit program in its entirety -- including a plan that would "redefine the public realm" on Manhattan's 34th St. by redesigning it as the city's first "transitway."

At a forum co-hosted by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Transportation Alternatives, the Pratt Center for Community Development and the Straphangers Campaign, over 100 people gathered at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx Tuesday morning, just a few blocks from where the city is poised to launch its first BRT project on Fordham Road, to hear international experts explain how other programs work, and don't work, around the world. Walter Hook, executive director of New York's Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, profiled elements of BRT models in cities like Jakarta, Indonesia and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where his organization has served a consultatory role. Oscar Edmundo Diaz, also with ITDP and once a senior advisor to former Bogotá Mayor Enrique Peñalosa, detailed the workings of the wildly successful TransMilenio, which Hook described as state-of-the-art in Bus Rapid Transit.

Outlining New York's plans, Sadik-Khan previewed big changes for some of the city's major corridors.

The block between 5th and 6th Aves. would be reserved for buses and people, with cars traveling away from the CBD on either side

• 34th Street, Manhattan: DOT will repave and restripe for five lanes between Third and Ninth Avenues by the end of this year, with painted bus lanes on the north and south sides and three auto lanes in the center. Service hours will also be extended. Phase 2 calls for a 34th Street Transitway, closing the street to cars between Fifth and Sixth and installing pedestrian plazas. On either side of that block, there would be two lanes for cars heading in one direction -- toward the rivers -- while on the other half of the street, buses would have two extra-wide lanes separated from traffic. In other words, buses would constitute the only through traffic on 34th Street. According to Sadik-Khan, 34th Street BRT will eventually tie in to new East River ferry service (details to be announced next week). Here's the 34th St. slideshow.
  
• Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island: BRT will run from Richmond Avenue across the Verrazano Bridge. The route will include a reversible center-lane protected busway with raised boarding stations. We hope to have more on this soon.
  
• Fifth and Madison Avenues, Manhattan: On Fifth, dual bus lanes will be installed from 23rd to 59th Street, while dual lanes on Madison will be extended from 42nd Street to 23rd.
  

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has pledged a unit dedicated to bus lane enforcement, Sadik-Khan said. But she added that the city needs Albany to approve bus-mounted cameras as well. Though the program lost $112 million in funding with the defeat of congestion pricing, Sadik-Khan said the city has applied for federal funds to expedite BRT build-out. While the timetable for some projects is still undetermined, Bx12 Select Bus Service will launch in June as planned, and Phase 1 of 34th Street will be completed this year.

Sadik-Khan and Roberts acknowledged the gap between New York BRT and other world-class systems, where six-door, articulated, level-boarding buses travel in buffered lanes, taking on up to 42,000 passengers per direction per hour. For one thing, Roberts said the MTA has yet to find a manufacturer that can produce a bus that both meets modern BRT standards and can stand up to the city's demanding transit schedule (this bus wasn't mentioned). So for now, the city is moving ahead with components it can put into place relatively quickly: pre-board payment, signal prioritization, more buses, fewer stops, and painted (mostly curbside) lanes.

"We're not Curitiba and we're not Bogotá," said Sadik-Khan, "but we're getting there."

The Staten Island Advance reports:

Guttu was crossing Bement, heading east from Chase Manhattan Bank at around 2:40 p.m. Saturday, when he was struck by a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder driven by 47-year-old Theresa Totorelli of West Brighton, according to a police report.

Ms. Tortorelli -- who had been heading west on Forest Avenue and just made a left onto Bement -- claimed she did not see Guttu in the road until it was too late.

Guttu was conscious when police arrived and complained of "pain all over his body," the report said.

There were no tickets issued at the scene, though police say an investigation is ongoing. Reports say Tortorelli was not speeding and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to NY1, the medical examiner "has ruled the death an accident, caused by the impact of the crash."

As Wagner faculty, alumni, and acquaintances and friends of Guttu pay their respects, SI Advance readers are debating who, if anyone, is responsible for the popular chaplain's death.

Some want justice and safer conditions for Staten Island pedestrians:

If Rev. Guttu was just walking down Forest Avenue IN THE CROSSWALK, this then should be a vehicular homicide. Whenever a car makes a turn, the car MUST give right of way to any pedestrians in the crosswalk when the pedestrian has a green light or a walk sign!

While to others, c'est la vie: 

They call these situations accidents because thats what they are. The Reverend was loved by all who knew him but he also knew how to love. If he were here he would remind you to forgive. Rest in peace, Reverend Guttu. My families prayers are with you and the unfortunate soul who will forever grieve over this accident.

In other news, an unidentified woman was killed on Queens Boulevard Wednesday when she was hit by a cement truck. The victim, according the Daily News, "was walking north along Woodhaven Blvd. toward the Queens Center Mall about 1 p.m. when she tried to cross in front of the truck." Unfortunately, she "may have stumbled and fallen beneath the ... truck's wheels." A witness told the News the victim was trying to "beat the light." There were no such speculations regarding the actions of the driver, who reportedly wasn't sure he had hit the woman lying in the street with tire marks on her clothing, and who was not charged. His boss described her death as "an unfortunate thing, especially at this time of year."

All elected officials who attended (Borough President James Molinaro sent a representative) declared their support for some sort of congestion mitigation program––but only if Staten Island's share of the dollars on offer from the Feds were made commensurate with the problems of a borough whose average commute is acknowledged to be the longest in the entire country.

Staten Island may be New York City's most car-oriented borough, but Icolari notes that many of those who testified at last night's hearing advocated for improving mass transit:

Patrick Hyland of the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce expressed his organization's support for Congestion Pricing, provided five thoughtful recommendations that address a range of transit-related problems experienced island-wide are implemented. Significantly, every recommendation involves mass transit.

•Reinstitution of rail service (roadbeds are deteriorated but right-of-way is intact)
•Increase in the number of Bus Rapid Transit routes (the first and so far the only such route was instituted earlier this year; ridership was surprisingly strong from the beginning and continues to grow)
•Fast ferry service to and from the South Shore--the most remote and least well served by mass transit of the island's three community board areas
•Full extension of the currently limited-distance express bus lane on the Staten Island Expressway, and
•A fourth bus depot (the third, already in the MTA capital budget, has already been outpaced by demand for express bus service)

The hearing, amazingly, adjourned 10 minutes early, at 8:50 pm. Icolari writes:

I took the bus home. No one else from the hearing joined me. We've obviously got a lot of work to do on Staten Island. But the (very) conditional willingness of many Staten Islanders to at least consider some sort of pricing scheme to reduce traffic and improve local mass transit services was encouraging.

Spurred by the death of third-grader Prince Harris, Jr. (pictured), the fourth pedestrian to die this year along a notorious stretch of Ninth Avenue, the Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition (CHEKPEDS) is again urging the city to convene an interagency panel "to address this critical health issue."

On Friday, 8-year-old Harris was on his way to a park with his father and siblings when he reportedly "darted on W. 17th St." and was hit by a Toyota Scion, driven by an unidentified 44-year-old man. Harris's father said the Toyota and a taxi "were speeding down the block to make the light." The driver stayed at the scene and was not issued a ticket.

Today CHEKPEDS issued an e-mail bulletin offering condolences to the Harris family, and imploring the city to turn its attention to the pedestrian casualty epidemic.

The "new DOT" is moving fast and all problems cannot be tackled in one day. Priorities must be set, and in our book none is more important than pedestrian safety. 11,000 injuries and 163 deaths annually would qualify as a national disaster if they were all happening in one day. But they keep happening year after year.

In March, CHEKPEDS worked with Community Board 4 to draft a letter (PDF) to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer asking them to organize a citywide task force "bringing the various players to the table to address street and signal engineering, agencies jurisdiction, enforcement and traffic safety laws, reporting traffic problems and police procedures in accidents." But it hasn't happened.

Also over the weekend, a speeding taxicab jumped a curb and struck three members of the same family, killing 60-year-old TV helicopter pilot Paul Smith; no criminal charges have thus far been reported. On Staten Island, a 4-year-old is "fighting for her life" after being hit by a car yesterday while trying to cross the street with a group of other children; the unidentified driver was not ticketed. And yesterday morning in Coney Island, the driver of a charter bus making a U-turn hit an 60-year-old woman, knocking her down and running over her abdomen; the driver was not charged.

This weekend's carnage comes after last week's angry memorials to Hope Miller and Julia Thomson, who were run down five days apart at the end of September.

Photo of Prince Harris via New York Daily News

They'll be following up with information about transit improvements coming to Staten Island as part of PlaNYC and congestion pricing. It will be a good chance for residents to ask questions of transportation experts on how this plan will affect their daily commutes.

Tonight, Tuesday August 21st.
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Everything Goes Book Café
208 Bay St. (bet. Victory Blvd. & Hannah St.)
St. George, Staten Island

The Staten Island Advance ran an article last Thursday about a "perfect storm" of crushing Staten Island-bound traffic on the Gowanus Expressway and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. To give you a sense of the frustrated tone of the article, it was entitled "21-Month Nightmare: Agency Offers Zero Solutions for Verrazano Lane Mess." Here's how it began:

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A best man missed his nephew's wedding rehearsal.

A truck driver was forced to pull over and cool his heels.

Countless commuters rued that extra cup of Joe before leaving work.

And then there was the pizza delivery to a group of exasperated bus riders left stewing in the parking lot that was the Gowanus Expressway last Friday afternoon.

Experts say there's no way to fully manage the crush of rush-hour traffic expected to continue for the next 21 months while lanes are closed on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

Island commuters don't care what the experts have to say.

Their bottom line: Fix this mess.

Otherwise, it will be a long, hot summer.

"I could have gone to Florida in as long as it took me to get home," fumed Grasmere's Marlee Tanenbaum, who was stuck for two and a half hours aboard an X2 express bus Friday evening. "It is so insane that it's unbelievable. I am outraged!"

If this isn't the perfect argument for why we need congestion pricing, I don't know what is. The fact that so many people are crushing onto the bridge shows that it is too cheap to travel over it. The toll is $9 (charged toward Staten Island, the direction of this jam), but that obviously is not enough to prevent this kind of traffic. Motorists want travel to be cheap and fast, but one who demands cheap travel can't turn around and complain about how slow it is.

Instead of using rational pricing to solve the problem, officials are horsing around with palliatives aimed at making it easier to drive, which of course will encourage more traffic. A Verrazano traffic working group made up of elected and agency officials managed to avoid the issue of pricing or tolls, but did come up with some ideas to speed up traffic without inconveniencing anyone. (It's magic!) Specifically: "An increased police presence, and the dispatch of traffic agents at certain Brooklyn intersections near the bridge, to help keep traffic moving smoothly, without backing up local neighborhood streets."

Prediction: None of these things are going to achieve the hoped-for increase in traffic speed. But congestion pricing -- with funds directed towards more and better mass transit -- should solve it just about instantly.

In fairness, more sensible proposals came from Councilman Vincent Ignizio, who suggested speeding up implementation of a fast ferry to the island's South Shore and fast-tracking the planned extension of the Staten Island Expressway's bus-only lane. More to the point, however, motorists' expectations need to be managed better. They need to be told that their commute can be more expensive, it can be done in a bus or a ferry, or they can remain stuck in traffic on the Verrazano. There are no other options.

Clearly, the bridge's $9 toll should be raised, if it's not doing the job. The Staten Island Ferry is already free, so maybe pay people 25 cents to ride it. I'm not even kidding. Better yet, impose congestion pricing in Manhattan, and fewer people will drive to Manhattan, leaving fewer people to be stuck fuming on the Gowanus.

What a big weekend for public cycling events. This Sunday, more than 30,000 cyclists enjoyed perfect weather for the 30th anniversary of the Five Borough Bike Tour, a 42-mile traffic free ride through the city including a jaunt along the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn. It is the largest recreational cycling event in America.

Photo: diddlbiker/Flickr

"We have five vehicles in our family and would greatly appreciate being able to park in front of our own house," the letter writer stated. "We use both driveway spots as well as the entire front of the house so please be courteous and park in front of your own house. We are tired of getting tickets for double parking."

The argument didn't wash with the person who got the note:

"To the owner of the house," the neighbor replied on the back of the note left on his windshield, "This is not a block that you can tell people not to park in front of your house. A lot of people have more than one car. But sometimes we need to park in those spaces. I know it's hard but you do not own the street..... If you feel this way, maybe you should move upstate."

Learning to live with fewer than five cars in one family would apparently be too radical a suggestion.

Scribner Avenue, New Brighton, Staten Island, formerly two- and now one-way, looking up the hill toward Bismarck Avenue from Westervelt Avenue

Streetsblog reader Dan Icolari became curious about changes that were being made on his neighborhood streets in Staten Island. In researching the issue he found that progressive policy statements coming out of Department of Transportation headquarters on Worth Street don't appear to be filtering down to the agency's borough offices. His own assumptions about what is "progressive" were challenged as well. Here is Dan's story: 

Like other Streetsblog readers, I've been encouraged by DOT's recent, more enlightened pronouncements. But not long ago, when I noticed that DOT had converted a number of two-way streets to one-way in my Staten Island neighborhood, all I could see, as an alternative transportation advocate, was that a traffic-calming arrangement had been replaced by one that practically guaranteed higher speeds and less safe streets.

I called DOT to find out if my own two-way through street was on the list for conversion. And who makes these decisions, anyway? And how, and why?

The first thing I found out is, there is no list. "We get change requests mostly from community groups," said the Staten Island DOT rep I spoke to, "usually through the community board, though some changes are made by the borough commissioner." I was assured no change was planned for my block.

I then brought up the serious lack of crosswalks in the neighborhood--specifically in the several-block area surrounding my corner, where speeding has become a significant problem. It's an area where pedestrian traffic is not heavy but is constant throughout the day, and becomes heavier during rush hours and after school. I asked if the three-block stretch I referred to could be studied by DOT, possibly to introduce traffic-calming measures that might improve safety.

"No," the DOT rep replied, "that's just not what we do here. If there's a speeding problem you can ask NYPD to step up enforcement, but our job is to keep traffic moving efficiently, not to do studies on pedestrian safety." It wasn't the answer I was hoping for, or even the one I expected, but at least it was clear.
 
But what did my neighbors think, I wondered--the people who live on the two blocks recently converted from one-ways to two-ways? I was pretty sure they'd be furious at the loss of their charming two-way streets.

I was wrong.

Not only were my neighbors not furious; they were actually delighted.

After years of driving on steep hills with limited visibility in bad weather, they told me they welcomed the change. Only one, Jonathan B., preferred the old two-way arrangement because it provided more options.

"My choices as a driver are more limited now," admitted Joanne S., "but I think both blocks are safer." Her husband Alan seemed relieved: "With the change, I don't feel so tense behind the wheel." Harouna B. told me, "It's much safer for my kids, and there's finally a stop sign posted." Emily S. offered the most surprising observation: Speeding has actually declined, she said, and crossing the street is much safer.

As a committed walker and mass transit proponent, those were, once again, not the answers I was expecting. But when I visited the two now-one-way streets to take photos for this story, I could see my neighbors' point: There were multiple places in the roadway on both streets where it would be impossible to see oncoming traffic. I began to think that maybe my two-way-good, one-way-bad orthodoxy might need a little revising.

So I wonder: At a time of peak oil, global warming and growing population, when we want to raise levels of consciousness and encourage more thoughtful transportation choices, how do we design transportation policy elastic enough to work not just in Manhattan and the brownstone belt of Brooklyn, but in the rest of the city, too?

That is, how do we address the traffic, land-use, congestion and pedestrian/cyclist safety problems of the city's most dynamic areas, while devising practical alternatives that help outer-borough New Yorkers reduce private car use and make other environmentally conscious transportation choices, particularly in more suburban clusters not well served by public transit?

I found this Stop sign on the corner of Kissel Avenue and Snug Harbor Road near the entrance to Snug Harbor Little League. It appears to be a test model of a new generation of Stop signs that blink LED lights to be more visible to motorists at night. That's good for pedestrians trying to cross the street at night.

In addition it is solar powered, so it even works during blackouts. They retail for about $1,100. Coming to a block near you?

From scorning Staten Island's inadequate mass transit system and the average commute time of 44 minutes, to applauding recent funding for the defunct North Shore rail line, Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday assured borough residents that their traffic and transit concerns are not being overlooked in the nation's capital.

"Staten Island also has the longest average commute in the nation," Clinton said incredulously. "You know, when I got that statistic I double-checked and tripled-checked. ... I thought to myself, 'Wow, that's saying a lot.'"

Mrs. Clinton followed the tone set by Chamber CEO Linda Baran, who emphasized the lack of mass transit during her introductory remarks.

"Simply put, we need to get people out of their cars and off the roads," Ms. Baran said.

Emphasizing the borough's transportation woes seemed a successful tactic for Mrs. Clinton, from the standing ovation she received.

From the AP Daybook: Today at 2 pm, Transportation Commissioner iris Weinshall joins Staten Island officials at a ribbon-cutting for a new Park-and-Ride facility; Lindenwood Road and Lindenwood Place, Staten Island.

For anyone who has attended official public hearings on Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards project, the scene looked familiar: Real estate developer buses in project supporters. Supporters shout down and intimidate community members. The democratic process and opportunity for thoughtful community input is undermined.

In my personal politics I have always sympathized with labor. My grandfather was so proud of getting beat up by New York City police during a 1930's strike that he had a formal portrait taken of himself with his head wrapped in bandages and his arm in a sling. But these days, I'm finding it difficult to support New York City's unions as their members stomp public meetings and prevent well-meaning, thoughtful community people from participating in New York City's development processes. Increasingly, it seems that the building trades unions serve as little more than muscle for New York City's big developers and corporate interests. That's definitely not what Grandpa Abe got his head bashed-in for.

It is also worth noting that last night's ruckus started as Councilmember Lanza began talking about his community's traffic and transportation concerns.

If, as Robert Yaro wrote in the Gotham Gazette, New York City is going to add another one million people in the next 25 years, development, construction, and increased density is essential and inevitable. Yet, virtually every big development project across the city is being fought by neighborhood and community groups on the grounds that any new development will bring too much traffic.

It doesn't have to be this way. Urban development doesn't have to be the enemy of neighborhood quality of life. But until New York City puts in place a thoughtful, long-term, community-oriented plan for reducing motor vehicle traffic and improving more efficient modes of transportation, New York City's growth is going to be bogged down by neighborhood-level battles like the one we saw on Staten Island last night. So, what is it going to take for Mayor Bloomberg to notice that his administration's development agenda, and ultimately, his legacy, is being hindered by a lack of any sort of cohesive, citywide transportation strategy? Perhaps we'll get an answer in June when Mayor Bloomberg plans to make a major speech on land-use and transportation.

Mobilizing the Region notes that Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki’s support for a new Metro-North train station at Yankee Stadium might not be all that it is cracked up to be. "Neither the Yankees, the state nor the city have pledged a dime for the train station" and "if the MTA is forced to undertake the project with its own resources, it is likely that its funding will come from other essential Metro-North or NYC Transit projects." And while the elimination of new parking garage structures from the Yankees plan could save the state $70 million, "few politicians or media outlets appear to understand a basic fact—the more parking available at a site, the more likely people are to choose driving over transit. With the construction of thousands more parking spaces near the Yankees stadium, the Metro-North station, even if constructed, will not do as much as it could to reduce game-day traffic in the South Bronx." Sigh.

The Village Voice reports two volunteers from Transportation Alternatives were detained and harassed by police officers at the Fifth Precinct in Chinatown for conducting a survey of illegally parked cars. Chinatown, as you may have heard, has become a de facto parking lot for the private vehicles of government employees. Apparently, the cops were displeased when they saw TA’s volunteers taking photos of the illegally parked vehicles. Why? Those illegally parked vehicles belong to the cops. "They said the Patriot Act is somehow involved. The commanding officer, an Asian man, chimed in and said to me, ‘Are you familiar with the Patriot Act?" Considering events in Staten Island, I suppose the TA volunteers should just be happy they weren’t shot.

Oil prices break $70/barrel, inching closer to record highs. If nothing else, that should help sell a few more tickets to the big, upcoming NYC Energy Solutions Conference also known as "The Woodstock of Peak Oil" (Watch out for the brown acid, folks, it’s making people freak out"). I’ll be there.

And in answer to a question that was discussed on this web site a few weeks ago: Yes, speed cameras can work as a deterrent, even when they’re fake! A homemade speed camera erected by an irate citizen along one of the most dangerous roads in Britain is effectively slowing down traffic. It does everything but mail the speeders a ticket. Now if only someone on Staten Island could slap together a makeshift road rage deterrent.