Streetsblog New York City

Comptroller William Thompson and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer want the city to enforce a law mandating that sightseeing buses reduce harmful emissions. Meanwhile, a citizen group called "Tour Buses No -- Tourists Yes" also wants the buses off residential streets.

In separate letters issued this month to the Department of Environmental Protection, Thompson and Stringer present lists of unanswered questions pertaining to Local Law 41, adopted by the City Council in May 2005. The law required that all tour buses with engines that are at least three years old be retrofitted with best available technologies to reduce diesel particulate levels, and gave companies until January 2007 to either do the retrofits or apply for waivers.

Over three years later, only one company, Gray Line, has brought any of its buses into compliance. According to a DEP report, as of last August just 61 of the 204 tour buses on New York streets meet the law's requirements. The report, Thompson wrote, "shows a very disturbing lack of progress and, in fact, a widespread non-compliance with the law."

According to a 1999 study referenced in a recent New York Post article, a typical Gray Line bus "emit[s] about 25 times more diesel particles than the average bus."

Alan Gerson extolls the value of using underutilized traffic lanes for park space, with Friends of Petrosino Square founder Georgette Fleischer, Parks Borough Commissioner Bill Castro and CB 2 Chair Brad Hoylman 

Manhattan Community Board 2 member Ian Dutton reports that this morning city officials held a groundbreaking for the renovation of Petrosino Square. As part of the project, the square, which lies on Lafayette Street between Kenmare and Spring, will be expanded, as one of Lafayette's two southbound travel lanes will be turned into park space. Writes Dutton:

Interestingly, the loudest round of applause from the crowd of local residents, many elderly Italian citizens, appeared to come during [Council Member] Alan Gerson's remarks regarding freeing up useless road space on Lafayette St. for community use. "Today is an historic day as we transfer a lane of pavement to more space for an expanded park -- space for the people who appreciate the neighborhood and space for public art."

Though long-time Little Italy residents might not appreciate the impact of crowd- and traffic-attracting street festivals, the value of proper use of public space hasn't been completely lost on this audience.

A cyclist is ticketed during Critical Mass last spring

City Council Member Rosie Mendez has introduced a bill to overturn the NYPD's parade permit rules, which require groups of over 50 to obtain a permit before assembling. Enacted a year ago, the rules were seen as a way for the city to subvert Critical Mass rides and have been the subject of civil rights action and at least one lawsuit.

Mendez, along with Alan Gerson and Gale Brewer, were to introduce the "First Amendment Assembly Act" yesterday. According to a media release, the bill [PDF] "decriminalizes parading without a permit and allows groups that need exceptions to various laws, such as traffic laws, to obtain such for their events."

Streetsblog has posted consistently on how the NYPD seems more intent on harassing cyclists than protecting them. And just last week Commissioner Ray Kelly got an earful from citizens who are fed up with unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians.

The full press release from Mendez follows the jump.

Council Member Alan Gerson says the congestion pricing plan ignores the car-choked Canal Street corridor

Yesterday we noted that District 1 City Council Member Alan Gerson was the only Manhattan representative to indicate that he would vote against the congestion pricing plan in its current form, according to an "unofficial roll call" conducted by the New York Times. We contacted Gerson's office to find out why, given the upsides for a district in which 79 percent of households are car-free, which is saddled with chronic gridlock and which, ostensibly, will someday benefit from the pricing revenue dependent Second Avenue subway line. An aide told us the council member's staff was "trying to get a correction," and has submitted this letter to the paper:

Dear Editor:

Your article, "Traffic Plan In Trouble", misstates my position. I have consistently stated that I would support congestion pricing if the Bloomberg Administration enhances or modifies the commission's plan in four critical areas, on which the plan remains silent or deficient: the Holland Tunnel/ Canal Street corridor; bus management, including clean engine standards for all the buses the plan will bring into lower Manhattan ; non-pricing traffic management, which carries over into non-pricing hours; and equity among city residents. I have proposed detailed recommendations, based on community and expert input. Implementing the commission's plan without those enhancements or changes will worsen congestion and pollution on many streets, including the canal street corridor. Meetings are scheduled to discuss these proposals. I remain optimistic that the City Council and the Administration will reach agreement on the best possible traffic plan for all New Yorkers.

At our request, Gerson's office also sent over the council member's eight-page position paper on congestion pricing [PDF], in which he describes the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission report as "deeply disturbing."

We're just catching up to this piece of good news in The Villager last week:

With the Houston St. renovation project on the West Side finally nearing completion, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the sidewalks between Sixth Ave. and W. Broadway on the street's south side have doubled in width. And, in an interesting twist, the existing trees were left in place - right in the middle of the pavement. Ian Dutton, vice chairperson of Community Board 2's Traffic and Transportation Committee, said this was not a mistake by the Department of Design and Construction. "People really expressed concern that trees were being destroyed needlessly in this project," Dutton said. "So I think that was D.D.C.'s way of preserving these trees."

Surprisingly, some people had expressed concern about widening the sidewalks. Dutton said Lucy and Leonard Cecere, who own a building at MacDougal and Houston Street, feared they'd have more snow to shovel in the winter, while Sean Sweeney, the Soho Alliance's director, thought wider sidewalks could become a "circus," attracting an influx of vendors and performers on top of the vendors who already congregate there under a deal with St. Anthony's Church.

But Dutton said he believes that only a path needs to be cleared in winter, not the entire sidewalk. "I think it has actually changed the mood of the street," Dutton said of the mid-pavement trees. "It almost feels like a European promenade."… Meanwhile, Councilmember Alan Gerson is still fuming at the Department of Transportation over the project's having narrowed traffic islands at pedestrian crossings heavily used by local senior citizens. "I am at my wit's end with this department," he declared at C.B. 2's meeting last Thursday.

If you want to know how many cars were stolen in your neighborhood on any given week, the NYPD is happy to tell you. You don't even need to make a phone call, as "CompStat" data -- which also includes figures on murders, rapes, robberies, and burglaries -- is posted online and updated regularly, precinct by precinct.

If, however, you want to know how many people were hit by cars or where the most dangerous intersections are in your neighborhood, CompStat won't help you. Those numbers aren't there. And if you're looking for details of an incident in which someone was hurt or killed by a driver, your quest is likely to be frustratingly difficult, if not impossible. Even if you're a member of a New York City Community Board.

Ian Dutton knows this story well. After Hope Miller, 28, an aspiring actress from Queens, was killed on Houston Street on September 25, Dutton -- who serves on CB 2's Traffic and Transportation Committee and lives a block from where Miller died -- began making calls. According to media reports, the driver of the truck that killed Miller, 48-year-old Roger Smiley of Brooklyn, was charged with leaving the scene, operating a vehicle while impaired by drugs, and resisting arrest. He was not, however, charged with killing Miller. Dutton wanted to know why.

He started with Rita Lee, a senior advisor in Council Member Alan Gerson's office, who gave him a few phone numbers. Some of them didn't work anymore. When he got through to the office of New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau (left), Dutton says most the people he talked to were "outwardly dismissive." Claiming no record of an incident involving a Roger Smiley or Hope Miller, DA office personnel instructed Dutton to get an arrest number from the police.

Since the site of the crash is near the boundary separating the two, Dutton was then bounced between NYPD Precincts 1 and 6. It took ten phone calls to find someone willing to offer any help -- an officer at the 6th Precinct who told Dutton that, when a driver kills a pedestrian, a charge of homicide is brought if drugs or alcohol are involved. If the driver is sober, the offense merits a traffic ticket.

"That sounded ridiculous," Dutton says, "but it sounded like it was the modus operandi."

From Time's Up!:

Cyclist and pedestrian advocates gathered [Tuesday] night at the corner of Houston Street and 6th Avenue where Hope Miller was killed by a drug-impaired driver on September 25th. An honorary plaque provided by Street Memorials and a memorial stencil, bearing Hope Miller's name and date of death, were placed near the crash site.

Speakers included Charles Komanoff, Economist and author of "Killed by Automobile", Time's Up! Executive Director Bill DiPaola and City Council Member Alan Gerson, who spoke about the importance of pedestrians within the fabric of New York City and asked when the City will make pedestrian safety its number one priority. Time's Up! volunteers spoke as well on the City reneging on their plan for long-promised bike lanes on Houston Street.

Afterward, those on bicycles took a lane of Houston Street riding together for safety to Bowery and 4th Street for a similar memorial stencil to honor the most recent victim, Julia Thomson, who was killed by a drunk driver on September 30th.

Photos of Hope Miller and Julia Thomson stencils by Phillipp Rassman via Flickr.

Council Member Alan Gerson bikes in support of safer cross-town cycling route for Lower Manhattan, Sept. 2006. Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel

Following the Gotham Gazette's surprising report that he was the only Manhattan City Council Member firmly against Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, Lower Manhattan City Council member Alan Gerson has issued a statement clarifying his position. Gerson says that, in fact, he "supports appropriate variations of congestion pricing as part of a broader traffic management plan."

Gerson's District 1 encompasses the southernmost tip of Manhattan. Census data indicates that 79% of the households in Gerson's district do not own a car. Gerson's complete statement can be found after the jump. They're talking about it on Gotham Gazette.

In anticipation of two new laws that take effect in July, DOT is handing out free helmets to commercial cyclists. One law requires businesses to provide helmets to employees who use bicycles as part of their work, and to make sure their workers wear them. Another law requires businesses to display this poster (pdf) in their workplace. From the DOT press release:

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Chinese Chamber of Commerce Chairman David J. Louie will distribute free NYC bicycle helmets to delivery workers on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007. The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will also distribute reflective safety vests at the event. The helmet fitting and distribution will be held from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, 62 Mott Street.

The event is intended to inform businesses and bicycle operators about two new laws that take effect on July 26th, 2007 and were sponsored by Council members Gale Brewer and Alan Gerson, both of whom attended today's announcement.

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has begun a pilot program to provide delivery workers with reflective vests that increase cyclists' visibility and allow for easy display of identifying information. Under city law, commercial cyclists must display a sign indicating their employer's name and a personal, three-digit identification number.

Reported in the New York Times:

Chad Marlow, who represents the New York City Pedicab Owners Association, said the association agrees with much of the legislation, but plans to file a lawsuit challenging some elements of it. He said it believes that the Council was within its rights to impose a cap as the city does with taxis, but that the restriction on electric motors and the provision giving the police the power to ban pedicabs from Midtown run afoul of the law.

Four council members abstained from yesterday's vote, raising objections to the restriction against electric motors.

At a council hearing before yesterday's vote, Councilman Alan J. Gerson, who supported the original legislation but removed his name from the current version of the bill, said, "They're nonpolluting, they're quiet; why should the city care if they are electric assist or not?"