Koppell says there have been "many accidents" at the intersection due to traffic volume and the difficulty of making left hand turns, and that "Deputy Inspector Pilecki from the Bronx DOT" agrees that a turn signal is needed. But a city source tells Streetsblog that DOT has inspected the intersection many times, at Koppell's request, and disagrees with the councilman's assessment. (For what it's worth, CrashStat shows fewer than five bike-ped-involved collisions there between 1995 and 2005.) Deputy Inspector Pilecki is actually with the NYPD, which our source says has stationed officers at the interchange only at the behest of the councilman.

From Koppell's press release [PDF]:

"Commissioner Sadik-Kahn [sic] has shown arrogance and a total disregard for our community's needs and safety," Koppell said. "Her lack of sensitivity and understanding necessitates that she resign or be dismissed."

The statement says that Koppell, who is a former Assembly member and New York State attorney general, has been asking for the signal "for the past four years." We contacted Koppell's office to see if he ever demanded that former Commissioner Iris Weinshall lose her job during the first three years of his quest -- and if, as we hear, the intersection is along the route between the councilman's home and office. We are awaiting a call back.

This holiday season, users of Central and Prospect Parks got an unexpected and welcome gift after years of finding coal (and exhaust) in their stockings. Interestingly, the sources of that exhaust didn't seem to complain (or perhaps even notice) that things had changed.

For years, cars have been barred from most of the Parks' Loop Drives during weekday non-rush hours. But year after year, an exception has been made for the period between Thanksgiving and New Years when the city has temporarily lifted the weekday traffic ban. They called it "Holiday Hours." The reason, to quote a 2005 Department of Transportation press release, was "to provide additional capacity to help process the expected increase in vehicular trips during the holiday season" and, as former DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall said in 2006, "to help make room for the many people that want to enjoy our City's attractions." In other words: Accommodating more motor vehicle traffic was the mitigation for too much motor vehicle traffic.

Whether there is any evidence that "additional capacity" is needed or does anything more than fuel traffic congestion was the subject of a post on this site in November 2006 (see "Sacrificing Central Park to Appease the Traffic Gods"). But there is no doubt that the sudden appearance of car traffic during times of day that have been car-free for the previous ten months has been an annual jolt to the park's thousands of recreational users.

This year, however, at the urging of Transportation Alternatives, DOT for the first time quietly failed to open the Parks' gates to the anticipated crush of Santas hurtling to Midtown to fill their SUVs with gifts. The suspension of car-free hours was itself suspended. What ensued is instructive: nothing.

DOT officials say that they didn't receive any calls or complaints through 311 and the Mayor's Community Assistance Unit heard nothing from motorists furious that they hadn't received their customary holiday handout. Traffic congestion around the Parks did not appear to be any worse than usual.

But while drivers may not have noticed or cared much, the Parks' recreational users certainly did. According to a DOT official, the agency received considerable feedback through e-mail and other means from people who noticed that weekday car-free hours in Central and Prospect Parks remained intact during the holidays and were pleased. T.A., too, heard from many delighted park users, some of whom could not believe their eyes (or their lungs).

"We're going to keep reviewing how it went, but certainly we'd look to do it again next holiday season," the DOT official said. "At this point we see no reason to make a change."

All this bodes well for the three-month trial closing of both parks to traffic this summer, a long-overdue measure being pushed by TA and numerous elected officials, including Upper West Side Council Member Gale A. Brewer, who introduced the car-free summer legislation two years ago. To be sure, drivers are more likely to notice when a privilege is taken away rather than simply not reinstated. But nearly every incremental restriction of car traffic in both parks has been preceded by dire predictions of traffic cataclysm. Time and time again, these fears have proved groundless.

The holiday hours story should embolden officials to take an extended holiday from traffic and make Central and Prospect Parks the refuges they were meant to be.

Photo: Swruler9284 / Flickr

Multiple sources say that Mayor Bloomberg has chosen Urbitran Chairman and CEO Michael Horodniceanu as New York City's next transportation commissioner. Iris Weinshall's last day on the job will be Friday, April 13. No word yet on when the official announcement will be.

We will know if Mayor Bloomberg heard that call by the choice he makes for DOT. 

As a wise New York City traffic engineer once told me:

"Traffic engineers have failed," Sam Schwartz says. "If you compare the accomplishments of our profession over the last 50 years to the medical profession, our performance is equivalent to millions of people still dying of polio, influenza and other minor bacterial diseases that have been cured."

While London, Paris, and cities and towns all across Northern Europe are, with great success, developing ways to make their dense central districts less convenient, accessible and free to automobiles, American traffic engineers are still focused on figuring out how to shove more motor vehicles through our nation's roadways. The traffic engineers' solution for congestion is to add a lane or build a new road. In Schwartz's words, that's like "telling an obese person that the way to get healthy is to buy a bigger pair of pants and a longer belt."

This week's New Yorker has a Jeffrey Goldberg Talk of the Town piece about Senator Charles Schumer's new book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time. Schumer's protagonist is an imaginary, average middle-class American family called "The Baileys" who accompany the Senator wherever he goes and advise him "on all manner of middle-class concerns."

Schumer tells Goldberg that his imaginary constituents live in Massapequa, Long Island and are both forty-five years old. Joe works for an insurance company, Eileen is a part-time employee at a doctor's office. The Bailey's wouldn't be the types to order chicken and steamed vegetables at Hunan Delight, Schumer says. They'd get the kung pao chicken.

And how would the Bailey's get to Hunan Delight? Not in a Toyota Prius, that's for sure...

Liberal élitism, [Schumer] said, as he stirred Sweet 'N Low into his tea with a chopstick, alienates middle-income families from the Party. "Middle-class people don't think everybody should have to drive a tiny little car to achieve improvement in global warming," he said. Invoking opponents of expanding the tuition tax credit to the middle class, he went on, "If we listened to the New York Times editorial board, we'd have twenty-one votes in the Senate."

Photo: New York Social Diary

"Similarly, in Downtown Brooklyn, DOT has acted on many of the recommendations of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Report. These measures include reducing the number of travel lanes, adding medians and left turn bays, adjusting signal timings, converting one-ways to two-ways, adding bicycle lanes and adding parking, all to slow vehicles down and discourage through traffic."

After giving Weinshall props for her actions on the Queens Boulevard front (and taking her to task on the Staten Island Ferry crash), the Times goes on to say how much more needs to be done, voicing some arguments that probably sound mighty familiar to Streetsblog readers:

Whoever gets the job should waste no time in helping to secure federal money to study ways of relieving traffic, including the possibility of congestion pricing. Washington has recognized that the nation's cities need traffic controls, and millions of dollars are being offered to municipalities seeking solutions. New York should claim its share.

There has been a lot of pushback on the idea of congestion pricing, in which drivers would be charged a fee in the most heavily trafficked part of the city, Manhattan south of Central Park. Opponents portray the fee as a regressive tax that would be hard on small businesses, but versions of such a charge in London, Stockholm and elsewhere show promising results, reducing traffic apparently without impeding commerce.

As a quick second act, the next commissioner could take a bite out of congestion and set an example for the rest of city government by revoking its workers' parking permits, an idea promoted by Transportation Alternatives, a nonpartisan advocate for reduced car traffic. City workers from all departments, the police in particular, regularly abuse the privilege -- the permits amount to a free pass to park, even double-park, anywhere -- especially in Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn.

In the larger picture, the new commissioner should treat city transportation as the regional issue it is. Much of the traffic on the most heavily used streets originates in outlying areas. Workers are commuting from ever greater distances. Sometimes that is a matter of necessity, sometimes it's a matter of perceived convenience.

The city would benefit greatly from a transportation leader who promotes use of public transit, walking and cycling as not just a way to a destination, but as a way of life.

A long walk across Queens Blvd. at Grand Ave., Elmhurst, circa March 2001. Photo: Jeff Saltzman

Departing Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall often cites the pedestrian safety improvements she ordered for Queens Boulevard as the greatest accomplishments of her six years in office. Before taking over DOT, the Queens Boulevard death machine was killing an average of 9 pedestrians a year, including an astounding death toll of 18 in 1997 alone. Once DOT began focusing on pedestrian safety along Queens Boulevard, the death rate fell to just over three per year. Today, crossing Queens Boulevard on foot is still a challenge but it's a lot safer than it used to be.

As City Hall mulls the future of its Department of Transportation, it is useful to recall the decades of pedestrian carnage on Queens Boulevard and what it took, finally, to staunch the bloodshed. Because it was Queens Boulevard where Iris Weinshall, the city's newly appointed transportation commissioner, overruled her agency's top traffic engineers for the first time and, in so doing, achieved what she often says is her proudest accomplishment.

In late 2000, the Daily News launched a crusade to tame the "Boulevard of Death." Newsday followed suit, and the 7.1 mile long, 12 lane, monster street dominated their contest for Queens readers. The tabloids ran more than twenty-five newspaper articles spotlighting the horrible conditions, including five front pages.

Prodded by the media coverage, the city's new DOT commissioner, a transportation policy neophyte, instructed her traffic engineers to make walking across the boulevard safer and easier. But the engineers resisted. Increasing pedestrian crossing times, they said, would would back up traffic to the Queensboro Bridge and motorists would be stuck fuming. Weinshall, frustrated by her top engineers' apparent inability or unwillingness to trade motorist convenience for pedestrian safety, shared a candid revelation with reporters: DOT's traffic engineers, she said, were "thinking from the motorist's viewpoint."

The traffic engineers may have been surprised at Weinshall's concern. "Accidents" on Queens Boulevard were nothing new. For decades the public and press didn't seem to care. Most years the papers wrote one or two articles about pedestrian fatalities on Queens Boulevard, sometimes none. Previous DOT commissioners did pitifully little about the 4 to 18 pedestrians killed and scores terribly injured each year. Pedestrian fatalities on Queens Boulevard had always just been a fact of life -- collateral damage.

But times had changed. Here came a new Transportation Commissioner under relentless media pressure. Overriding their dire warnings of traffic catastrophe, Weinshall ordered DOT's traffic engineers to act. Within weeks, the speed limit was reduced, crossing times increased, and lighting and signage improved. Over the following months and years, traffic lanes were replaced by angle parking, fences installed to reduce jaywalking, median waiting areas built and widened, and a long term plan developed. As the changes took effect, the pedestrian casualty rate on Queens Boulevard plummeted.

The taming of the "Boulevard of Death" was the crowning moment of Iris Weinshall's six years as New York City's transportation commissioner. It was made possible, in part, because a new, perhaps somewhat naive, transportation commissioner was willing to overrule her agency's top traffic engineers and force them to begin looking at one of the busiest, widest, most dangerous streets in New York City as more than just a system for moving cars and trucks -- but as a public space -- a place where people live, work and walk.

Strangely, and much to the detriment of Weinshall's legacy, the key lessons of Queens Boulevard were quickly lost. Whether talking to a Midtown Manhattan Business Improvement District or a neighborhood group in Brooklyn, Weinshall and her borough-level subordinates often deflected requests saying, "I'm not a traffic engineer. We'll have to get back to you on that." Despite her initial insight that DOT's traffic engineers viewed the city from a windshield perspective, Weinshall continued to defer to them. In a near total void of Mayoral-level interest in transportation issues, during the Weinshall years DOT's top traffic engineers became New York City's de facto transportation planners and policymakers.

Today, the very same traffic engineers that Weinshall faced down on Queens Boulevard have as much authority as ever. In their own words, they "own" New York City's streets. They sign-off on every proposed bike lane, speed hump, median, neckdown, sidewalk-widening and hour of car-free park. When, for example, they decide that it is time for a functional, community-friendly, two-way, neighborhood Main Street to become a one-way highway designed to speed  through-traffic and "maximize capacity," that's that. Neighborhood groups, Community Boards and elected officials can tell DOT what to do. DOT will listen. But until a DOT commissioner or mayor says otherwise, the traffic engineers call the shots.

Whomever takes over as New York City's next DOT commissioner should take a close look at how Iris Weinshall's achievements on Queens Boulevard were won and then ask: Whose "viewpoint" do DOT's traffic engineers have today?

Photo: Foodgeek / Flickr

• Provide pedestrians exclusive crossing time so that turning motorists have the red light while pedestrians have the walk signal. (example: Union Square NW- 17th and Broadway
• Leading Pedestrian Intervals (LPI) or "pedestrian head starts" give pedestrians the signal before motorists, better establishing their presence in the crosswalk and making them more visible to turning motorists. (example: 23rd Street and Broadway, 23rd Street and 6th Ave).
• Neckdowns -- sidewalk extensions at corners, force motorists to make slower, more accurate and safer turns (example: 29th Street and 8th Ave).
• Raised crosswalks in which the pavement under crosswalks is elevated by 4 inches, again force motorists to slow down when navigating an intersection.
• Bollards -- placing steel bollards at corners (pictured) or on two way street, placing plastic bollards where the double yellow line meets the crosswalk protect pedestrians while waiting on the sidewalk and force drivers to make safer turns (example: 12th Street and 7th Ave).

Perhaps most notable, the T.A. press release also says that there were 170 pedestrian fatalities in New York City in 2006, a 7 percent increase over the previous year. DOT has not responded to requests to verify that number. Outgoing DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall touts improving pedestrian safety as one of the major accomplishments of her tenure.

The Staten Island Advance reports on Monday's press conference outlining the qualities that leading City Council members would like to see in the next DOT Commissioner. The Bloomberg Administration responded to the Council with the following statement:

The Mayor will appoint a commissioner who will carry out policies to meet the sustainability challenges he outlined in his '2030' speech and will continue [outgoing DOT] Commissioner Weinshall's work reducing pedestrian fatalities and increasing safety for all New Yorkers through the implementation of innovative programs like Thru Streets.

The Advance also notes: 

Bloomberg, who with Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden pushed through the unprecedented bans on smoking and trans fats, should take that same intrepid approach with the next transportation commissioner, said Gene Russianoff, attorney with the Straphangers Campaign.

Meanwhile, a source inside DOT Commissioner Weinshall's office says that Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia, who is often credited by Weinshall as the architect of DOT's Thru Streets program, is "being considered" for the commissioner's job.

You've already weighed in on what you'd like to see in the next DOT commissioner. Now members of the City Council and Transportation Alternatives have weighed in too, with a press conference yesterday highlighting qualities they would like to see in the city's next Transportation Commissioner. Here is Council Member Yassky's press release.

Council Member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn) and transportation advocates today urged the Bloomberg Administration to appoint a new Department of Transportation commissioner with the credentials and experience to tackle the traffic congestion and pollution problems that are plaguing New Yorkers.

"This City has been fortunate to have such a hard-working DOT commissioner in Iris Weinshall for the past five years," Council Member Yassky said. "But now that she is moving on, we must look toward the next five years and beyond and choose a commissioner who will tackle our quickly increasing environmental and transportation challenges. Our next transportation commissioner will be making decisions that will effect the health, business and general quality of life of all New Yorkers, make sure she or he makes the right ones."

Council Members and advocates called on the Mayor to meet his 2030 PLANYC sustainability goals by appointing a DOT commissioner with a mandate to reduce automobile traffic while improving surface transit, walking and bicycling options.

"There is so much a transportation commissioner could do to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers by reducing traffic and encouraging transit use," said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. "We need a dynamic leader - like Commissioner Thomas Frieden has been in the area of health - to improve air quality and neighborhood life by taming city traffic."

"Commissioner Weinshall has steered the Department for many years and her shoes will be hard to fill," said Council Member John C. Liu, Chairperson of the Transportation Committee. "New Yorkers need a Transportation Commissioner who can get up to speed quickly and also change the internal inertia that sometimes dampens innovation, especially if we are to truly create a system for the free flow of people and goods in the City."

"It is crucial the Administration selects a new Department of Transportation commissioner who will make pollution, traffic congestion and parking issues a priority," said Council Member Bill de Blasio. "The next commissioner will play a vital role in making sure the City reaches its future goals of increasing and improving our transportation alternatives."

New York City Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall has been appointed Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning, Construction and Management at The City University of New York, Chancellor Matthew Goldstein announced today.

An alumna of Brooklyn College, cum laude, Commissioner Weinshall returns to CUNY where she will have responsibility for the University's award-winning design and planning initiatives and a five-year capital construction budget of more than $3 billion for 23 colleges and University professional schools.

Since 2000, Ms. Weinshall has supervised a $5 billion capital program that included the construction of the widely praised Whitehall Ferry Terminal in lower Manhattan and St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island. Under her leadership, the department has moved to consolidate offices to 55 Water Street in lower Manhattan and launch a major program to rehabilitate and maintain the city's huge network of bridges and roadways.

Additionally, the nearly $3 billion rehabilitation of the city's East River Bridges is nearing completion and, thanks to incentive clauses for contractors, much of the work has been completed ahead of schedule. She has implemented programs to improve traffic flow, and upgrade the city's infrastructure, while making the cit's streets and sidewalks safer for millions of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

"I have had the privilege of serving the City of New York for more than 25 years and I look forward to continuing that service at CUNY,â" said Iris Weinshall. "As a life-long New Yorker and CUNY graduate I'm excited about the opportunities and challenges this homecoming presents."

Her appointment was recommended by Chancellor Goldstein and approved by the Board of Trustees following a national search chaired by President Russell Hotzler of the New York City College of Technology. Vice Chancellor Weinshall reports to the Chancellor but is supervised on a day-to-day basis by CUNY's Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer, Allan Dobrin.

Ms. Weinshall was appointed Special Transportation Advisor to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2003, with responsibility for shaping the city's transportation strategy. Mayor Bloomberg also named her to the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

During Commissioner Weinshall's tenure, pedestrian fatalities in New York have fallen to their lowest level since 1910. Along Queens Boulevard, for example, the DOT significantly reduced pedestrian injuries and fatalities by slowing traffic, changing traffic signal timing and adding new signage and pedestrian fencing.

To enhance traffic flow in the city's most congested area, Midtown Manhattan, Commissioner Weinshall and Mayor Bloomberg initiated the 2003 THRU Streets Program. This program, which prohibits turns off of designated streets between 3rd and 6th Avenues, has reduced cross-town travel times by 25% and increased vehicle speeds by 33%. In addition, DOT filled a record 260,000 potholes in 2005 and was able to respond to pothole complaints reported to the city's 311 line in 4 days, on average.

Ms. Weinshall earned her Master's Degree in Public Administration from New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, with a concentration in Urban Housing and Finance.

A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, she has two daughters and is married to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer.

Ms. Weinshall joins CUNY during a system-wide renaissance on its campuses fueled by state, city and, increasingly, private philanthropic resources, and characterized by bold new interpretations of the "urban campus" ideal by some of the world's best architects. Building for the future and preserving its past, CUNY is providing first class facilities for its students, faculty and staff that are also well-integrated into the communities the University serves. These include:

• At City College restoration is virtually complete on its five original neo-Gothic structures, all state and national landmarks designed by George Browne Post, which opened 100 years ago. A striking new residence hall was dedicated last fall, two new science buildings are on the drawing boards, and work is underway on a new home for the School of Architecture designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Vinoly.
• The Brooklyn College Library is a triumph of historic preservation and contemporary design that has given the College a thoroughly modern library while returning LaGuardia Hall to its rightful place as the campus' fulcrum. In the process, renowned architect Alexander Howe knitted together two buildings, restored LaGuardia Hall's main entry from Brooklyn's quadrangle, and added 100,000 square feet of space, including two octagonal towers featuring a grand staircase and double-height reading rooms.
• Baruch College's award-winning Vertical Campus, designed by the distinguished architect William Pedersen, offers separate "campuses" for the School of Business, the School of Arts and Sciences and a host of shared amenities for students, faculty and staff. Completed in 2002, the Vertical Campus provides 40 percent of Baruch's floor space and features a distinctive curved tower and a four-story sun-splashed atria.

The Vice Chancellor is responsible for physical plant maintenance and operations, facilities planning, and capital programs. In consultation with a broad range of constituencies, as well as the New York State Dormitory Authority and the City University Construction Fund, the Vice Chancellor is responsible for planning, negotiating and implementing a capital construction and rehabilitation program; and monitoring and providing technical assistance and support to the campuses for the operation and utilization of the 26 million square foot, 300-building CUNY plant.

The Vice Chancellor supervises a staff of approximately 75 employees in two departments: Design, Construction, and Management, and Space Planning and Real Estate. She serves as a member of the Chancellor's Cabinet, as staff to CUNY's Board of Trustees, Committee on Facilities Planning, Construction, and Management, and staff to the City University Construction Fund (a separate public benefit corporation).

Traffic Information & Relief Bill Press Conference 
Running time: 4 minutes 3 seconds

Transportation Alternatives held press conference on the steps of City Hall yesterday in support of Intro 199, a bill introduced in the City Council by Councilmember Gale Brewer that calls for better information-gathering about the city's traffic and aims to "reduce the proportion of driving to the central business districts and increase the proportion of walking, biking and the use of mass transit."

Mary Beth Kelly, widow of Dr. Carl Henry Nacht, who was killed by a truck when he was riding his bike on the West Side bike path, spoke strongly about the need for traffic policy that will address the intimidation of pedestrians and bicyclists by vehicles on the city's streets. She called for a goal of zero fatalities of cyclists struck by vehicles, the same goal that has been embraced by the city of Stockholm, Sweden. "Why should Stockholm lead?" asked Kelly. "We're New York, we can lead."

Meanwhile, after the council hearing on the legislation was over, Department of Transportation commissioner Iris Weinshall, who spoke against it as unnecessary, noted that DOT figures show a decrease in the number of vehicles entering Manhattan, from 978,487 in 2000 to 943,381 in 2005, and suggested that increased traffic chaos existed merely in the public imagination. "You have SUVs, you got these minivans. I think the cars are getting bigger and there is a perception there is more traffic," Weinshall was quoted as saying in Newsday. "We think it is still manageable."

But how can you manage what you don't know? Good management requires good data. As Bruce Schaller points out in his new study, Traffic Information in NYC (PDF) there is still a lot we don't know about how New York City's streets are being used, particularly when it comes to pedestrians, buses, bikes and other non-motorized activities.

Priorities for New York's New Year (Editorial)
Traffic Congestion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has offered a dazzling and hopeful plan to prepare the city for what is expected to be a substantial rise in population during the next quarter century, but unless the number of motorists is reduced, New Yorkers will choke on their own gridlock. Mr. Bloomberg needs to produce a major traffic study, move quickly to create new express bus routes and give serious thought to congestion pricing.

Sleek New Bus Shelters Are Here but Where are the Benches?
Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the first in a new style on Queens Boulevard in late December, and there are to be 3,300 by the time the project is complete in five years, along with 330 redesigned newsstands and 20 public toilets. So far, 50 of the new shelters are in place, 10 in each borough. The good news, said the city transportation commissioner, Iris Weinshall, is that the shelters are indeed unfinished. The material for the benches has not fully come in, she said last week; all but 45 of the 3,300 finished shelters will eventually have seats, along with electronic displays showing the next arrival.

Downtown Brooklyn to Get $1.5 Million Pedestrian Way-Finding Signs
Though the Brooklyn Bridge is clearly visible from many of the neighborhood's streets, its pedestrian entrances are almost unmarked, and nearly impossible to find without directions. The Metrotech Business Improvement District is producing and putting up 120 orange-and-blue signs throughout Downtown Brooklyn. Sixty of the signs will feature large-scale maps on one side showing major neighborhood features, like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Navy Yard, and five or six more will point directly toward the bridge.

Photo: JSchumacher, Flickr 

In 2004 the DOT began what turned into a 2 year study of Well, the study is now complete and they are planning to implement the changes in late 2007. The study has confirmed that many additional safety improvements are needs near schools to make them safer for kids to walk to school.

From a press release issued by the Mayor's Office:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Iris Weinshall and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein to announce the completion and release of  "Traffic Safety Maps" for each of the city's 1,471 elementary and middle schools following an examination of accident histories around each school, as well as upgraded school crosswalk signs at each school, and comprehensive traffic safety reports for 135 priority schools located around the city.   The maps, which identify traffic signals, all-way stop signs, speed bumps, and crosswalks maps, are designed to help students and parents find the safest routes to and from school.  DOT will soon begin distributing these maps to schools, and they will also be online at DOT's web site starting next month.  Mayor Bloomberg also announced that DOT has already begun to implement the safety enhancements recommended in the traffic safety reports for the 135 priority schools, and that the City plans detailed studies for 135 additional public, private and parochial elementary and middle schools. DOT will also begin a similar program for 40 high schools in late 2007. Mayor Bloomberg made today's announcement at P.S. 21 in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx .

We'll have more on the specifics later in the day.

How Orwellian is this? The New York City Department of Transportation's Holiday Traffic Mitigation Plan went in to effect on Friday and lasts until the day after New Year's. In order to give New Yorkers relief from the crushing number of motor vehicles that pour into Manhattan during the holidays, DOT is reversing car-free hours in Central Park and allowing traffic to rule the Park's Loop Drives from 7am to 7pm on weekdays. In other words: Accomodating more traffic is the mitigation for more traffic.

Rather than, say, reducing transit fares or only allowing pedestrians and buses to use 34th Street during Thanksgiving weekend so that the maximum number of shoppers could cram into Manhattan and empty their wallets into the city's coffers, New York City transportation officials still believe, despite so much evidence to the contrary, that making the city more inviting to automobiles will somehow reduce congestion.

The plan is being framed as an initiative "designed to encourage mass transit use and facilitate vehicular travel in and around the City." Says DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall:

There is nothing better than New York City during the holidays and each year we take steps to help make room for the many people that want to enjoy our City's attractions. This plan is put into place to handle the additional traffic that the holiday season brings.

It is not all bad news. DOT is expanding pedestrian space at Times Square by eliminating the "crossover" at 45th Street, Prospect Park's car-free hours remain intact, and some recently installed muni-meters are being packaged as part of the Holiday Traffic Plan as well. But the car-free Central Park rule reversal and the general lack of innovative thinking shows that the Iris Weinshall Rennaissance has a ways to go. The Commissioner still seems to be taking bad advice from her top traffic engineers.

Here's to a happier, healthier Holiday Season -- in 2007, perhaps.  

Related:

• Weinshall: Central Park is a "Critical Transportation Link for Commuters."
• Mayor Bloomberg Says NYC Traffic Congestion is Good.
• MTA Response to Pokey: Traffic Congestion = "Vibrancy"
• Untangling Traffic: Bloomberg's Forgotten Promise

Among the three cyclist fatality clusters identified by the joint report by the City Departments of Health, Police, Parks and Transportation, the Queensboro Bridge is by far the worst. The entrance intersection at 60th and Second also claimed the award for the most unticketed incidents of block the box in the Borough President's study of lax enforcement of basic traffic rules.

My local group, Upper Green Side, approached Councilmember Jessica Lappin to bring attention to this issue and she shared our concern about safety. Based on our conversation, she wrote this letter below to Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall.  You can take action yourself by telling Councilmember Lappin of your concerns around the Queensboro Bridge (212-535-5554) and also by filing your own personal complaint about safety around the Queensboro Bridge to the Department of Transportation.

Dear Ms. Weinshall:

            I am writing regarding the dangerous Queensboro Bridge path used by cyclists and pedestrians in my district.

            The Queensboro Bridge site is the most fatal crash cluster for cyclists and pedestrians in Manhattan. According to NYPD data, between 2002 and 2004, motor vehicles killed 5 pedestrians, 3 cyclists and injured 765 pedestrians and 141 cyclists in the one square mile area around the Queensboro Bridge path's Manhattan entrance located at East 50^th Street to East 69^th Street, between 5^th Avenue and the East River. By comparison, at the Queens entrance of the bridge no cyclists or pedestrians were killed and only 94 pedestrians and 10 cyclists were injured.

            The Queensboro Bridge area was highlighted as one of the most dangerous sites for cyclists and pedestrians in a joint report from the New York City Departments of Health and Mental Hygiene, Parks and Recreation and the New York City Police Department. This report confirms the reality that people live with as they risk their lives trying to exit the Queensboro Bridge.

            I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to your reply. If my office can be of any assistance please do not hesitate to contact my Policy Director, Caroline Mello, at (212) 535-5554. Thank you for you assistance in this important matter.

Sincerely,

JESSICA LAPPIN
Council Member
5^th District, Manhattan

Mayor Bloomberg has been a fan of the countdown signals, but Iris Weinshall, the city's transportation commissioner, had some doubts. "The mayor for a number of years has talked to me about countdown signals," she said at the news conference yesterday. "He saw them in other cities. It was, I think, a very good exchange back and forth as to whether we should put them up or not."

Granted, this is an off-the-cuff remark describing a brief snapshot of dialogue between Mayor and Commissioner but here's the impression you come away with: The Mayor of New York City asks his Transportation agency to try out a new tool on New York City's streets. This isn't a cranky neighborhood association, advocacy group or blogger nagging DOT -- this is the Mayor of New York City putting in his request to DOT.

Now, the Mayor isn't asking Weinshall to try out some new traffic calming measure requiring a physical redesign of streets, or dedicated bus and bike lanes requiring DOT to take street space away from cars, or congestion charging requiring the elimination of the decades-old entitlement of free motoring. Mayor Bloomberg is simply asking DOT to try out a new kind of traffic signal. Yet the Mayor apparently had wait "a number of years" before DOT was willing to run a simple, $186,000 trial at five intersections using technology common to urban innovation hotspots like Baltimore, Detroit and Albany.

I hate to pile on when it is clear that DOT is finally starting to try to do some good new things. But you have to ask: Why is it so difficult for New York City to innovate and experiment with new ideas for its streets and public spaces? How will the authorities responsible for New York City's urban environment respond with the urgency and scale demanded by climate change, oil depletion and maintaining competitiveness in a global economy when it takes years of "back and forth" to get pedestrian countdown timers set up at five intersections?

The thing I found most interesting about yesterday's news was the fact that Mayor Bloomberg actually showed alongside DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall at yesterday's press conference.

The New York Times story gives a bit of insight into the Mayor's thinking on these matters and some back-and-forth within the Administration:

Mayor Bloomberg has been a fan of the countdown signals, but Iris Weinshall, the city's transportation commissioner, had some doubts. "The mayor for a number of years has talked to me about countdown signals," she said at the news conference yesterday. "He saw them in other cities. It was, I think, a very good exchange back and forth as to whether we should put them up or not."

In some cities where the countdown signals are used, officials have noticed that elderly people, in particular, tended to underestimate the length of time it would take them to cross. The mayor acknowledged that concern but said: "I'd rather give people information and then let them make decisions. Hopefully most of them will make intelligent decisions."

The New York City Transit Museum is a great place to go to see old trains, buy holiday stocking stuffers and learn the history of the subway system. One thing the museum does really well is document the story of the transit system's transition from private ownership to public authority. 

What is not made clear in any of the Transit Museum's fine exhibits, however, is that, today, the New York metropolitan region's massive, multi-billion dollar transit infrastructure is run as a kind of public-private partnership. If you want to better understand what that means, then last Wednesday evening's Transit Museum benefit dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel (following cocktails in Grand Central Terminal, black tie optional) was the place to be.

The Hosts, Sponsors and Benefactors of the extravaganza were a Who's Who of New York City transportation finance, planning and engineering. The Honorary Committee included all the leading players in the New York political economy, people like Empire State Development Corporation Chairman Charles Gargano, DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall, and City Council power broker Albert Vann. 

The list of Sponsors and Benefactors included Bombardier Transportation, Kawasaki Rail Car and Lockheed Martin, chief suppliers of the MTA's mechanical equipment. Benefactors included Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and UBS Investment Bank, all presumably handling the underwriting of the Pataki MTA's enormous mountain of bond debt. 

Thinkers of big thoughts like Booz Allen Hamilton and Louis T. Klauder (LTK) were signed on as Patrons and Hosts. The ubiquitous Parsons Brinckerhoff was, true to form, listed as both Patron and Host. Two Trees Management, the General Contracors Association and other big names behind the city's real estate boom were equally well represented.

So were the members of the MTA Board and the relevant agency heads. With the Board preparing to swap Pataki's cronies for Sptizer's, the revolving door between consultancies and agencies was in full spin. You could almost hear the shuffling of resumes.

It was an enjoyable affair for a good cause. The chilled duck salad was excellent, the wine flowed and the open bar began to work its magic as the evening wore on. By the time the speakers mounted the dais, tongues were loose.

The introduction of the trucking and construction magnates whose large contributions to the New York State Republican Party had earned them seats on the MTA Board earned polite applause. Thanks were offered to the subcontractors and consultants who had selflessly funded the evening and the good works of the Transit Museum.

Then the agency heads were introduced. Lawrence Reuter of the TA, Peter Cannito of Metro-North, Ray Kenny of the LIRR and Neil Yellin of Long Island Bus (pictured left). All of these leaders are well respected by their peers, especially Yellin who has overseen a substantial growth in ridership without any real increase in funding. Still, the polite applause barely rose above the dinner table conversation.

That is, until the introduction of Mysore Nagaraja, a mild-mannered, well-respected engineer who happens to be President of the MTA's Capital Construction Company (pictured top). Nagaraja, said the speaker who introduced him, "will be responsible for $20 billion dollars worth of construction contracts in the coming years."

For a brief moment, the clinking of silverware stopped. A hush fell over the crowd. Then the room burst into applause. It was like Derek Jeter hit a walk-off homerun in the seventh game of the World Series. The clapping intensified and continued. The New York City Transit World rose to a standing ovation and surged into full-throated cheering, pumping fists and ear-piercing whistles. It went on. Nagaraja smiled and waved.

Then they brought out the dessert.