Streetsblog New York City

You won't have Primeggia to kick around anymore.

The New York City Department of Transportation is posting a job ad seeking a new Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Operations. That's because Michael Primeggia is retiring. After 30+ years in city government, New York City's chief traffic engineer, a man who referred to the city's streets as "my streets," will work his last day on Friday, February 13. DOT staff threw a party for him on Friday evening.

Primeggia leaves a mixed legacy. Many livable streets advocates will forever know him as "Dr. No," the classic, cars-first traffic engineer who repeatedly argued against car-free parks, delayed and killed bike, pedestrian and traffic-calming improvements and sought to convert slow-moving, neighborhood-friendly two-way streets into one-way thruways. Yet, in recent years, under the leadership of Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Primeggia has been instrumental in helping to implement progressive projects like Summer Streets, physically-protected bike lanes and new pedestrian plazas.

Regardless of what you think of him, Primeggia's retirement provides Sadik-Khan with an opportunity to hire a powerful and potentially long-lasting member of the city's transportation bureaucracy. What kind of employee should she be looking for?

Here's one thought: How about a planner instead of an engineer?

Streetsblog interviewed DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan at 40 Worth St., Monday, June 18

Janette Sadik-Khan: Four days.

Streetsblog: Left in the legislative session?

JSK: Yeah, well, maybe four days left, maybe more days. August in Albany. What can be better?

SB: (Laughing) So, let's start with something other than congestion pricing. How was your trip to Copenhagen to meet with Jan Gehl? Had you ever been before?

JSK: Never been.

SB: What did you think?

JSK: I thought it was spectacular. The experience of riding a bicycle in a city in which the car is not the priority was really inspiring. One piece that was a bit of a surprise was how well behaved people were in Copenhagen. I didn't see a single person break a single traffic law while I was there which is certainly a little different than the experience that we have here.

SB: I noticed the same thing when I was there last fall but every Copenhagener I asked insisted they were just as rude and unruly as New Yorkers.

JSK: Gehl went through the historic trajectory of how they've reclaimed public space bit by bit, one street at a time. Today, they've reached a tipping point where 36 percent of the people commuting to work are on bike and they're looking to get that mode share up to 40 percent.

The other thing that amazed me is that there are all of these bikes parked all over the place and it appears that none of them are locked. They all have these small black handcuffs on the rear wheel. You turn the key and this steel rod comes through and locks it up. How long do you think that would last on the streets of New York City? Ten minutes?

So, there are definite cultural elements that make Copenhagen Copenhagen and need to be adapted to work in New York. But the design of the streets and their approach to the streets are really interesting and I'm hoping to bring Gehl over at the end of next month to help us work on a pedestrian and public space strategy much like what he did for London.

SB: Would you have him work in a specific location or citywide?

JSK: We need to be able to show what can be done in all five boroughs with a variety of different techniques. But not everything needs to be a massive capital project. I'm looking to see what we can do on a shorter term basis to have some immediate impact in reclaiming streets and coming up with different designs for roadways and sidewalks.

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Department of Transportation First Deputy Commissioner Judith Bergtraum, a top aide to former commissioner Iris Weinshall, is leaving DOT for a job at the City University of New York where Weinshall is now a vice chancellor.

As first reported by the Daily News' Elizabeth Benjamin, DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan just returned from a quick trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, the world city that is really setting the standard for urban bike infrastructure and public space design (36% of commuters travel by bike.) There she met with Jan Gehl, one of the world's foremost experts on progressive urban design. Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia joined her as well as Planning commissioner and William Holly Whyte acolyte, Amanda Burden.

Community Board 6 was grumpy about the idea of bike lanes on 9th Street.

At last night's Community Board 6 meeting in Brooklyn DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia's "One Way? No Way!" proposal was shot down decisively, the Grand Army Plaza bike and ped improvements passed unanimously, and the 9th Street pedestrian safety, traffic-calming and bike lane project was, after a lengthy discussion, sign-waving and a split vote, "tabled" for further discussion with DOT. Members of CB6, apparently, prefer to maintain 9th Street's status as the neighborhood street with the most appalling number of car crashes, injuries and fatalities.

The quote of the evening came from Bob Levine, head of the Ninth Street Block Association when he said -- and to fully appreciate it read it using your best 1940s movie German accent -- "We need to find the best Solution to the Bicycle Problem." (E-mail Transportation Alternatives for your free copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Cycling).

The animosity on display last night against bicyclists was intense. One could have left the meeting thinking that New York City's crushing traffic congestion, parking angst, endless horn honking, pedestrian injuries and fatalities, asthma- and cancer-causing particulate matter, greenhouse gas emissions, high automobile insurance rates, the $3 gallon, and addict-like dependence on oil from countries that hate America must be the fault of Park Slope residents who would like a safe way to ride a bike to the 9th Street YMCA. Fortunately, we got most of the discussion on video tape so you'll be able to see the profound dysfunction of New York City governance on the local level for yourself.

In honor of last night's meeting we've created a new category here at Streetsblog called "Community Board Reform." This is the first post. Here is Gowanus Lounge's coverage of the meeting:  

During a nearly 3 1/2 hour meeting last night in Park Slope, Community Board Six disposed of the one-way proposal for Sixth and Seventh Avenues that had sparked an outpouring of neighborhood opposition. It also decided not to act on a surprisingly controversial plan to install bike lanes and other "traffic calming" measures on Ninth Street. (Contrary to an incorrect NY Sun headline proclaiming a victory for the plan.)

Council Member Bill DeBlasio arrived while the meeting was underway and spoke in support of the proposals, noting that he'd gotten a commitment from the Police Department not to ticket cars that are double-parked in the bike lanes and from DOT to continue the bike lane down Prospect Park West so that bicyclists would enter the park at 15th Street rather than 9th Street. (The double parking issue emerged as the crux of neighborhood opposition to the plan, with residents fearing that a bike lane would interfere with their ability to double park while picking up people or running into a store.) The board, meanwhile, said it had gotten about 140 emails and faxes in favor of the proposal and 80 opposed. The Board's Transportation Committee had voted in favor of the plan.

Board Member Bob Levine, who also heads the Ninth Street Block Association, led opposition to the plan, saying that steps needed to be taken to address the "bicycle problem" and that the plan was "idiotic and asking for trouble." Several members, however, spoke strongly in favor of the proposal. One noted that "bike lanes will make cycling much safer" and that "If I were parking my car on Ninth Street, I'd rather step out into a bike lane than speeding traffic." Another said that bicyclists are a public safety threat and that "bicyclists should be licensed."

"I thought if there is going to be a good place for a bike route, this is it," said member Louise Finney, who is also a Trustee of the Park Slope Civic Council. "This would be a great traffic calming device."

Board Member Anthony Pugliese, who is an organizer with the District Council of Carpenters, got a laugh from crowd, speaking in favor of the proposal and saying, "What is this, Bensonhurst? These are bicycles.

In the end, the Community Board voted to send the proposal back to its Transportation Committee for further discussion with DOT and to ask DOT not to act until the discussions are completed.

The Board also voted unanimously to support significant traffic and pedestrian improvements to Grand Army Plaza.

Photo: Robert Guskind

 
DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia on March 15: "I know that two-way streets are less safe."

A couple of weeks ago, following the epic, 650-person "One Way? No Way!" public meeting in Park Slope, Brooklyn Papers columnist Gersh Kuntzman accused his fellow Park Slopers of being "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners" for rejecting DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia's "logical presentation" claiming that Sixth and Seventh Avenues would be safer for pedestrians if converted to one-way operation.

But where was the logic? Primeggia held the floor for 45 minutes yet failed to provide data from a single case study to back up his unequivocal safety claim. He offered only one specific example, a 1.5 mile stretch of Glenmore Ave. in East New York where crashes declined after a 1998 one-way conversion. What Primeggia didn't mention is that Glenmore Ave. runs one-way westbound for a few blocks, then eastbound, then west, then east again. This switching back and forth is a classic traffic-calming technique designed to make a street unappealing to thru-traffic.

Later, during an interview, Primeggia referred Kuntzman to a federal report with a brief chapter on one-way streets. Putting aside the fact that federal traffic guidelines tend to be more relevant to sprawling, auto-friendly suburbs than dense, pedestrian-oriented Brooklyn neighborhoods, the section on one-way streets isn't exactly state-of-the-art. It cites two studies, one from 1978, the other, 1973.

Not only is the report out-dated, it actually does not endorse one-ways as the sure-fire pedestrian safety measure that Primeggia claims. "Converting two-way streets to one-way streets," it concludes, "may not be justified solely by pedestrian safety concerns." In fact, "vehicle speeds may increase after conversion from two-way to one-way." (Download the report and see page 96)

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All across the city neighborhood groups are coming together to re-envision and plan their own communities. In the last few months we've seen valuable community-planning processes taking place in Hell's Kitchen, the Meatpacking District and, to a certain extent, along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. People aren't waiting around for real estate developers or city agencies to tell them how their neighborhoods should be. They are going out and doing the thinking and planning themselves.

Add the neighborhoods around Grand Army Plaza to the list of communities taking pro-active steps to create a streets renaissance in New York City. Grand Army Plaza Coalition organizer Rob Witherwax describes the GAPco community workshop event in more detail:

Recently, we've witnessed a great example of community planning and traffic engineering from the top down (DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia's one-way plan for 6th and 7th Avenues) and seen how well it was received by its intended beneficiaries. However, on a much quieter note, we have also participated in a great example of grassroots community planning: the GAPCo Community Workshop, held on Saturday, March 10 at the Brooklyn Public Library.

GAPCo, as you may recall, is the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. It was formed just over a year ago to study Grand Army Plaza and propose ways to improve access to, and through, Grand Army Plaza for all user groups. GAPCo has grown organically to comprise many community stakeholders: private residents, civic and business associations, cultural organizations like Prospect Park and the other Heart of Brooklyn members, activists, and the city government (community boards, elected officials, and bureaucrats alike). Everyone got on the bandwagon early, and participated: in a site walk-through, the formulation of 14 short term fixes, and taking ownership of the Plaza through clean up efforts.

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Prospect Park West at 8th Street, September 16, 2006, 9:45 am. "Higher vehicle speeds are strongly associated with a greater likelihood of crashes involving pedestrians as well as more serious pedestrian injuries." American Journal of Public Health

Last Thursday, DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia presented a plan to turn a pair of two-way avenues running through Park Slope, Brooklyn into one-way arterials. The aim of the plan, according to DOT, was to improve pedestrian safety. 

Yet, in his presentation to the community the only specific evidence Primeggia gave to back up his safety claim was a reference to an avenue in Brooklyn where crashes had declined 15% and total injuries 22% after DOT turned it into a one-way. Primeggia didn't provide the name of the avenue. "I know that two-way streets are less safe," he said.

While more than 650 community members came out to say "no way" to DOT's one-way plan, one 28-year Park Slope resident arrived with a stack of academic studies directly refuting Primeggia's safety argument.

This Park Sloper, who wishes to remain anonymous because he often works with city government, is employed by one of New York State's transportation authorities. He is a member of the federal Transportation Research Board and a professional transportation planner and traffic engineer, with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and a masters in transportation planning from MIT.

Unfortunately, the evening's testimony was cut short and his powerful testimony was left undelivered. Here is what he would have said if he had gotten a chance:

The proposal under consideration here this evening may have merit in terms of moving traffic through Brooklyn as a whole. However, in terms of serving Park Slope, this project is ill-conceived and you would be ill-advised to endorse such a plan.

I'll focus on just one aspect of the plan -- the significant negative impact it can have on some of Park Slope's most precious but vulnerable citizens, that is, our small children. With PS 321, the magnet school that was PS 10, PS 39, PS 282 and various middle schools, private and parochial schools, more than 3,000 children use Sixth and Seventh Avenues daily to walk to and from school.

One-way street networks can result in more pedestrian accidents, particularly among children. This effect has been noted in a number of transportation studies published in respected academic journals. I'll cite and quote certain relevant reports and articles for your consideration:

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While Michael Primeggia, DOT's Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations is trying to sell one-way mini-highways through Park Slope as a pedestrian safety improvement, his boss, DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall, is hawking the exact opposite. On Thursday, March 1, at the City Council Transportation Committee oversight hearing on the Mayor's Long-Term Planning initiative, Weinshall touted two-way streets as successful traffic calming measure for Downtown Brooklyn. From her lips to your ears:

"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."

Park Slope's Fifth Avenue: a pedestrian- and bike-friendly, two-way, neighborhood Main Street.

New York City's Department of Transportation is getting set to propose a major change in the way cars and trucks flow through the avenues and streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn.Sources say that the plan will include the following:

• Fourth Avenue, a major six-lane artery with left-turn bays and parking lanes, will be narrowed. The center medians will be widened. Sources say that the City's Fourth Avenue plan may pull some elements from Alexander Garvin's 2006 Master Plan.
  
• Seventh Avenue, a neighborhood commercial strip, will be transformed from a two-way to a one-way.
  
• Sixth Avenue, a residential street, will also be transformed from a two-way to a one-way.

The new traffic plan was unveiled by Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia at Brooklyn Borough Hall recently. Though details of the plan have not yet been released, at first glance, DOT's proposal runs completely counter to community-friendly transportation planning being done outside of New York City.

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DOT Commissioner Kate Ascher: "It's not happening. It's not possible. That information is incorrect."

DOT Commissioner Joan McDonald: "It's a very complicated agency, a huge bureaucracy with lots of moving parts and serious work to be done. If they took someone who has been here before, already had knowledge of the agency and who has a flexible approach and is sympathetic to pedestrian, traffic-calming and livable streets issues, that'd be ideal. That's Joan."

DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan: "She'd be great and if it were offered and if she were really given a mandate, I bet she'd take the job, though, you've got to think it would be a serious pay cut." 

DOT Commissioner Emily Lloyd: Sources aren't saying anything! 

DOT Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations Michael Primeggia (above): "He still makes all of the decisions. You might disagree with some of them but he takes things seriously and works hard. He's not a bureaucrat."