Streetsblog New York City

The Ninth Avenue cycle track will be extended 10 blocks north to 33rd St.

Transportation Alternatives held its 3rd Annual Greenway Summit on Tuesday, where keynote speaker Jon Orcutt, Director of Policy for NYC DOT, outlined the city's plans for expanding cycling infrastructure over the coming year. Here are the highlights, via the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's Mobilizing the Region:

• Adding bike lanes and pedestrian islands to Vernon Blvd. in Long Island City this summer.

• Installing new bike lanes on Kent Ave in Williamsburg along the East River.

• Improving the crossways over the FDR from the East River Greenway by keeping them cleaner and introducing traffic calming measures at the intersections.

• Extending the 9th Avenue protected bike lane in Manhattan to 33rd St. (The lane currently ends at 23rd St.)

• As part of a push to build 15 miles of protected bike lanes by 2010, installing a protected lane on 8th Ave. between Canal St. and 23rd St. in Manhattan.

• Begin design on the Navy Yard portion of the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway.

• Adding a bike lane connecting Van Cortlandt Park and the Broadway Bridge in spring 2009.

• Constructing bike access to the Shore Parkway Greenway at 157th Ave near JFK Airport.

As DOT forges ahead with substantive bike-ped improvements, Orcutt pointed out that the department doesn't operate in a vacuum. 

"In thanking the advocacy community for its support," MTR reports, "Orcutt added that interagency cooperation was key to the continued advancement of cycling infrastructure in New York."

Editor's note: Items concerning the Navy Yard and Broadway Bridge have been corrected. 

Photo: bicyclesonly / Flickr 

About 70 people showed up for a screening of the documentary film Contested Streets and a follow-up conversation on transportation issues last night. Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Assembly member Deborah Glick were not among them, both claiming last minute conflicts. The event was hosted by Manhattan Community Board 2. 

State Senator Thomas Duane (right), Deputy Borough President of Manhattan Rose Pierre-Louis, and 12 representatives of CB2 joined Transportation Alternatives executive director Paul Steely White and Department of Transportation Senior Policy Advisor Jon Orcutt at NYU's Casa Italiana.

Given her opposition to congestion pricing despite her district's low rates of car ownership and often crushing traffic congestion, we were hoping to hear what Deborah Glick had to say on transportation and livable streets issues. Instead, we got a bit of insight into how Senator Duane views DOT's innovative new Ninth Avenue bike lane project.

During his opening remarks Duane took "just the tiniest swipe at DOT" for beginning construction on the city's first-ever, on-street, physically-separated bike lane without consulting his office. Even though the project was vetted and approved unanimously by Community Board 4's transportation committee and requires no state funds or approval, the Senator complained that he woke up one morning earlier this month to find the bike lane built and "holding up traffic."

"I know it was an attempt to fix things," he said, "but it wasn't good for it to come as a surprise." Duane hopes that the City will be more conscientious about taking input from "all sides" when it comes to a congestion pricing bill.

--April Greene

The mother and grandfather of James Rice.

With weeping family members and the ghostly, smiling images of three boys watching over them, city officials and elected representatives joined 100 community members on a Brooklyn street corner Tuesday evening to pledge "Not one more death."

State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assembly member Joan Millman and representatives from the Department of Transportation, NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney's joined members of Transportation Alternatives and the Groundswell Community Mural Project for the emotional unveiling of the three-story tall painting at the northwest corner of Butler Street and Third Avenue in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

Created by a group of local teens in a summer-long collaboration with professional artists Christopher Cardinale and Nicole Schulman, the mural depicts fifth-graders Victor Flores and Juan Estrada and 4-year-old James Rice holding traffic signs designed to remind drivers motoring along dangerous Third Avenue that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers share New York City streets. The silhouette of a fourth figure, a girl, holds a stop sign that reads, "Not one more death."

Flores and Estrada were killed at Third Ave. and 9th St. in 2004. Four-year-old James Rice was run over by the driver of a Hummer just a block away from the site of the mural earlier this year. 

Finally, we get to see just how much former executive director Jon Orcutt was tamping down the high-powered talent at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. The latest issue of Mobilizing the Region is jam-packed with good articles. Here are some highlights (and, yes, I'm kidding about Orcutt but serious about this week's MTR being really good):

Assemblymembers have proposed several spurious "alternatives" to congestion pricing, none of which have proven effective in reducing congestion and none of which would provide revenues for increasing transit capacity.

Assemblymember Richard Brodsky has argued for a car rationing scheme which would restrict car access to parts of Manhattan by license plate. As reported in MTR #558, a similar scheme in Mexico City increased used-car purchases, gasoline consumption, and driving, and decreased transit use.

Further investigation reveals, unsurprisingly, that Mexico City's policy has done nothing to improve air quality. A University of Michigan study found no evidence that the policy reduced emissions of five different pollutants-in fact, the policy increased emissions on weekdays....

...The only effective way to enforce a rationing scheme would be through the installation of license-plate cameras, which Brodsky is on the record as opposing.

When Governor Jon Corzine announced an executive order in February requiring New Jersey to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, environmentalists applauded. However, while the NJDEP is busy creating a plan to execute the order, the NJ Turnpike Authority is fast pursuing an agenda thatwould undermine the plan's goals.

Newark's push to encourage growth goes beyond the addition of new housing: the city and state are also embarking on an aggressive complimentary plan to improve its run-down and unsafe streets. TSTC, along with the Regional Plan Association and others, has long said that improving pedestrian safety and streetscapes can help attract development and assist in revitalization efforts.

Dani Simons, Transportation Alternatives' Director of Communications will be joining Bruce Schaller, Jon Orcutt and Andy Wiley-Schwartz at New York City's Dept. of Transportation. She starts next week. No word yet on what her title will be but rumor has it that she will be helping DOT launch some sort of new blog.

Bring it on, Simons.

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan bicylcing to work during her first week on the job

Crain's New York reports that the earth is shaking below Dept. of Transportation headquarters at 40 Worth Street:

Janette Sadik-Khan, the city's new transportation commissioner, politely says she's building on the foundation left by her predecessors. In fact, she is shaking it. A month into her job, she's advancing ideas that the department has long rejected, from residential permit parking to banning cars from Central Park to the mayor's revolutionary congestion pricing plan.

Ms. Sadik-Khan knows she can't merely reform the Department of Transportation's policies. She has to change its very mind-set, because staffers have long seen their mission as moving as much traffic as they can, as fast as they can.

Overcoming such entrenched thinking is an immense task, as Ms. Sadik-Khan, 47, knows from experience. As a DOT staffer in 1991, she answered Mayor David Dinkins' call to reduce congestion by writing a plan for East River bridge tolls. The idea was predictably unpopular and died quickly. Ms. Sadik-Khan's abandoned report sits on a shelf in her unglamorous 10th-floor office at 40 Worth St., a reminder of what happens when policy meets politics.

Read more...

Department of Transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan continues to assemble an impressive management team.

Following in the footsteps of Bruce Schaller and Jon Orcutt, Project for Public Spaces vice president and transportation program director Andy Wiley-Schwartz is heading over to 40 Worth Street where he will be reporting to Deputy Commissioner Schaller at DOT's new Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. There they will be working to implement the transportation and public space objectives set out in Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC.

Wiley-Schwartz starts at DOT on Monday. While there has been no official announcement of his hiring or his title, word has it Wiley-Schwartz will be working on new public space initiatives, which seems like a natural fit, given his experience at PPS. With DOT's recent focus on reclaiming under-utilized bits and pieces of street space as public plazas and with tremendous grassroots energy in places like Hell's Kitchen, SoHo, Gansevoort, Grand Army Plaza, Williamsburg and even the occasional, random on-street parking spot -- it seems like "public space initiatives" could be a pretty exciting job description at DOT right now.

Wiley-Schwartz has been a contributor here at Streetsblog. At PPS he specialized in working with Departments of Transportation and community groups all across the U.S. on downtown street enhancement, traffic calming and bicycle and pedestrian projects. He is a national lead in the Context Sensitive Solutions movement, an articulate advocate and just a really pleasant guy to work with. Here is an excerpt from his PPS bio:

He specializes in helping communities rebuild their neighborhoods and cities by leveraging transportation funding into the development of public spaces, including streets and other transportation facilities, in part by focusing on strategic partnerships and programming.

Andy's current projects include PPS's New Jersey Smart Choices program: an outreach, education and training program to help municipalities plan and make sustainable land use decisions in partnership with the New Jersey Department of Transportation. He is also working with the Times Square Alliance in New York City, the City of Elmira, NY to revitalize the area under and around a railroad viaduct downtown, and advising the City of Indianapolis on their plan to build a "Cultural Trail" through their central business district.

And, no, this is not an April Fool's prank. It's June, people.

File under: Totally unimaginable just a few months ago.

Following the appointment of Bruce Schaller as Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability, Jon Orcutt is DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's second high profile hire since taking over the agency. Stay tuned for one or two more big appointments.

Kate Slevin will be taking over as Tri-State Transportation Campaign's acting executive director. Here is the press release from TSTC:

After 13 years with the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Jon Orcutt is joining the staff of the New York City Dept. of Transportation to serve as senior policy advisor to new city transportation commissioner Janette Sadik- Khan.

The Tri-State Campaign's board of directors has appointed Kate Slevin as acting executive director.

Jon's new position is a testament to how far transportation reform themes have advanced in New York City and the metropolitan region. Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC sustainability program for 2030 embraces congestion pricing for Manhattan south of 86th Street and a host of improvements to mass transit and the city's bicycling and walking environments. Congestion pricing to manage demand for metropolitan roadway travel was a founding principle of the Tri-State Campaign.

Jon has extensive experience as a transportation reform advocate in the New York region. He was executive director of Transportation Alternatives from 1989 to 1994, the Tri-State Campaign's associate director from 1994 to 2003 and executive director until June 8th, 2007. Last fall he served on the transportation advisory committee to Governor Spitzer's transition team.

"I've always had the highest regard for Commissioner Sadik-Khan's abilities, vision and drive and am excited to contribute to the transportation aspects of PlaNYC under her leadership," said Jon. "Meanwhile, I'm confident the Campaign will not miss a beat in Kate's capable hands."

Jon thanked the Campaign's present and past staff members for their tenacity and invaluable contributions to the organization's success, and the organization's directors and funders for the incredible education and innumerable opportunities that working at the Campaign provided him.

"Viewed from the perspective of 1994, today's public policy discussion of metropolitan transportation is almost unrecognizable. The Tri-State Transportation Campaign has played a strong role in changing the terms of discussion and the contents of many elements of policy. I think it's worth a case study in public advocacy success, and it's been a real privilege to have been involved," Jon said.

Jon Orcutt will be stepping away from his job as executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign to go work at the New York City Department of Transportation as Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's Senior Policy Advisor.

It includes some leading members of the congestion charging brainstrust and some big MTA reformers. Via Chuck Bennett at AMNY:

Co-chairs

• Elliot Sander, director of NYU Rudin Center for Transportation, VP at MTA contractor DMJM Harris and former city Dept. of Transporation commisioner. (Rumored to an MTA chairman candidate)
• Mary Ann Crotty, former transportation advisor for Mario Cuomo.

Members

• Janette Sadik-Kahn, VP at Parsons Brinckerhoff (Big MTA contractor leading the Partnership for NYC's congestion pricing study)
• Gene Russianoff, Straphangers Campaign (the MTA's best critic)
• Jon Orcutt, president of the Tri State Transportation Campaign (another tough MTA critic and big thinker on regional transport issues)
• Ernest Tollerson, VP at Partnership for NYC (Working on the Partnership's congestion pricing study)
• Mitch Palley, MTA board member from Suffolk (often the lone dissenting voice with votig power on the board and big supporter of the third rail project for the LIRR)
• Susan Kupferman, president MTA Bridges and Tunnels (Rumored candidate for MTA executive director)
• Robert Yaro, president of Regional Plan Association