Streetsblog New York City

With the new protected bike lane on Second Avenue as a backdrop earlier today, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer called for a stepped-up campaign to keep bike lanes clear of obstructions and show New Yorkers how to use their re-designed streets the right way. While many Manhattan streets have been re-engineered for improved safety, he said, enforcement and education aren’t keeping up.

Stringer staffers measured bike lane violations at 11 locations during the morning and evening rush between October 5 and October 7. Motorists blocking bike lanes, wrong-way cycling, and pedestrians wandering into the lane were the most widespread types of misuse. Out of 275 motor vehicles blocking bike lanes, 35 were part of the city’s fleet. Of those, 19 were cops.

On average, observers found that protected lanes were twice as likely to be clear of cars or trucks as painted lanes. But I think most people would agree that driving in a protected lane is at least twice as egregious. Among the blockages Stringer’s staff witnessed: police cars “in apparent non-emergency situations cutting through protected bike lanes to circumvent traffic stopped by a red light.”

The Borough President is recommending that NYPD crack down on bike lane-blocking motorists. He suggests putting traffic enforcement agents on bikes to patrol lanes and issue summonses to both motorists and cyclists. He also wants to see the TLC launch an awareness campaign to cut down on dooring. Stringer said he sent the report to NYPD and the TLC and hasn’t heard back from the agencies yet.

You can see the tally of bike lane violations and Stringer’s full set of recommendations in his report [PDF].

It’s going to be interesting to see how the press picks up this story. We’ve seen an awful lot of sensationalized coverage of the new bike lanes lately. Stringer’s report endorses the infrastructure — it’s mainly concerned with behavior and enforcement. Here’s how it’s being reported in the Daily News, NY1, the Observer, Transportation Nation, Gothamist, and — really, really terribly — on CBS2.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer released his recommendations for the Riverside Center megaproject yesterday afternoon. Like Community Board 7, he doesn't approve of Extell Development's request to build more than 1,800 underground parking spaces and an automobile showroom and repair shop. He does believe, however, that 1,100 parking spots would be appropriate.

The Borough President's recommendations, which you can read in full in this West Side Spirit report, are advisory; the project now moves to the City Planning Commission and then the City Council, which will have the final say.

Compared to the developer's proposal, Stringer's request would help make the project more walkable in a few other ways. For instance, following the community board's example, Stringer has asked for the project to be built at street level, rather than on an elevated platform, so that it is integrated with the neighborhood's sidewalks and street life.

But the parking levels will have the greatest effect on traffic and how people choose to get to and from Riverside Center. At the community board meeting on this project held in July, no one spoke in favor of the developer's eye-popping proposal of 1,800 parking spaces, but debate raged over whether the board would request 700, 1,000, or 1,200 spaces. The board ultimately recommended 1,000.

Stringer is calling for the slightly larger number of 1,100 spaces, which equals the capacity of the first of two floors of parking that Extell is seeking to build. According to the recommendations put out by Stringer's office, the 1,100 parking spot figure came from adjusting the calculations in the developer's environmental impact statement to match the car ownership rate found in a study of the nearby Hudson Yards area. 

By many counts, the number of parking spaces at Riverside Center ought to be far smaller.

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With the stroke of a pen, Governor David Paterson could make New York's streets safer for walking and biking. Hayley and Diego's Law, which creates a new charge for law enforcement to bring against drivers who carelessly injure pedestrians and cyclists, needs only his signature to become law. At a rally at City Hall today, elected officials and Transportation Alternatives joined the families of children killed by reckless drivers to urge the governor to sign the legislation.

State Senator Daniel Squadron, who sponsored the bill with Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh, led off the rally. He was joined by the families of Hayley Ng and Diego Martinez, two preschoolers killed last year while walking through Chinatown with their classmates. A delivery van that had been left idling jumped the curb, killing the children, but the driver wasn't charged with any infraction.

By defining a new infraction that increases the likelihood that drivers will face consequences for injuring pedestrians and cyclists, said Squadron, Hayley and Diego's Law will "send the message that careless driving is dangerous and unacceptable." For a first offense, the bill would impose a penalty of $750, 15 days of jail time, or a driver training course; for a second offense, the penalty would be a misdemeanor charge.

Squadron also provided an update on the bill's status. Though it passed the legislature around three weeks ago, it hasn't been presented to the governor yet. When that happens, the governor will have ten days in which to sign or veto the bill. "We're hopeful that the governor will sign it," said Squadron, adding, however, that "I don't think they've fully looked at it yet."

A Paterson spokesperson later confirmed that the governor will review the legislation once the bill reaches his desk.

The strongest words came from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "Enough is enough," he said. "We want our streets back for our children and frail elderly." Stringer also highlighted the particular need to curb speeding. Forty percent of New York City drivers exceed the speed limit, said Stringer, citing a 2009 Transportation Alternatives study and noting that crashes are nearly twice as deadly at 40 mph as at 30 mph. "When you get into a car, the life of the surrounding community is in your hands," he concluded.

Local Council Member Margaret Chin said the deaths of two small children served as a wake-up call. "What happened to Hayley and Diego showed how dangerous our streets are for our pedestrians," she said. Chin also promised that the City Council would continue to fight for pedestrian safety.

If you had to choose where the city should cut funding, which mode of transportation would you target? Personal automobiles, cabs, Access-A-Ride? How about buses, subways, bikes, and pedestrian safety enhancements?

This somewhat loaded prompt is one of several transportation-related questions posed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer in an online survey on the next city budget. There's also an open-ended comment section at the end.

Results will be included as part of Stringer's response to the mayor's budget proposal, which calls for $5 million in cuts to DOT "Complete Streets" projects. The deadline for responses is this Friday, March 5. If you have a few minutes to spare this week, it couldn't hurt to click on over.

New York City's Moynihan Station project has snagged $83 million in grant money from the stimulus law's Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced today.

The grant makes the intended successor to the current Penn Station, a longstanding priority for New York's congressional delegation, the first winner in a highly competitive chase for $1.5 billion in federal transport funding aimed at moving the U.S. DOT towards a more merit-based decision-making process.

The TIGER funding will allow the project to begin its Phase I of construction, which includes building vertical access points from the street to the new transit hub. Work should begin by the end of the year, according to Friends of Moynihan Station, a private-sector advocacy group founded by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's (D-NY) daughter.

"Moynihan Station is the poster child for the best way to use federal funding -- it creates jobs, upgrades aging transportation infrastructure, and leaves behind an economic engine for the entire region," Schumer said in a statement.

Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer also hailed the federal grant through his spokeswoman: "For too long, Moynihan Station has been stopped dead in its tracks. Now that our congressional delegation has been able to secure a down payment, we can begin moving forward on this project, which will create jobs, ease congestion, boost tourism, and right the wrongs of half a century ago" -- a reference to the destruction of the original, above-ground Penn Station, which urbanist pioneer Jane Jacobs fought to preserve.

The rest of the Obama administration's TIGER grants are expected to reach public view starting tomorrow, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood slated to visit Tuscon (hoping for streetcar aid) and Kansas City (home to the ambitious Green Impact Zone).

Several representatives in the City Council and state legislature, as well as Borough President Scott Stringer, have signed on in support of protected bike lanes for Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.

Last fall, Manhattan CB 7 passed a resolution asking DOT to prepare a proposal for protected lanes in the district, which stretches from 110th Street to 59th Street. In a letter addressed to DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan earlier this week, eight electeds signaled their support for the resolution.

The letter [PDF] commends "DOT's ongoing effort to encourage safe, environmentally friendly and healthy modes of transportation" and offers to help the agency consult with local groups prior to implementing bike lanes on the West Side. In addition to Stringer, the signatories are State Senators Tom Duane, Bill Perkins, and Eric Schneiderman; Assembly members Linda Rosenthal and Dick Gottfried; and Council members Melissa Mark-Viverito and Gale Brewer.

DOT says it will work with West Side stakeholders as the agency develops proposals for the area.

East Side electeds continue to express support for the MTA and NYCDOT's redesign of First and Second Avenues while pushing for a more complete corridor. In exchanges with Streetsblog this week, they called attention, in particular, to the absence of plans for separated bus lanes along the corridor.

Assembly Member Jonathan Bing, who represents the Upper East Side and East Midtown, praised the redesign, "even if it's not everything that we asked for." The release of a specific design, he said, "brings into sharper focus the major benefits we will get." But Bing didn't hide his displeasure with the bus lanes: "I was one of the signatories to a letter a couple of weeks ago calling for segregated lanes and obviously anything that does not comport with the terms of the letter is disappointing."

Two years ago, a bill sponsored by Bing enabling the use of bus-mounted enforcement cameras fell short in Albany, a measure which he says is now urgently needed. "This current decision makes it even more important that we push for cameras, as that's going to be pretty much the only means of enforcement," he said.

State Senator José M. Serrano, whose district stretches from the West Bronx down to East Harlem and Yorkville, didn't single out the corridor's design itself but called on DOT and the MTA to implement the project equitably. Many improvements are on hold in Serrano's district pending Second Avenue Subway construction.

"This new service will improve the commute for East Side residents from the Lower East Side, all the way north to my district in East Harlem," he said. As such, Serrano "would like to emphasize how important it is that the design be completed in full throughout the corridor... We must ensure that, wherever possible, equal facilities and infrastructure -- such as the separated bike lane or the red painted bus lane -- are provided to the entire corridor."

Assembly Member Micah Kellner, who also represents the Upper East Side, told Streetsblog he's excited about the project, particularly after some of his concerns about station placement had been addressed. Even so, he isn't satisfied. "My remaining concern is the lack of physically separated bus lanes," Kellner said. "While I appreciate the need to address the needs of businesses that rely on deliveries," he added, "the primary goal of SBS must be to provide mass transit consumers with uninterrupted, speedy service along the First and Second Avenue corridors -- this should be the priority over all other small inconveniences."

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If you live in Manhattan and you've been represented by a community board that seems more concerned with parking spots than creating safe streets and great public spaces, you may want to head uptown tonight. Borough President Scott Stringer's office is putting on an event for prospective community board members. If you decide to join, the Beep is accepting applications for a few more days. The deadline is this Friday.

One person's perspective can make a big difference in community board decisions. After a few fresh faces joined Manhattan CB 7 and CB 8, each board defied expectations last fall by passing resolutions in favor of protected bike infrastructure.

Here's where to go tonight if you want to find out more:

Final Community Board Information Session:

Monday, January 11th, 6:30 -- 8:00 p.m.

Community Board 12, 711 West 168th Street

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer is calling for a crackdown on bus lane-blocking drivers after a survey conducted by his office found that offending motorists have little chance of receiving a ticket.

Stringer staffers observed more than 350 drivers parked in bus lanes at six Midtown intersections during the course of around 40 hours. At the worst intersection, 42nd Street and Madison Avenue, 40 buses were blocked every hour during evening rush; at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue, an average of 19 buses were blocked per hour. Some drivers remained in the lanes for 15 minutes or more. The biggest offenders were taxis, limos and livery cabs, followed closely by private cars. Delivery trucks were third, though they accounted for most of the longest blockages.

"Tens of thousands of bus passengers are delayed by cars and trucks parked in what should be reserved lanes," said Stringer. "Yet over more than forty hours of observation by my staff, not one driver parked in a bus lane was issued a summons, no matter how long he sat there. What's the point of having these regulations if they are never enforced?"

Stringer recommended several measures to keep bus lanes clear, including passage of a bill sponsored by Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh that would allow enforcement cameras not only for BRT routes, but all bus lanes. Stringer is also calling on NYPD and DOT to take action through driver education campaigns, improved enforcement and expansion of plans for physically separated lanes beyond Select Bus Service lines.

Responding to the report, NYPD basically confirmed its findings. The department told NY1 that officers have issued "more than 1,700" summonses to bus lane violators so far this year. A back-of-envelope calculation pegs that at about eight summonses per day -- roughly the average number of violations noted by Stringer staffers every hour.

Curiously, the study makes no mention of police vehicles as bus lane blockers.