Democratic (top) and Republican and independent (bottom) candidates for mayor talked transportation this morning. Photo: Stephen Miller

At a mayoral forum on transportation this morning, the first since a February event hosted by Transport Workers Union Local 100, eight candidates offered ideas on how they would improve the city’s road and transit network. For the most part, the candidates were eager to support buses, quick to get agitated about bike lanes, and short on realistic ideas for how to fund their plans.

The forum, organized by the University Transportation Research Center, packed a room with over 200 students and transportation professionals at Baruch College, with questions posed to the candidates by a lineup of experts. There were two panels: the Republican and independent candidates — Adolfo Carrión, John Catsimatidis, Joe Lhota, and George McDonald – followed Democratic candidates Sal Albanese, John Liu, Bill Thompson, and Anthony Weiner. Bill de Blasio and Christine Quinn did not show, leaving empty seats behind their name tags.

Many of the candidates wanted more mayoral control over the city’s transit network, if not an outright transfer of responsibility from the state. While city control of subways and buses is unlikely, Lhota said, “that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bring it up.” Even without full control, he said, the mayor can exert influence through MTA board appointments, providing operating subsidies, and adding bus lanes.

The candidates all cited the need to expand the bus network, particularly Select Bus Service and express buses; many of them also spoke highly of ferries, which require substantial subsidies.

Albanese, Carrión, and McDonald all endorsed “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz’s “fair toll” plan, which would increase or add bridge tolls where there are transit options while cutting tolls where transit is scarcer. Albanese said he would split revenue from the toll plan: Three-quarters of it would go to transit operations, with the goal of reducing the pressure for fare hikes, and a quarter would go to capital investment. McDonald, citing the MTA’s growing operating budget, driven by labor and debt costs, said he would dedicate all of the program’s revenue to capital investments.

Catsimatidis said that he opposes any proposal that would add or increase tolls, while Thompson repeated his long-standing call for assessing vehicle registration fees by weight and reinstating the commuter tax, which would be dedicated exclusively to transit. Liu, while calling a return of the commuter tax unrealistic, said Congress should allocate more funds to transit.

Albanese and Carrión both said they would create a national coalition of mayors to advocate for more federal investment in transit, using Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns as a model.

Liu also said the city should use revenue from real estate development in the outer boroughs to finance bus service expansion, citing the Hudson Yards 7 train extension as a successful example of this type of funding mechanism. Lhota also spoke favorably of the 7 train extension, and called for more tax increment financing. (With real estate tax revenue falling below expectations at Hudson Yards, city tax dollars are now making up for shortfall.)

Anthony Weiner did not discuss funding mechanisms for transit investment.

In his question to the candidates, Transportation Alternatives Executive Director Paul Steely White noted that bike-share and bike lanes enjoy higher approval ratings than the mayoral candidates, a fact that Weiner mocked. “I actually have some polling here that says that a proposal to give rocket packs to every citizen to fly to work has 90 percent, so congratulations on your polling,” he said, before reiterating that while he calls himself “a pro-bike Democrat” and uses Citi Bike, he believes “there are good bike lanes and bad bike lanes.” Weiner once again claimed that the Broadway bike lane near his apartment hinders commercial deliveries and impedes emergency response.

Liu said he is an “avid cyclist,” but claimed that bike lanes were only really necessary in Manhattan. “The city is still insisting on a one-size fits all model,” he said. “The hazards from trucks and buses and cars are not as great as they are in Manhattan.”

Liu, Thompson, and Weiner all couched their opposition to bike lanes in objections to the planning process. Weiner said that the administration “has been dripping with condescension” when it works with communities on bike lanes. “It comes back to making sure that communities are involved in the discussion,” Thompson said.

Once again, Sal Albanese was the only Democrat to offer a reality check to the rest of the field. “All the bike lanes that have been put into place have been put into place with community input,” Albanese said. “The bottom line is that it’s great for the city.” Carrión and McDonald also offered full-throated endorsements of bike lanes.

The forum included its fair share of questionable ideas from the candidates. Lhota proposed building park-and-ride facilities at the ends of subway lines so suburbanites could park and pay a $2.50 subway fare, instead of using Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North. He also championed extending subway lines in the outer boroughs, including a new subway tunnel from Bay Ridge to Staten Island, while Catsimatidis said the city should consider a monorail along the Long Island Expressway.

The last thing greater Detroit needs is $4 billion worth of freeways. Image: Mlive.com

On the one hand, some Detroit power players are starting to embrace sustainable transportation. Regional leaders recently brought together urban and suburban officials to create the first unified regional transit system for the area. The city of Detroit is working to add 100 miles of bike lanes this year. And then there are the plans for downtown light rail and bus rapid transit to the suburbs. Efforts like those provide hope that the Detroit region will reverse its decline and emerge stronger than ever.

But amid the signs of progress are two highway projects that threaten to undermine the region’s recovery. The worst of the two, perhaps, is the $2.7 billion plan to widen I-94 through Midtown. SEMCOG and the political leaders who appoint its members apparently believe that ramming more than half a dozen new highway lanes through one of the city’s most promising neighborhoods will help stabilize Detroit.

If you ask the experts, they strongly disagree. Model D Media reports that not only will this project soak up nearly $3 billion that could be used to advance the region’s transit ambitions, it will actually impede mobility for city residents. The project will eliminate 14 freeway crossings in the city, making walking and biking more difficult for city residents with limited options. “After removing these bridges, there will be a mile of impassable expressway,” Todd Scott of the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance told local website We Are Mode Shift.

Local resistance to this project is, not surprisingly, increasing. The city of Detroit and Washtenaw County, home of Ann Arbor, recently passed resolutions opposing it. Similar legislation is being considered by Ferndale and Hazel Park, two inner suburbs.

On Thursday, SEMCOG will vote on I-94 and another highway plan to expand I-75 through wealthy, suburban Oakland County. Together these projects represent $4 billion in planned spending. There is some concern that if the region were to reject these projects, it would forfeit federal money. But regional transportation officials have indicated that this money could be spent repairing the city’s existing roads, which are in terrible shape. Last year, a survey of the region’s residents found more than 90 percent said the roads are in fair to poor condition. Maintenance costs have doubled in recent years, local officials report, while the population has shrunk.

Imagine how much good $4 billion could do the Detroit region if directed toward some of the region’s biggest problems.

Model D Media points out that amount of money could fully fund Governor Rick Snyder’s $500 million bus rapid transit plans, and the remaining $3.5 billion would be enough to purchase a moped for every resident of the seven-county region (not that that qualifies as sound transportation planning). Or SEMCOG could restore the $7 million it recently stripped from the Detroit Department of Transportation (which runs the urban bus system) every year for the next 507 years.

City residents in Detroit are still trying to cope with hours-long waits for the bus. Extravagant highway projects through city neighborhoods should be a non-starter. With this vote, greater Detroit has an opportunity to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, to demonstrate that the region is looking ahead, that it has the vision to solve its formidable problems. Unfortunately, SEMCOG does not have a reputation for leadership or vision. The agency was recently subject to civil rights litigation for failing to represent the interests of the region’s black residents.

Will regional leaders take this opportunity to forge a new path, or will they continue with their destructive asphalt habit?

Bill de Blasio.

The transportation platform is the most unequivocal expression of support for safer streets, better surface transit, and increased bicycling so far from de Blasio, who as public advocate has professed skepticism about street transformations like the proposed 34th Street busway, the pedestrianization of Times Square, and protected bike lanes. Some of the goals would require assistance from Albany and the feds, but for the most part they’re within the realm of what City Hall can influence: the allocation of street space and city funds.

A few highlights:

• Tops on de Blasio’s list is the establishment of a “World-Class Bus Rapid Transit” network and a pledge to phase in more than 20 BRT lines. He refers to several BRT corridors proposed by the Pratt Center for Community Development and says he would commit city capital funds to implementation.
• Taking a page from a 2011 Transportation Alternatives report, de Blasio endorses the “Vision Zero” ethic and says the city should strive to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. On his agenda are the expansion of 20 mph zones to more residential areas, taming wide, high-speed roads like Bruckner Boulevard and Queens Boulevard, and wresting control of speed camera deployment from Albany (obtaining home rule power over automated enforcement would first require state legislation).
• De Blasio explicitly commits to growing the bike lane network and expanding bike-share farther from the downtown core, setting the goal of 6 percent bicycle mode share of all trips citywide by 2020 (currently, according to the Census, around 1 percent of NYC workers primarily commute by bicycle, though that doesn’t include the lion’s share of trips New Yorkers make). Like mayoral campaign rival Christine Quinn, de Blasio has sought to differentiate his bike policy from Mayor Bloomberg’s in terms of the process he would employ, and in the policy book he expands on that thought, saying that through ”fliers and door-to-door outreach,” he will work to “address feedback before projects are installed.”

• On land use, de Blasio says he’ll work to focus new housing and high-density development near transit hubs while “preserving lower density neighborhoods located further from mass transit.”
• He supports the Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Plan — designed to reduce truck traffic, especially in low-income neighborhoods — including the 91st Street Waste Transfer Station, which became a hot-button issue after running into resistance from Upper East Side residents and hasn’t always had his support.

The funding components of the platform are less impressive. De Blasio voted against congestion pricing as a City Council member but later came out in favor of East River bridge tolls pegged to the subway fare, and his platform doesn’t mention road pricing. To keep MTA fares from rising, he says he would try to get Congress to enact transportation legislation that prioritizes urban needs instead of sprawl — a fine goal but not something the mayor of New York can influence. Another shaky idea is a proposal to fund the Cross-Harbor Freight Tunnel using city pension funds, which need to generate a higher return than more conventional borrowing options, like plain old bond issuance.

With the exception of Sal Albanese, other Democratic mayoral candidates have also been hesitant to touch the issue of road pricing and realistic sources of funding for the MTA capital program. It’s the allocation of street space where the leading contenders are competing, and in this platform de Blasio sets some ambitious targets on that front.

Photo: Daily News

An intoxicated and speeding motorist with a history of drunk driving jumped a curb and slammed into a storefront in the East Village this morning, putting three pedestrians and a cyclist in the hospital, according to NYPD and published reports.

Just before 7 a.m., Sean Martin of Bayside was barreling south on Second Avenue in a Nissan sedan at 75 mph when he jumped the curb and plowed through a sidewalk stand in front of a bodega at E. Fourth Street, reports said. Martin also reportedly struck a fire hydrant, a street sign, a loaded bike rack, and a tree.

The Daily News and the Post quoted a witness who said the driver was racing another motorist, but an NYPD spokesperson disputed that account, and said only one vehicle was involved in the crash.

Three employees of the store were hurt, police said, along with a man who was riding a Citi Bike. The Times reports that the three pedestrians were outside the bodega. One of the victims is a 62-year-old man who was hospitalized in critical condition.

“He was lying on the sidewalk,” said one witness, to the Daily News. “His body was covered with flowers. I didn’t see him moving.”

The Times reports that the cyclist was struck when the driver tried to move the car back onto the street, while the Post says the cyclist was hit by a flying fire hydrant. The Times says the cyclist is in stable condition at Bellevue, and police told DNAinfo his injuries were “non-life threatening.” On his Twitter feed, NYT police reporter J. David Goodman said the cyclist is 30 years old.

DNAinfo had this eyewitness account:

“I saw him plowing through the trees,” said Diana Kirk, 42, who was sitting on her fire escape on East 4th Street and Second Avenue when she saw the white sedan “swerving.”

“He flew down the sidewalk,”she added, saying she saw the driver take out the Citi Bike rider. “There was blood everywhere. I saw his legs all bloodied.”

Though the cyclist got up, he immediately collapsed as if “in shock” she said.

Photo: Daily News

Martin was charged with driving while intoxicated. DNAinfo reports that Martin has a prior DWI arrest, and that NYPD spokesperson Paul Browne said police found marijuana in Martin’s sock.

Initial reports said that, according to police, eight people were hurt, but NYPD said there were four victims, in addition to the driver. Police confirmed reports that there was a female passenger in the car. Photos from the scene indicate the vehicle was destroyed.

This crash occurred in the 9th Precinct, where officers issued 11 speeding tickets in all of 2012. To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector John G. Cappelmann, the commanding officer, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 9th Precinct council meetings happen on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the precinct, 321 E. 5th Street. Call 212-477-7805 for information.

The City Council district where this crash occurred is represented by Rosie Mendez. Since March 2012, at least seven pedestrians and cyclists have been killed by motorists in Mendez’s district, including three people in 2013. To encourage Mendez to take action to improve street safety in her district and citywide, contact her at 212-677-1077 or @RosieMendez.

Here's a drawing of the highway that the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic want to build, because they're "not a bicycle department." Image: NextSTL

“We’re a highway department; we’re not a bicycle department.” This is how a spokesperson for the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic decided to deride opposition to the proposed South County Connector project. The statement, offered to reporter Michael Calhoun of KMOX, is both revealing and a display of stunning ignorance.

There is no bicycle department in St. Louis County, nor a pedestrian department, nor a quality of life department, though there should be. The Department of Highways and Traffic, however, does exist within an environment that includes these unformalized concerns. Nearly every cyclist is also a motorist. Nearly every pedestrian also travels in a car. The idea that a highway is a highway, nothing more and nothing less, insulated from other concerns is myopic, dysfunctional and untrue.

The statement above reveals that not only is there not a “bicycle department,” but that the Department of Highways and Traffic will refuse to acknowledge the voices of those who it would derogatorily label as such. In its espoused worldview, municipalities and concerns other than level of service (for cars) and traffic throughput are obstacles to be first avoided, then dismissed and likely next attacked.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Reconnecting America discusses the connections between transportation, neighborhood form, and the obesity epidemic. Greater Greater Washington considers whether DC should prioritize projects that help people access downtown or travel between neighborhoods. And Exit 133 explains why recycling can work better in compact, urban areas.

Key components of the plan include:

• Expanding Select Bus Service: Noting that SBS routes have seen ridership and bus speeds increase while other lines stagnate, the report reminds the mayoral candidates that bus lanes are an affordable transit option that also help the city meet its storm resiliency goals.
• Building on recent street safety gains: The platform calls on the next mayor to “lead a public health revolution… [by] implementing a multi-year plan to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries.” The groups ask the next mayor to use street design, as well as enforcement by cameras and officers, to crack down on the leading cause of death for the city’s children.
• More bike-share and bike lanes: The plan, noting that bicycling was reliable in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and that bike lanes have the support of two-thirds of New Yorkers, calls for a citywide expansion of bike-share, as well as more protected bike lanes and greenways.
• Progress reports from DOT: The coalition says that DOT should continue to provide annual Sustainable Streets Index updates, Pedestrian Safety Action Plan reports, and evaluations of progress on bus rapid transit projects.
• Doubling the city’s contribution to the MTA capital program: The city contributes $100 million each year to the MTA’s capital program for repair and maintenance, an amount that has not changed for two decades. The organizations call for the city to double its contribution to the capital program  but when it comes to generating revenue, the plan does not mention congestion pricing or the “fair toll” plan advocated by “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz.

The platform also supports a bill in City Council that would require all employers with 50 or more employees to offer pre-tax transit benefits to their workers, calls for the expansion of 20 mph zones and play streets, says the next mayor should support the redesign and reuse of the Sheridan Expressway, and calls for reform of the zoning code’s parking requirements.

The coalition members are: Empire State Future, Mothers on the Move, New York League of Conservation Voters, New York State Transportation Equity Alliance, Nos Quedamos/We Stay, Pratt Center for Community Development, Riders Alliance, Southern Bronx River Watershed Alliance, Straphangers Campaign/NYPIRG, Sustainable South Bronx, Transportation Alternatives, Tri-State Transportation Campaign, UPROSE, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, and Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice.

Streetsblog will be covering today’s mayoral forum, which starts at 10. Follow @StreetsblogNYC on Twitter for the latest from the event.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Photo: Susan Donovan

Streetsblog reader Susan Donovan, a.k.a. Futurebird, posted this pic on Instagram yesterday. It’s a DIY basketball court on Walton Avenue near Joyce Kilmer Park, a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. Writes Donovan:

Creative traffic calming in the Bronx! My neighbors have painted a basketball shooting zone on the street near the bike lane and hydrant creating a basketball court right in the street. (You can see the movable hoop stored nearby.) The city should do this. It’s counter intuitive but street play slows cars and makes everyone safer. What a cool idea.

By taking the play streets concept a step further, this grassroots public space reclamation is reminiscent of a time when kids could play on their blocks with no police barricades needed. Before children “darted” in the streets, they grew up on them.

The left-turn bans opposed by CB 6 protect pedestrians from turning drivers and widen medians while reducing crossing distances. Image: NYC DOT

City Council members Brad Lander and Steve Levin are urging NYC DOT to move forward with safety improvements for Fourth Avenue in Park Slope despite a vote against the proposal by Brooklyn Community Board 6.

The Daily News reported today that in response to the CB 6 vote, DOT might take out some of the left-turn bans in its proposal. The turn bans reduce conflicts between motorists and pedestrians, and free up space for wider medians and shorter crossings. Lander and Levin endorse them. In their joint letter to Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, the council members say they “look forward to seeing any modifications you propose in the very near future” but that they disagree with the CB 6 vote against the plan and want to see it implemented this summer.

Here’s the meat of the letter:

DOT conducted extensive community outreach to gather input and share ideas for improving safety on 4th Avenue. We were pleased to have taken part in the 4th Avenue Task Force, convened by Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and the subsequent public planning process organized by DOT with the support of the Park Slope Civic Council’s Forth on Fourth Committee and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. DOT conducted a well-attended public traffic safety workshop for community members on February 13 to gather input, utilized an innovative online input map (nyc.gov/4thAve), held an open house on April 9 to display the proposal, met with principals from 6 schools along the corridor, and made presentations to the CB2 and CB6 transportation committees during May to gather feedback.

After having participated in the planning process and having heard from numerous residents and other stakeholders in our districts and along the corridor, we support your proposal. The Corridor Safety Improvements you propose – similar to improvements implemented on 4th Avenue in Sunset Park from 15th Street to 65th Street last year – will narrow traffic from three lanes to two lanes in both directions south of Union Street, and southbound north of Union Street (leaving three northbound lanes from Union Street north toward Flatbush). This will calm traffic, allow for longer turn bays (a major improvement for drivers), and allow the medians to be significantly widened (a major improvement for pedestrians). Because left turn bans have worked further south on 4th Avenue—to reduce safety risks for pedestrians and drivers alike—your proposal will ban selected left turns along the corridor in pedestrian-heavy locations near subways and schools, and where opposing left turns have contributed to a large number of crashes.

We are aware that on June 12, 2013, Brooklyn Community Board 6 (CB6) resolved by a vote of 18 to 9, with 5 abstentions, to disapprove DOT’s proposed redesign of 4th Avenue. During our terms in elected office, there have been very few instances in which our position on an issue differs with that of a local Community Board, and doing so is not a decision we take lightly. However, given the severity of the safety risks along 4th Avenue, we respectfully but strongly disagree with CB6’s rejection of the proposal.

Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge will still have high rates of speeding after Community Board 10's vote to delay a safety plan approved by its transportation committee. Photo: Google Maps

After months of working with DOT and local residents on a traffic calming safety plan for Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn Community Board 10 voted last night, 25-11, to delay a decision on the project. The vote effectively rules out the installation of safety treatments on the avenue this year; if the board votes in favor of the plan in October, the project could be installed next spring.

Five pedestrians were killed on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge between 2006 and 2013, according to DOT, with two of those fatalities occurring in April of this year. Transportation Alternatives clocked drivers on Fourth Avenue at an average of 37 mph, with some measured traveling as fast as 60 mph, in a report released yesterday about the extent of speeding in Brooklyn. To reduce speeding, the plan would put Fourth Avenue on a road diet in both directions from Ovington Avenue to 86th Street, and on northbound Fourth Avenue from 101st Street to 95th Street, converting the street from two lanes in each direction to one through lane plus left-turn lanes.

Before last night’s vote, DOT had hosted workshops with community board members, including open houses in February and March, a community forum with full board members on June 5, and a transportation committee meeting last week, where resolutions supporting the proposal (except for a pedestrian island and fence at 86th Street) advanced to the full board.

But the board decided to delay the plan after many members said they had trouble understanding its details. ”There was a lot to the Department of Transpotation proposal,” district manager Josephine Beckmann told Streetsblog, noting that it covers more than 30 blocks.

As DOT received feedback on the plan, it modified the proposal, but this responsiveness may have been hard for some board members to keep up with. “There was a lot of criticism that DOT kept changing the plan after each meeting,” CB 10 transportation committee member Bob HuDock told Streetsblog, noting the irony that not long ago, many board members were criticizing the agency for not being responsive enough.

“There was certainly ample opportunity and everybody was notified about every single meeting,” HuDock said, adding that many board members chose not to participate. “If we need to do a few more meetings, let’s do a few more meetings,” he said.

There will be at least two special full board meetings dedicated solely to Fourth Avenue in July and August, after which the plan will go to the board for final review in September before a vote in October and installation next spring, under a new mayor, at the earliest. Last night, CB 10 elected Brian Kieran as its next chair; he currently serves as chair of the transportation committee and will oversee the October vote on the Fourth Avenue plan.

“The committee’s done a lot of this work already,” said board member Andrew Gounardes, but he added that extending the timeline would help build consensus. “I don’t think most people are opposed,” he said. “I don’t think this is a setback, ultimately, with improving Fourth Avenue.”

Neighboring CB 7 voted last year to support a similar plan to reduce the number of lanes and calm traffic on Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park. CB 10′s decision to delay comes on the heels of CB 6′s rejection of a safety plan for its stretch of Fourth Avenue in Park Slope, though HuDock said the Park Slope decision did not come up during discussions in Bay Ridge last night.

DOT said it will continue to work with the community on Fourth Avenue. “This project reflects input by the local community to make a busy corridor safer for everyone. We look forward to discussing this further with the community,” spokesperson Nick Mosquera said in an e-mail.

Council Member Vincent Gentile welcomed the board’s decision to delay, saying that it shows “seriousness” about traffic safety. “I am confident that the full board will propose a comprehensive plan to the community that will help keep our neighbors safe. I look forward to a comprehensive plan this fall,” he said in a statement.

Military installations around the world are in the midst of a livability revolution. Here's a plan to add transit at Washington's Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Image: Urban Collaborative

“The largest redevelopment opportunity in the world is at the Department of Defense.”

Rep. Earl Blumenauer wasn’t exaggerating when he uttered those words to an audience of smart-growth developers earlier this month. While U.S. DOT, the EPA, and HUD get all the glory as the Partnership for Sustainable Communities – which celebrated its fourth anniversary this week – it may be the Defense Department that has the most potential to reinvent the way land is used in the U.S. and abroad. The Pentagon is now using smart growth planning models to re-design the vast amounts of land it controls at its bases. And the military chain of command is bringing its full authority to bear on the matter: Livability is mandatory.

Even before a 2009 executive order mandating sustainability practices within the federal government and a 2008 report that sounded the alarm about the military’s dangerous reliance on oil, the Pentagon was making big changes. One of the largest institutional energy consumers in the world, DoD started increasing its investment in clean energy in 2006 and then set about taking a long, hard look at how it uses land.

It was inspired, in part, by former Air Force architect and planner Mark Gillem, now a professor of urban design at the University of Oregon. Gillem wrote a book in 2007 about the Pentagon’s practice of exporting inefficient suburban development to its bases abroad. U.S. military bases, in this country and elsewhere, are often entire cities unto themselves, and they’re often cities that suffer from auto-centric sprawl that limits connectivity and makes for unappealing living environment. It’s the kind of development the free market is rejecting wholesale these days — but the military is no free market.

It wasn’t always this way.

“The military, back in the 20s and 30s, led the way in creating compact, walkable communities,” Gillem told Streetsblog. “Our historic army posts – Fort Sill, for example, in Oklahoma; F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Randolph Air Force base in San Antonio — these all follow the principles that have great sustainability benefits, and they just abandoned it, like most of America abandoned it.”

In order to be a better neighbor overseas and to use resources more wisely, Gillem counseled the military to stop wasting valuable land. He recommended a shift away from low-density, auto-oriented development on military bases toward a more compact, walkable, urbanist model.

So the military hired him to rewrite its planning rules.

After a process that involved senior planners from all four branches of the military, as well as military families (who expressed a strong preference for compact and walkable communities), the new rules came out a year ago: the United Facilities Criteria (UFC) for Installation Master Planning [PDF]. It’s the first update since 1986.

And as Rep. Blumenauer told the Smart Growth America-affiliated developers, the new UFC looks like something they would have written themselves. Here’s one excerpt:

Sustainable planning leads to “lasting” development – meeting present mission requirements without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The goal of such development is to make the most effective use of limited resources, reduce fossil fuel use and increase the use of alternative fuels, and to create more compact and sustainable communities that still meet security and safety requirements.

It goes on to exhort planners to incorporate principles of compact, transit-oriented, mixed-use infill development into their master plans and area development plans. Noting that physical fitness is key to military readiness, the document stresses that “high connectivity, mixed land uses, and well-designed pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure decrease auto dependence and increase levels of walking, running, and cycling.” It includes a sample transportation plan, a pedestrian and bikeway plan, and an open space plan. And it incorporates some factors that most planners never have to deal with: antiterrorism concerns, surveillance, and other security issues.

It’s a huge paradigm shift for the Defense Department, which had gotten into the habit of building massive single-story commissaries and exchanges with a Costco-like footprint, and simply building further and further out when more land was needed.

The four bases that have applied these principles on a pilot basis – one for each of the four branches of the military – have seen enormous success and a lot of “a-ha” moments, according to Gillem. “The commander at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, for example, Captain Jeffrey James — he doesn’t have any planning background, he was a navy ship driver,” Gillem says. “And he totally gets this. He said, ‘Wow, from a commander’s point of view, this makes total sense.’ It gives him some certainty about where the installations can go; it gives him some focus on what he needs to get his plan [for the base's development] achieved.”

That’s not to say that Gillem’s methods haven’t met with some hard-headed military recalcitrance. “There’s just a culture of, ‘This is a way we’ve done it for 40 years; why should I change?’” he said.

One of the four pilot installations – and Gillem wouldn’t name names – encountered some pushback against the new ideas, and it went before the Judge Advocate General – the military’s legal authority – to determine whether the UFC is just guidance or whether it’s mandatory. And the ruling came down just a few weeks ago: The UFC on master planning is mandatory policy. Agencies must abide by it unless they get a waiver – which would need to be signed by the person who originally signed the UFC into effect. Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of Defense issued a policy letter on installation master planning, also directing conformity to the UFC.

And just last week, Rep. Blumenauer got an amendment [PDF] inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act, legislatively reinforcing the requirement for the military to use horizontal and vertical mixed-use development with a focus on pedestrian and cycling plans and consideration for the full lifecycle costs of planning decisions.

There’s a lot more to say about the massive re-design of several hundred vast tracts of military land around the country and the world. Tune in tomorrow for a discussion of the unique benefits of smart growth for military installations, including some that you might not have considered. 

In the race to succeed Peter Vallone Jr. of Queens, StreetsPAC endorsed Costa Constantinides in District 22. Constantinides is a Democratic District Leader and City Council aide “who believes that ‘safe streets are the lifelines of every thriving neighborhood,’” according to a StreetsPAC press release.

In District 34, which includes Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Ridgewood, StreetsPAC supports Antonio Reynoso, chief of staff for term-limited Diana Reyna. Reynoso, who became a bike commuter after selling his car, wants to calm truck traffic and expand the city’s bike lane network, according to StreetsPAC.

Carlos Menchaca gets the nod from StreetsPAC in District 38, which covers Brooklyn neighborhoods including Borough Park, Gowanus, Sunset Park, and Windsor Terrace. A “regular bicycle commuter” who would like the city to extend the Brooklyn Greenway from Red Hook to Sunset Park, Menchaca is running against incumbent Sara Gonzalez. He has worked for Marty Markowitz and Christine Quinn.

Former banker Vince Morgan is running against Inez Dickens, in Upper Manhattan’s District 9. StreetsPAC says Morgan is “sharply critical” of Dickens’ indifference to safety on deadly Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, which his children cross to get to school.

Finally, StreetsPAC endorsed Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, in Manhattan District 8, for reelection. Mark-Viverito, whose district stretches from East Harlem to the South Bronx, is one of the council’s strongest voices for safer streets. “The Councilmember would like to see significant improvements to pedestrian access to her district’s East River Plaza shopping mall, and better bicycle and pedestrian access to the Willis Avenue Bridge,” says StreetsPAC.

We asked StreetsPAC founding member and Upper Green Sider Glenn McAnanama about the council member endorsement process, and what they’re seeing from candidates for borough president. See what he had to say after the jump.

Streetsblog: How are you deciding which council incumbents to target?

Glenn McAnanama: Those that are in competitive races and did not turn in a StreetsPAC questionnaire have made themselves targets. Neither Inez Dickens nor Sara Gonzalez turned in a questionnaire or responded to us in any way. We are focusing first on races where we think we can make a difference and where the challenger is trying to draw a comparison on livable streets issues against the incumbent. There’s also an eye on the inevitable race for speaker of the City Council. Inez Dickens’ name has been floated as a potential City Council speaker and we think her record on street safety and prioritizing mass transit on streets in her low-car-ownership district has been especially dismal. Vince Morgan is advocating for safety improvements to be accelerated along main avenues in Harlem like Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and Select Bus Service for all of 125th Street. We think that direct comparison will motivate a lot of volunteers and donors to flock to his campaign.

SB: In the open seat races, how much of a role did your questionnaires play?

GM: We only interview candidates that have submitted questionnaires so they are pivotal to our consideration. The questionnaire responses give us a basis to prioritize their district over other districts. In many districts, the contrast between the candidates often hinges on just a few key points. That’s when we need to interview them to really get to know them better. And we’ve found all of our interactions to be fairly positive with candidates. Just having a conversation with them can help us find common ground on some issues. We also look at their viability on a number of factors like fundraising, other endorsements, prior experience, etc.

SB: What’s the return rate on the questionnaires for council candidates?

GM: We tried to reach every council candidate and received over 60 responses — many of those from highly contested races in Manhattan and Brooklyn where livable streets issues are almost taken for granted now. But for instance we received three from council District 19, which is a very car-oriented section of Queens. Our policy is that we will be happy to receive responses from all candidates in races that we haven’t made an endorsement in yet. That leaves 46 council races where we have not endorsed a candidate, along with all borough and citywide offices.

SB: Do you plan to endorse in all contested council races?

GM: We have not decided that yet. We may choose to make a statement about a race pointing to the pros of various good candidates and the cons of one or more other candidates without making a specific single endorsement. Before the primary, I think we will have either an endorsement or a statement about the races where candidates have submitted questionnaires. We are very consensus driven.

SB: How about the races for borough president?

GM: We did interview the three Manhattan borough president candidates who completed a questionnaire — [Julie] Menin, [Jessica] Lappin, and [Gale] Brewer. The board could not come to a conclusion on that race yet, but we will be discussing this in the upcoming endorsement rounds. In the meantime, if a Manhattan BP candidate wanted to step up a few notches and really make a public pitch to the livable streets community with some big ideas, that might force our hand quicker. Also we are very interested in the Brooklyn DA’s race and have only received one questionnaire response so far. We’re also very interested in hearing from #streetsvoters about who they like in their area and why. Tweet us!

More cities and town served by Amtrak are calling for bikes to be allowed on board, like they are on the Capitol Corridor route. Image: Bikecommutetips.com

Only eight Amtrak routes (Amtrak Cascades, Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin, Pacific Surfliner, Downstate Illinois Services, Missouri River Runner, Piedmont) allow passengers to roll bikes on board fully assembled. Even those that do allow “walk-on” service only do so in very limited numbers; most trains allow just six bikes per train. (Though if you have a folding bike you can store it in carry-on luggage.)

But Amtrak is seeing increased demand for walk-on bike service across the United States. In California, demand for bike accommodations has been so overwhelming that Caltrans and Amtrak recently added a reservations system for walk-on bike service for the Pacific Surfliner. Before the policy, if too many  passengers wanted to bring bikes on board, they were bumped or, at best, forced to hold bikes in the aisle.

Passengers in some states are still struggling to have non-folding bikes allowed on board at all. New York lawmakers are pushing Amtrak to allow walk-on bikes on additional routes out of Penn Station, saying it will boost tourism income for upstate New York. A coalition of lawmakers, including U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer and New York State Senators Betty Little and Brad Hoylman, held a press conference yesterday urging Amtrak to include bike cars on two lines — the Adirondack and Ethan Allen — serving the upstate area and beyond.

Dan MacEntee, a spokesman for Little, said that many New York City residents, as well as many international tourists to New York, do not have access to cars. They might visit the Adirondacks or northwestern parts of the state in the summer but don’t have a convenient method of transport. Little has been advocating for walk-on bike service on Amtrak trains for years, and local bike groups and chambers of commerce around the state have been demanding it. The Saratoga Chamber of Commerce has so far collected more than 500 signatures on its petition to Amtrak President Joseph Boardman advocating for bike access on trains.

“We think that it would be a wonderful service for Amtrak to provide,” said MacEntee, adding that Amtrak would reap more revenue from increased ridership.

Steve Kulm, a spokesman for Amtrak, said the agency is looking for opportunities to retrofit train cars to allow more convenient bike transport. Kulm said most of the lines that allow walk-on bikes receive additional funding from the state. If the state owns some of the train cars, it can design them to accommodate bikes. In the meantime, most folks who want to travel by train will have to leave their bikes at home or seek a different route altogether.

Photo: Doug Gordon

Doug Gordon of Brooklyn Spoke fame reports that NYPD sent a battalion of bike enforcers out to the intersection of Chrystie Street and Rivington Street on the Lower East Side this morning. This is a T-intersection where no motorized traffic conflicts with the path of northbound cyclists. If you’re biking north on Chrystie, it makes a lot of sense to treat a red light here as a “yield to pedestrians and cyclists” sign. That does happen to be against the letter of the law, however, and police were taking full advantage, handing out $190 tickets. (Meanwhile, the maximum fine for drivers caught speeding in Albany’s proposed automated enforcement bill is $50.)

There’s a ton of bike traffic at this intersection in the morning as cyclists commute in from the Manhattan Bridge. I’ve seen similar stings at T-intersections on Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn, and readers have recently reported red-light bike blitzes at T-intersections on Riverside Drive uptown. It seems like police know how to stake out locations where they can rack up a lot of easy tickets — places where cyclists tend to break the rules without riding recklessly. But if NYPD wants to do bike enforcement that serves a genuine public purpose, like reminding people not to blow through crosswalks with heavy pedestrian traffic, do they know where to go? Reader Chris O’Leary suggests the following spots:

How about places like Union Square, where cyclists whip off Broadway onto the 17th Street lane with no regard for crossing pedestrian with a signal? Or 2nd Avenue at 14th, where I invariably see one dumb cyclist every light cycle cut through an active crosswalk against the light? Or 6th Avenue, where I face salmon that regularly force me into traffic in an already narrow bike lane?

If these ticket blitzes really are about safety and not harassment, the NYPD is doing a horrible job showing it.

Chris also recommends showing up at precinct community councils to tell the local cops what type of traffic enforcement you’d like to see. This intersection is in the 5th Precinct, which meets on the last Wednesday of every month, except for July and August. The 5th Precinct issued 63 speeding tickets in all of 2012.

In the late 1960s, much of Miami's Overtown neighborhood, a thriving black community, was cleared and replaced with a massive highway interchange. Image: Transit Miami

Overtown has never recovered. Image: Transit Miami

As decried by 70 year-old, long-time Overtown resident, General White:

Well there’s nothing but a big overpass now!

He’s referring to Interstates 95 and 395, which Nadege Green explains were built in the 1960s. After that:

Overtown was never the same. [Mr. General White] and thousands of other people here were forced out to make room for the highway.

The Florida Department of Transportation recently made a bid to take over more of the roads in the Overtown neighborhood. But City Commissioner Spence Jones issued a strong objection, saying the agency was responsible for destroying the neighborhood and displacing its residents. “FDOT gets an ‘F’ for our community in Overtown,” she told attendees at a City Commission meeting.

Elsewhere on the Network today: The State Smart Transportation Initiative reports that transit spending by state DOTs has increased slightly. We Are Mode Shift described the insane plans to widen two urban freeways in Detroit, despite the devastation such road projects have wreaked on that city. And A View from the Cycle Path considers how best to reach young people and teach them to become lifelong transportation cyclists.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Nearly nine in ten Brooklyn drivers is speeding, and three in ten are traveling more than 10 mph above the speed limit. Image: Transportation Alternatives

Transportation Alternatives observed nearly nine in ten Brooklyn motorists breaking the speed limit while compiling data for its new report on dangerous driving [PDF], but enforcement from NYPD remains almost non-existent. In fact, TA says it clocked more drivers speeding in 12 hours than NYPD ticketed in all of 2011. That’s why speed cameras are necessary for city streets.

In 2011, 79 people died and more than 23,000 were injured on Brooklyn’s streets. Speeding was the leading cause of New York City traffic deaths last year, contributing to 81 fatal crashes, according to DOT, and TA says speeding kills more New Yorkers than drunk driving and distracted driving combined.

For its survey, TA measured the speed of rush hour drivers at locations in Bay Ridge, Canarsie, Greenpoint, and Midwood over the course of ten days between September 2012 and April 2013 [PDF]. The vast majority of drivers were breaking the citywide 30 mph speed limit, with approximately one in three drivers going 40 mph or more. In Greenpoint, nearly half of all drivers were speeding 10 mph or more above the limit.

Meanwhile, NYPD speed enforcement has been lackluster at best, with Brooklyn precincts issuing 2,028 speeding tickets in 2011. Bushwick’s 83rd Precinct issued only eight speeding tickets the entire year, according to a Daily News analysis. TA reports clocking 2,232 speeding drivers during its 12 hours of surveying, so the lack of tickets isn’t due to a lack of violations. In fact, NYPD has been issuing fewer speeding tickets each year.

The report is explicit about the need for automated enforcement. Efforts earlier this year to pass speed camera legislation were opposed by State Senators Marty Golden and Simcha Felder, both of Brooklyn. A new bill enabling speed cameras in NYC school zones has the support of Senate Co-Leader Jeff Klein and the majority of the city’s Assembly delegation. The legislative session is scheduled to wrap up Thursday.

The scene on Bedford Avenue at North 7th Street this weekend during the Williamsburg Walks car-free event. Photo: Stephen Miller

On Saturday, ten blocks of the Bedford Avenue retail strip were closed to cars and open to people for Williamsburg Walks, one of the first neighborhood car-free events to partner with DOT’s Weekend Walks program. The street was full of people enjoying the sunny weather — at chairs and tables, listening to live music, playing games, lounging on grass, and stopping in at shops and restaurants along the way.

The year’s third and final Williamsburg Walks is scheduled for this Saturday. The calendar for DOT’s Weekend Walks website lists 23 streets in all five boroughs with car-free streets on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays this summer — up from 18 three years ago.

New Yorkers craving something bigger than just their own neighborhood event are looking forward to the sixth annual Summer Streets, which converts Park Avenue and Lafayette Street from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park at 72nd Street into a car-free zone. Summer Streets takes place during three consecutive Saturdays in August. DOT has not yet announced this year’s dates.

Young, educated people are demanding better transit options and returning to cities, notes a new report by the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank. Image: Brigham Young University Civil and Environmental Engineering

This think tank, founded by conservative Paul Weyrich (also co-founder of the Heritage Foundation), released a report [PDF] last week extolling the economic benefits of transit investment and healthy cities. The Free Congress Foundation is also holding congressional hearings on its findings on the Hill, bringing some much-needed conservative support for walkable, connected cities to Washington politics.

The report argues that returns on investment in highways are declining. Author Michael Bronzini says healthy, walkable cities are important to attracting talent in a knowledge-based, 21st century economy.

“The history of metropolitan area development in the U.S. since World War II to the present is well known, and has often been described as the ‘flight to the suburbs,’” says Bronzini. “More recently, many metropolitan areas have been seeing somewhat of a return to the city.”

“These new urban residents want walkable communities, social and cultural amenities and good public transportation services that will enable them to access all the opportunities that vibrant central cities have to offer,” Bronzini adds.

While some prominent conservative electeds have starved transit and approached the movement toward cities as a political threat, others, like Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, have shown leadership and recognized the economic value of creating more walkable places. The Free Congress Foundation’s report is more evidence that Republican transit opponents don’t speak for all conservatives when it comes to transportation policy.

A tipster sent us photos of what looks like a sinkhole in the Hudson River Greenway just north of 181st Street, in Washington Heights. These shots were taken Sunday morning.

We asked the Parks Department when the hole might be repaired, and whether repair work would necessitate a detour. “We are aware of the situation and we have the area cordoned off for public safety while we assess the damage,” said a spokesperson, via email.

Greenway users, let us know what you’re seeing in the area of 181st Street.

Though it’s prime cycling weather, Parks has closed another uptown stretch of the greenway — from 133rd Street to 135th Street — until December, directing users to detour onto 12th Avenue. Parks told Streetsblog in May that the Harlem greenway segment was blocked so that a utility company could stage construction equipment.