Streetsblog New York City

The New York City Council voted 46-1 this afternoon in favor of Intro 871, the Bicycle Access Bill, opening the door to significant gains in commuter cycling. Cyclists who do not commute by bike have long cited the lack of a secure place to lock up as the most important factor holding them back. Intro 871 will give thousands of them a new legal framework to petition for bicycle access at their places of work, but stops short of guaranteeing access to all buildings. All told, its passage marks the biggest legislative victory ever achieved by bicycle advocates in New York City.

"This will open up commuting by bike for New Yorkers," said Council Speaker Christine Quinn today. "We can use bikes as a main mode of transportation." She was speaking to a packed house. The security guards at City Hall were turning people away from the council chamber because the galleries had reached capacity.

"No other city in the country has a policy like the one City Council passed today," said Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White in a statement on the significance of the bill. "When we open the doors of New York City’s workplaces to cyclists, tens of thousands of commuters are going to get on two wheels."

For many cyclists forbidden to bring their rides to work, today's vote was a long time coming. TA first called for bicycle access legislation in 1993, as a plank in its Bicycle Blueprint. Since then, multiple bills like Intro 871 have come and gone without becoming law.

"This is historic, a very, very major step," said John Kaehny, who served as director of TA from 1994 to 2004. "I can't think of something that comes close to this from the City Council. This is very important because they've done something big. More than anything else, it validates bicycles as legitimate."

Gaining passage for Intro 871 entailed a combination of confronting and cajoling one of the quintessential New York City interest groups: the real estate lobby. Organizations like REBNY -- the Real Estate Board of New York -- don't like the idea of a bicycle access mandate, and they wield a lot of influence. To overcome that inertia, everything had to line up perfectly.

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A new version of the Bicycle Access Bill has been placed on legislators' desks at City Hall, indicating that votes in the Transportation Committee and the full City Council are likely later this month, according to multiple sources tracking the bill's progress.

The revised bill, which would require building managers to provide bicycle access to tenants who request it, divvies up responsibility for enforcement between DOT and the Department of Buildings differently than previous versions, Streetsblog has learned. Core provisions intended to expand bicycle access to buildings remain unchanged.

The bill, now supported by 35 co-sponsors, would come up for a vote at the council's next stated meeting,  scheduled for Wednesday, July 29.

The last time we checked in on the Bicycle Access Bill, it was still sitting in John Liu's Transportation Committee after other legislators, including sponsor David Yassky and 31 additional supporters in the City Council, had expected it to reach the full floor for a vote. Then came an outpouring of e-faxes from cyclists asking Liu to get behind the bill.

Today, a number of people have forwarded us an invitation from Liu's office to hear him explain his position this Friday. Read it after the jump.

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We've got an update about the petition drive urging Council member John Liu to hold a vote on the Bicycle Access Bill in his committee: It's got people fired up. From Crain's Insider:

A cycling advocacy group has been flooded with e-faxes pushing Councilman John Liu to schedule a committee vote on a bill allowing bicycles in some office buildings. Transportation Alternatives has received more than 800 messages in four days. "We've never had anything like it, not even at the height of the congestion pricing drama," a TA spokesman says. The group is delivering the messages to Liu, who questions whether the bill would improve bicycle access. Bill sponsor David Yassky is running against Liu for city comptroller, but Liu says that has nothing to do with his position. He previously backed a stronger bike access bill that, unlike this one, lacked mayoral support.

Our calls to Liu's office have yet to be returned, so we can't expand on his rationale that the bill won't improve bike access to office buildings. At this point, Liu doesn't really need to explain himself. The fact that the committee chair with jurisdiction won't move a bill supported by the mayor, 29 other Council members, and the city's best-known advocates for cycling speaks volumes.

An important heads up for our New York readers: Before you start grilling this weekend, make sure you sign on to TA's campaign urging John Liu to support the Bicycle Access Bill. Pretty much everyone from Mayor Bloomberg on down expected the bill to clear Liu's transportation committee this week and gain passage in the City Council. Didn't happen.

If Liu lets the bill come up for a vote, we're looking at a watershed moment for bike commuting in New York. If he doesn't, it will be a major blow to PlaNYC's vision of a bike-friendly city, and the collective record of transportation committee chairs everywhere will somehow sink even lower.

After months of negotiations and fine-tuning, the Bicycle Access Bill was expected to come up for a vote in the City Council this afternoon. Despite the support of Mayor Bloomberg and 29 co-sponsors, that's not going to happen. For many thousands of cyclists, riding to work will remain an unappealing option due to the lack of a secure place to lock up.

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for bill sponsor David Yassky, confirmed this afternoon that the landmark piece of legislation has yet to clear John Liu's transportation committee. "The bill has been laid on council members' desks for eight days, which is typically what is done before a bill comes before the full council," said Kanner. "That was done with the anticipation that it would be voted out of the transportation committee today."

Liu's office has not yet returned requests for comment. But here's what we know.

• When a previous version of this bill surfaced in the council in 2006, John Liu was a co-sponsor.
  
• Last September, Liu joined Yassky and Tish James on the steps of City Hall to call for better bike access to buildings. Rally speakers noted the odd aversion many building owners display toward letting bikes inside office buildings, and the manifold benefits of legislation to correct that bias.
  
• In March, Liu switched from the crowded public advocate race to the somewhat less crowded comptroller race, in which he faces two other candidates from Queens -- and Yassky.
• At the last transportation committee hearing on the bill, Liu started questioning whether DOT should have jurisdiction over bicycle access to buildings. No one else on the committee voiced similar concerns. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri assured Liu that their agencies would have it covered.
• Today, Liu's committee did not meet and advance the bill despite the widespread expectation that it would do so.
  

The next opportunity to move the bill will come in July, when the full City Council is scheduled to hold a stated meeting. "David and a variety of advocates have worked hard on this bill, a bill that will reduce congestion, carbon emissions, and improve public health," Kanner said. "It should pass."

This email alert from Transportation Alternatives just hit our inbox. The Bicycle Access Bill (Intro 871, sponsored by David Yassky), is scheduled for a City Council committee hearing tomorrow and possibly a floor vote if it can get that far. Despite the support of the mayor and 29 co-sponsors, we're hearing rumblings that the City Council might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on this historic piece of legislation:

We Are Not There Yet -- Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill in Jeopardy

Your voices are needed. Now! With the expected passage of the Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill slated to take place at tomorrow’s City Council meeting, we are concerned to learn that there still may be some strong opposition to the bill. Please immediately call Council Member John Liu, chair of the Transportation Committee, and let him know that you support this bill and that we need his support too!

Information:
Council Member John Liu
Chair, Transportation Committee
City Hall office: 212-788-7022
District office: 718-888-8747

Advocates have been fighting for this legislation for years. Its passage would make it much easier for thousands of cyclists to ride to work -- boosting bike commuting by as much as 50 percent -- and one last push from supporters can help put it over the top.

Never one to pass up a moment in the spotlight, City Council transportation committee chair John Liu delivered some choice theatrics at this morning's hearing on the Bicycle Access Bill (Intro 871). At a committee meeting ostensibly devoted to easing the way for New Yorkers to commute by bike and bring their rides to work, Liu seemed more intent on confronting DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. There was no vote, leaving some to question whether the bill, which enjoys the support of 29 co-sponsors and Mayor Bloomberg, would become law before the City Council's summer recess.

Before I get to that, a little explanation is in order about the current status of the bill. This is the second committee hearing on Intro 871. It's been reworked substantially in the seven months since the first hearing, with both transportation advocates and the real estate industry weighing in. The bill has also been tweaked since Streetsblog posted the revised text earlier this month. I don't have the most up-to-date version available, but based on today's testimony, there are two notable changes:

• The bill now clearly states that building owners can claim an exemption if "secure" bike parking is available nearby. This should close a potential loophole in previous language, which granted exemptions for buildings near "sheltered" bike parking. That's the good news.
• The bad news: The bill no longer requires buildings that have a passenger elevator but no freight elevator to provide bicycle access. Previously, any building with a passenger elevator big enough to accommodate a bike had to comply.

The current legislation is still strong enough to merit the support of transportation advocates, but the loss of passenger elevator access is significant. Said bill sponsor David Yassky, "My hope is that at some point in the future, the bill will be amended to include passenger elevators." We have a request in with the Department of Buildings to determine how many buildings this exemption would affect.

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Lately, you may have found yourself doing double takes at the words coming out of Council Member John Liu's mouth. The transportation committee chair, running for comptroller in a crowded field that includes two other candidates from Queens, has turned into a go-to source for quotes that disparage safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists. (Liu prefers to make his point indirectly, couching his criticism in attacks on "process".)

During the MTA funding debate, Liu was also a vocal opponent of bridge tolls, a stark about-face given his early support for congestion pricing. Tonight you can see the new John Liu in action, when he makes an appearance on NY1's Road to City Hall at 7 p.m. The topic: Broadway's new pedestrian spaces, a transformation Liu pounced on as soon as the plan was announced.

If you're going to tonight's BRT workshop in the Bronx instead, you can catch the NY1 show again at 10:00 p.m.

Itching to tell DOT what you think of recent changes to Lower Manhattan streets? You can tonight at 6:30, when the second installment in Alan Gerson's "Traffic Town Hall" series gets underway at Old St. Pat's Gym (near 275 Mulberry Street).

Fellow Council Member John Liu, running for citywide office in the crowded comptroller race, is also scheduled to put in an appearance, and Manhattan DOT Commissioner Margaret Forgione will be on hand to soak it all up.

Publicity materials for the event frame it as a chance to "present your views and ideas" to DOT. At the first Gerson town hall, this translated into griping about pedestrian refuges, bike lanes, and other safety measures. Tonight's agenda invites more of the same: The critical issue of "traffic islands" gets top billing on the docket.

Sidewalks where children's lives are at risk from reckless drivers, even when parents and teachers are right there next to them? That seems not to have made the cut.

Last Tuesday, May 5, in honor of World Asthma Day and Idle-Free NYC Day, clean air advocates gathered at City Hall to mark the passage of Council Member John Liu's Intro. 631, which limits the amount of time drivers are allowed to idle near schools to one minute. Streetfilms' Robin Urban Smith files this report, which includes details of an anti-idling curriculum for fourth and seventh graders from Livable Streets Education and Asthma Free School Zone.

In related news, Senator Daniel Squadron has announced a bill calling for a statewide one minute idling restriction for "heavy-duty vehicles." And today there will be a rally in Manhattan to celebrate the adoption of Intro. 631 and to launch the West Side Clean Air Campaign, which, among other goals, aims to ensure that charter buses and car services obey the new law. The rally kicks off with a press conference at 3 p.m. at the P.S. 111 playground on 52nd St. between 9th and 10th Aves.