More lanes, or more housing and parks? Image of proposed Deegan Expressway widening: NYSDOT. Image of the community plan for a de-commissioned Sheridan Expressway: SBRWA.

The DOT is considering tearing down the little-used Sheridan, a decision that would clear trucks off local streets and make room for housing, shops, and parks by the Bronx River. But the capital plan sets aside just $2 million for the project. As advocates said in testimony today, that's only enough cash to muddle through the studies already underway.

To repeat: The capital plan includes $266 million to widen a highway in an asthma-choked area of the Bronx, and $2 million for a project that could dramatically improve neighborhoods pummeled by truck traffic. Addressing a State Senate committee today, advocates made the case for a different approach.

"We call on the NYS DOT to reinstate funding for the Sheridan project by reducing the size and scope of the Major Deegan Expressway project," said the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance in a written statement. "With scarce resources, the agency must do a better job of prioritizing transportation investments that promote the safety, health and well-being of New York City residents."

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign submitted detailed commentary on the full capital plan, which you can read here. Here Tri-State explains why the New York State DOT, which doesn't expand highways to the same degree as other DOTs, still has a weakness for widening certain types of roads.

NYS DOT often plans large or over built rehabilitation projects under the guise of "bringing the roadway up to modern design standards." While certain modern design changes can help improve safety, spending millions of dollars, in some cases hundreds of millions, to simply widen interchanges, intersections, or build additional lanes does not make sense. Such projects often do little to solve congestion in the long-run, and come with very high price tags at a time when we have no money to waste.

Mr. Bloomberg, tear down this highway. A vision of West Farms Road with housing and shops instead of the Sheridan Expressway. Image: South Bronx River Watershed Alliance.

The headlines after last week's mayoral contest weren't kind to the winner. "NY Voters Seen Wanting More Humble Bloomberg," proclaimed Reuters. "Bloomberg Sweats Out Third Term," wrote the Post. The incumbent's slim margin of victory points to two major takeaways from campaign season in New York City: 1) Mayor Bloomberg is seen as out of touch with everyday New Yorkers, yet 2) was reelected, grudgingly, because the electorate thinks he is doing a decent job.

First up: Publicly support the removal of the Sheridan Expressway as a green jobs program.

First up: Publicly support the removal of the Sheridan Expressway as a green jobs program. This highway is a redundant, little used stub running through the Hunts Point community of the South Bronx. For nearly a decade, advocates in the South Bronx River Watershed Alliance (including the Pratt Center, Nos Quedamos, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice, The Point, Sustainable South Bronx, and my organization, Tri-State Transportation Campaign) have called on the New York State DOT to remove the highway. Doing so would create 700 permanent jobs and hundreds of construction jobs, improve access to the Bronx River, and open up 28 acres for parks and affordable housing.

Bulldozing acres of parks for the new Yankee Stadium gave the impression that the mayor was more willing to help out developers than the average Bronx resident. Removing the Sheridan would help pay back that debt, and fit naturally with the Mayor's long-term sustainability agenda, PlaNYC 2030.

Next, the Mayor should commit to boosting New York City's funding for public transit.

During his campaign, Bloomberg announced an ambitious mass transit proposal. Like any good campaign document, the plan would improve the quality of life in all five boroughs, especially neighborhoods underserved by transit, like eastern Queens. But few of the proposals are under the mayor's control and all of them require money. At a press conference last week, Bloomberg indicated that he doesn't intend to boost city funding for MTA operations. He should reconsider. If the mayor wants support from the MTA, he must increase support to the MTA.

Third is to prioritize space for buses on city streets. The mayor should do all he can to ensure timely implementation of bold Bus Rapid Transit projects, as called for in PlaNYC, and help the Port Authority deal with the rogue buses that are increasingly affecting communities like Chinatown and Hell's Kitchen. Better management will unclog the streets and improve the customer experience. (Believe it or not, those people lined up with their luggage on the sidewalks waiting for the Megabus are voters, too.)

Existing efforts to use city highways in a way that benefits working people in the outer boroughs should be preserved and expanded. Last year, the state DOT caved to politicians and started allowing cars with two or more passengers in the Staten Island Expressway bus lane. This is not only illegal (the lane was approved for buses only, not cars), but also hurt bus riders who are now slowed by greater congestion in the lane. Similar bus lanes should be put in place on highways throughout the city, a boon for New York's car-free households, which make, on average, less than half as much as households with cars.

And finally, the mayor should recognize the work of NYCDOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan by ensuring that she continues in her post for four more years. Sadik-Khan has become one of Bloomberg's key spokespeople for PlaNYC. Her message about greening the planet with small changes to city streets resonates with the young, diverse population struggling to afford life in New York. In two-and-a-half years, Sadik-Khan and her staff have transformed a frustrating city agency whose biggest victory was speeding cars through Midtown into an international model for results-based sustainable transportation policy.

Mayor Bloomberg is already known as a skilled manager who gets things done. With a little effort, he can use transportation to expand his legacy as a leader in sustainability who stood up for the working people of New York.

Image: WABC

Kevin Spellman, a 22-year department veteran, was taken into custody after the deadly 6:30 a.m. accident at W. 232nd St. and Kingsbridge Ave., police said.

Spellman, 42, was driving south when his 2009 Chevrolet Impala slammed into the unidentified woman. She was pronounced dead at St. Barnabas Hospital.

Like Andrew Kelly, the officer who killed Brooklyn pedestrian Vionique Valnord four weeks ago, Spellman reportedly refused a Breathalyzer test. The News says Spellman "was not immediately charged," though NY1 says he was "taken into custody for DWI." WABC says there may have been two victims.

Here's a scenic shot of the Sheridan Expressway in the South Bronx during the evening "rush," courtesy of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the advocates behind the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance. Even in the peak direction, reports Tri-State's Steven Higashide, the Moses-era relic is barely used at all:

The gaps in the traffic weren’t quite long enough for a sit-down picnic, which is too bad because the South Bronx is sorely lacking parks and other places for families to recreate and relax. The needs of the area and the light traffic are just two of the many reasons why the Alliance is calling for a teardown of the 1.2-mile Sheridan, and why NYSDOT is studying it. A demapped Sheridan could be replaced not only with open space, but also affordable housing and mixed-use development.

The State DOT is scheduled to decide the fate of this huge piece of riverfront real estate by 2012. Acting Commissioner Stanley Gee was in the news this week for agreeing to expand 1.2 miles of the Staten Island Expressway, under pressure from borough politicians. It's hard to see where any pressure to preserve the Sheridan would come from.

We met McCormack at the June traffic justice forum for Manhattan district attorney candidates. Here, he talks about crash investigations, the "rule of two," and the difficulties that can arise in obtaining and using vehicle "black box" data.

Brad Aaron: What were your general impressions of the Manhattan DA forum? In your opinion, were the pledges for increased prosecutions following pedestrian and cyclist deaths and injuries feasible under current law?

Joseph A. McCormack: I thought the forum was fantastic. Clearly, any of the candidates invited will be aware of the importance of pedestrian and cyclist safety issues and the need to back up concern with resources. I don't know if they pledged increased prosecutions as much as increased awareness and investigation which is certainly feasible under the current law.

BA: There was a lot of discussion on Streetsblog, following our write-up of the forum, about the "rule of two." How prevalent is the "rule of two" standard in determining whether to prosecute drivers involved in crashes resulting in death or serious injury? Who normally makes these decisions -- the police on the scene, an ADA on the phone?

JAM: The rule of two was explained in the Maureen McCormick interview and by [Transportation Alternatives General Counsel] Peter Goldwasser on the comments following your story on the forum. It is a rule of thumb used by most members of the criminal justice system from investigators to judges. Your education on it is helpful. I teach prosecutors and police officers in NYC that it can be used to understand some of these crimes but they must be aware that one factor, if egregious enough, standing alone, may impute criminal culpability. Cases such as Cabrera [Editor's note: People v. Cabrera is discussed in the Maureen McCormick interview linked above] make both understanding and prosecuting these cases more difficult, making the real lesson to be learned even more important. These cases are fact-driven and so the single most important rule at the outset is to be sure to fully investigate and gather the facts.

BA: Is the "rule of two" standard more likely to be applied in cases where a pedestrian or cyclist is the victim, rather than a driver or vehicle passenger? In other words, is it considered more difficult to prove negligence when a vehicle hits a person, rather than another vehicle?

JAM: There are no separate "rules" for investigating and prosecuting pedestrian or cyclist crashes versus car crashes. The only difference I can think of at all is sometimes, in the absence of witnesses, we can figure out more from the resultant damage to a vehicle but in some cases we are also able to figure out how a crash occurred when it involved a pedestrian or a cyclist from evidence gathered at the scene. I feel they are treated the same both by investigators and legally. The so called rule of two certainly makes no distinction and I don't feel there is one in practice.

JAM: The police department has protocols that are constantly being updated and examined in the hope of making them the most effective. I am sorry, but I can't speak directly about cases I have no actual knowledge about.

I would like to explain a little about "black boxes" and what they are and what we do about them. The forum and the questions posted on your blog seemed fairly confused about them.

Every crash, no matter who or what is involved, is scrutinized for Electronic Data Recorder evidence.

Every crash, no matter who or what is involved, is scrutinized for Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) evidence. By the way, the so-called "black boxes" in cars are actually silver. Quite a few years ago the NYC STOP DWI Program run by the DOT paid for training by the national expert in EDR recovery. Once I had the funding, we had all of the NYPD Detectives and many of the Highway Patrol Unit Techs assigned to investigate crashes trained for two weeks. We also got funding to purchase the equipment to download the EDRs. In the years since we have upgraded this equipment as needed with recurrent funding from STOP DWI. So, New York City is right at the cutting edge with EDRs.

Still though, these EDRs are not an automatic cure-all. First off, they may not record any data if the vehicles airbag system doesn't deploy. A car can crash or strike a pedestrian or cyclist and not set off its airbag. We then get nothing. Also, the kind of car involved is a significant factor. Some makes and models are capable of being downloaded and some are not. Some manufacturers maintain that their vehicles do not have EDRs. Some manufacturers refuse to help police download their cars. And some manufacturers have EDRs that do not record information useful to a crash investigator. If a car has a readable EDR sometimes there are other problems that prevent the data from being retrieved such as crash damage, power loss or if the EDR resets itself before the information is gathered. The one thing I can assure you of is that we try.

Preparations for the next phase of Bus Rapid Transit in New York City ramp up tonight with the first of seven public workshops to gather ideas for future routes. Tonight's workshop gets underway at 6:30, at the College of New Rochelle (it's in the Bronx -- 332 East 149th Street, between Morris and Courtlandt Avenues).

The city's first rapid bus corridor, on Fordham Road, has sped trip times by 20 percent and attracted 5,000 additional riders each day. Now New York City Transit and DOT are looking to collect "feedback on where new BRT routes should be established and how they should operate." In a recent report, "Introduction to BRT Phase 2" [PDF], the agencies identified more than 30 potential corridors for BRT service. These workshops will help winnow the field down to about 10 corridors.

As for how the routes operate, the Phase 2 report lays out all the options, from fare payment to station design. The most significant variable to weigh in on is probably lane treatments. Planners are considering an array of options, including off-set bus lanes, busways that run along the median, and -- for wide streets with lots of bus traffic -- physically separated lanes.

Head over to DOT's website for the full schedule of BRT workshops. The next one is scheduled for Tuesday in Jackson Heights.

This Streetfilm from Robin Urban Smith and Elizabeth Press brings us an update on the state of greenway development in the Bronx. Writes Robin:

The Bronx River Greenway and South Bronx Greenway plans apply community-driven design strategies to help undo years of top down, auto-centric planning and development in the Bronx. The greenways, when completed, will create a network of safe bicycle and pedestrian paths and routes, parks, and waterfront access points throughout the borough. See the Bronx River Alliance's 2009 calendar for a list of events and activities planned on or around the Bronx River. Also be sure to check out Sustainable South Bronx and The Point Community Development Corporation for more information about the projects and for ways to get involved.

The vid includes interview footage with Astrid Glynn, who has since stepped down as New York State DOT commissioner.

Dollar Van Demos, the unlikely union of transportation needs and musical dreams that has entranced New York bloggers, is giving private transit operators in Brooklyn and Queens some of the best press they've ever received. But that isn't the only reason it's worth taking a fresh look at dollar vans. If the state legislature can't avert the MTA's doomsday scenario, the vans may soon see a surge in ridership -- perhaps big enough to launch a few recording careers.

Dollar vans are the unmarked and often unregulated 15-passenger vehicles that cruise Flatbush and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn, Jamaica Avenue in Queens, and other outer-borough thoroughfares picking up bus passengers and commuters. Service cuts and fare hikes would make their routes increasingly attractive to transit riders.

While that's a convenient fail-safe for residents of the transit-poor neighborhoods that dollar vans serve, it's problematic for the MTA and potentially dangerous for passengers.

It stands to reason that many dollar van trips (now priced at $1.50 or $2.00) would be New York City Transit trips if riders were satisfied with the level of service provided by area buses, so some trips lost to dollar vans not only represent dissatisfied transit customers, but also lost fare-box revenue at a time when the MTA needs every cent.

Furthermore, because many dollar vans are unlicensed and unregulated, and thus uninsured to operate as livery vehicles, passengers can expect little recourse in the event of a crash and little consistency from van to van and driver to driver.

Both the NYPD and the TLC are responsible for oversight of dollar vans but enforcement that would prevent illegal vans from operating and legal vans from poaching MTA passengers from bus stops has been spotty at best, according to City Council Transportation Chair John Liu.

The 63rd Precinct, which covers Mill Basin and Marine Park in Brooklyn -- neighborhoods favored by dollar van drivers looking to avoid traffic on Flatbush Avenue -- issued 49 moving violation tickets and 48 TLC tickets to the operators of legal dollar vans and impounded 25 illegal vans between June and October of 2008.

Still, that’s just a drop in the bucket.

In 1999, the New York Times estimated that there were between 2400 and 5000 dollar vans operating in New York City, a number that has no doubt fluctuated in recent years, but still represents a sizable fleet of private transit vehicles.

With commuters tightening their belts and MTA fare hikes and service cuts potentially on the way, this number may very well skyrocket, and what has long been a cottage industry loose and nimble enough to launch gimmicks like Dollar Van Demos could become an increasingly crucial part of the transportation network, for better and for worse.

For obvious reasons, it’s refreshing to see the steps that a small, privately owned transportation company will take to draw and please passengers. But for equally obvious reasons, it’s alarming to think that transit riders may have to rely more and more on an unregulated industry to get around their city.

We've got a few more details about another local ped-bike project getting a lift from stimulus cash. The street improvements announced for Hunts Point and Port Morris in the Bronx will fund the first three sections of the South Bronx Greenway. This project has been years in the works. When complete, it will bring 11 miles of pedestrian and bicycle paths to neighborhoods where places to play and bike are scarce, and where childhood asthma and obesity rates run high.

"This is extremely helpful moving these projects forward in a time of fiscal crisis," said Miquela Craytor, director of Sustainable South Bronx, which has been instrumental in shaping the project and shepherding its progress. "It's a big win for South Bronx communities that have been underserved for so long."

The three segments include Lafayette Avenue, a connection to Randall's Island, and access to Hunts Point Landing. The Sustainable South Bronx web site has a handy map of the full project [PDF].

Veronica Vanterpool of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign recently took Streetfilms' Nick Whitaker on a tour of  the city's inaugural Select Bus Service (SBS) line, the Bx12, introduced last year on Fordham Road in the Bronx. As Nick writes:

Travel time on the route has been cut by 20 percent thanks to the improvements, and commuters we spoke with certainly sang its praises. A recent report showed the SBS is carrying 30 percent more riders than the line it replaced, and a NYC Transit rider report card found 98 percent of users rated it satisfactory or very satisfactory.

The sky-high approval rating comes in spite of the fact that drivers can't seem to stay out of the terra cotta bus lanes, an entirely predictable phenomenon that shows no signs of abating without ramped-up enforcement or the installation of physical barriers separating SBS lanes from other vehicle traffic.

Westbound exits at the Sheridan Expressway rank third worst, White Plains Road, fourth, and Westchester Avenue, 11th among all the awful choke points in America.

Decommissioning the Sheridan happens to be one of two options being considered by New York State DOT to improve truck access to Hunts Point and its huge wholesale food markets (currently, trucks exit the Sheridan and make the last leg of their trips on local streets). Without the Sheridan, trucks would get to the markets via a new exit off the Bruckner Expressway. The other option also entails constructing the Bruckner exit, but would preserve the Sheridan as a truck route.

NYSDOT is in the traffic analysis phase of evaluating each alternative. If traffic flow is the name of the game, then chalk up another reason to tear down the Sheridan: It would ease congestion on the country's most clogged-up highway. Of course, there's also the 28 acres of land for riverfront public space, housing, and commercial development that a teardown would free up.

The Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance is the leading advocate for the teardown option, called the "New Community on the Sheridan Plan." Getting NYSDOT to consider highway removal in its EIS has taken some serious advocacy, said SBRWA's Melanie Bin Jung, and there's more to come. NYSDOT is expected to release its final EIS for the project next year, and select the final option by 2012.

Bronx electeds joined DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan yesterday to mark a completed round of ped-bike enhancements to the Grand Concourse and 161st Street. The package includes the newly ped-friendly Lou Gehrig Plaza (in front of the Bronx County Courthouse), and wider medians and bike lanes along one section of the Concourse. The project was launched in early 2006, while Iris Weinshall was in charge at DOT.

When Streetsblog posted photos of the nearly-finished courthouse plaza back in April, it was welcomed as a corrective to the rampant government employee parking that had taken over the space, while some readers questioned whether the design would truly invite public use. The plaza's been there for a few months now -- if you've had a chance to observe this place close up, tell us how you like it.

Follow the jump for a before shot of the plaza and plans of the new street geometry on the Concourse.

Here's the plaza back when it was a parking free-for-all.

For a larger version of this image, go to page 26 of this PDF.

Images: NYCDOT

These DOT photos [PDF] show off the revamped Bronx Hub -- the shopping district and transit nexus in Melrose that just received a slew of livable streets improvements. Planters, surfacing, and a few strategically placed concrete islands demarcate pretty substantial new swaths of pedestrian space, including a block-long plaza (shown above and in bird's eye view below). There's also a short stretch of exclusive bus territory and some interesting bike lane treatments. Follow the jump for more pics.

The plaza area shown pre-makeover, when it was traffic territory.

Is this bike route treatment an experiment in diverting car traffic while allowing cyclists to ride straight through? We have a request in with DOT to see if cyclists are supposed to dismount before entering the plaza.

North of the plaza, planters and pedestrian refuges set off space for people on foot. Note the planters in the bike lane buffer on the left (Melrose Avenue).

How about sending a Fox 5 news crew to interview satisfied pedestrians?

Photos: NYCDOT

Off-duty police officers have been using the Pelham Bay Park walking/running trails in order to avoid traffic. They barrel through the park at a high rate of speed. Twice I was almost run over while jogging, and once I was cursed at when I put my hands up. My friend asked a Parks Dept. employee about it. She told us that they were off-duty cops and that there was nothing that they could do about it. Couldn't they install bollards or something?

Streetsblog has a message in with NYPD. The Parks Department had no comment.

Anyone else witnessed this?

Photo: E. Kuzina/Flickr

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

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

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

Over 4,000 riders turned out for Sunday's 14th Annual Tour de Bronx, which covered miles of beautiful scenery -- with hopes of more to come, should the Sheridan Expressway ever meet its reward (see the 2:00 mark).  Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson was there, and files this report.

Sunday marks the 14th Annual Tour de Bronx, a free bike ride tailored to all ages and skill levels. Participants in the 25-mile ride will be escorted by ride marshals and police, and there is a 40-mile route for experienced cyclists. Check-in times range from 8 to 10 a.m., depending on the starting point.

The Tour de Bronx is co-sponsored by Transportation Alternatives and Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion. See the Streetfilm of last year's ride here.

Image: Transportation Alternatives

Work is underway on a major livable streets makeover [PDF] for the Hub -- a shopping mecca in Melrose that some have called "the Times Square of the Bronx." The DOT plan simplifies a complex traffic pattern where three streets converge. In the process, space is transferred from vehicles to sidewalk extensions, pedestrian refuges, and a new, block-long public plaza.

Other "Sustainable Streets" priorities are converging here too. New bike routes are planned for Third Avenue and Willis/Melrose Avenue, and New York City Transit has re-routed several bus routes in coordination with DOT's changes.

A tipster reports that some of the pedestrian refuges have already been completed. Streetsblog has requests in to DOT and DDC for a construction status report. Update: DDC says the projected completion date is next April (more specifics on the way, perhaps). If you have pictures, send them to us or upload to the Streetsblog Flickr pool.

After the jump, an overhead view of the Hub's pedestrian enhancements.

Graphics: NYCDOT

Bronx business owners say parking agents are harassing customers and hindering revenue, and are demanding action from electeds and calling for an investigation by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum. Says Margaret Arrighi, head of the Bronx Business Alliance: "They wait for you to park. They come up from behind, like a tiger waiting for its prey."

According to the News, the animalistic stalkers have even killed.

The meeting [between business owners and officials] follows what has now become city lore - the death of Leo Magnotta, 64, who suffered a heart attack in May while arguing with traffic enforcement supervisors when he was issued a ticket while double-parked and waiting for his wife outside a Subway sandwich shop at 3714 E. Tremont Ave.

In the interest of "on the other hand" journalism, even murderous thugs deserve a sentence in their defense. Here it is:

Craig Chin, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, said that double-parking is illegal at all times, because it is a safety issue.

But back to the crisis at hand. Included in the News exposé is a handy sidebar (above) with suggestions on how to beat a parking ticket. Note that the final tip is from Gotbaum's office. That's right: so serious is the problem of ticketing for illegal parking that the city's public advocate is now issuing advice on how to escape it. (Eggheaded twits might suggest that variable-rate parking would be a fairer, more efficient solution, but now is the time for action, not ideas.)

If all else fails, we suggest invoking the method preferred by that of infamous defender of motorist privilege, State Senator Jeff Klein: "Get your hands off my car, you fucking asshole."

New York's Sheridan Expressway, which traverses 1.25 miles of Bronx River waterfront (right), comes in at number two. Thanks to the advocacy of the Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, the state DOT is considering a proposal to replace the lightly-traveled, Moses-era Sheridan with housing and parks. As the Tri-State Transportation Campaign reported last month, preserving it is becoming harder and harder to justify.

Here's the full "Freeways Without Futures" list, issued as part of a joint venture between CNU and the Center for Neighborhood Technology called the Highways to Boulevards Initiative:

1. Alaskan Way Viaduct, Seattle, WA
2. Sheridan Expressway, New York, NY
   
3. The Skyway and Route 5, Buffalo, NY
   
4. Route 34, New Haven, CT
   
5. Claiborne Expressway, New Orleans, LA
6. Interstate 81, Syracuse, NY
7. Interstate 64, Louisville, KY
8. Route 29, Trenton, NJ
9. Gardiner Expressway, Toronto, ON
10. 11th Street Bridges and the Southeast Freeway, Washington D.C.

Previous highway-to-boulevard conversions have succeeded in cities from New York to San Francisco to Seoul, often in the face of opposition from carmaggedon-predicting doomsayers. More from CNU President John Norquist on why freeway removal makes sense, after the jump.

CNU President and CEO John Norquist says that compared to the prospect of completely rebuilding aging freeways -- something that’s inevitable after 40 or 50 years -- highways-to-boulevards projects are real money savers. "There’s a whole generation of elevated highways in cities that are at the end of their design life. Instead of rebuilding them at enormous expense, cities have an opportunity to undo what proved to be major urban planning blunders," said Norquist, Mayor of Milwaukee when it replaced the Park East Freeway with McKinley Boulevard in 2002. "The Federal Highway Fund just received a short-term bailout. The money that does exist can be invested much more efficiently in surface streets and transit. The development that results is walkable and close to jobs and city life. It helps residents keep a lot of money in their wallets that they’d otherwise spend driving."

"Fifty years ago, when there was flight from cities, industrialized waterfronts seemed like a convenient place to run freeways," Norquist said. "The result for the neighborhoods has been blight. Cities like San Francisco that have removed freeways and reclaimed waterfronts have turned them into magnets for people and investment."