Queens driver Ian Glasgow fled the scene of a near-fatal crash last month in what prosecutors said was a conscious attempt to avoid a DUI charge. The penalty for hit-and-runs is less than for drunk driving. Image: Daily News

If you get drunk, get behind the wheel of a car and get into a crash in New York State, you should flee the scene. Not morally, of course, but legally the repercussions will be less severe. A drunk driver who stays at the scene of a crash can be charged with a felony; sober up and take the hit-and-run charge and the worst you’ll face is a misdemeanor.

As Staten Island defense attorney Mario Gallucci told the Staten Island Advance, “As a defense attorney, you love it when they leave the scene, because it helps your case.”

Earlier this week, though, the State Senate passed legislation sponsored by Brooklyn Republican Marty Golden which would eliminate that perverse incentive. Golden’s bill would increase the penalty for leaving the scene of a crash, currently a Class A misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in prison, to match that of causing injury while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, a Class E felony that can carry up to four years of jail time.

“This bill makes a very important change to the law in terms of aligning DUI and hit and run penalties in non-fatal or serious injury cases,” said Transportation Alternatives general counsel Juan Martinez.

Golden’s bill passed the State Senate last year as well, but died in the Assembly. The Assembly version, introduced by Brooklyn Democrat Steven Cymbrowitz, currently has 23 sponsors and is before the transportation committee.

In the Senate, the bill passed by a vote of 58 to 1, with Brooklyn Democrat Velmanette Montgomery the only nay.

This afternoon, Golden held a press conference urging the Assembly to pass his legislation. He stood at the corner of 72nd Street and 7th Avenue, where a hit-and-run driver killed Amjad Barakat, a 33-year-old father of two.

Joining Golden was Republican Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis, who represents the area and is a supporter of Golden’s bill. Malliotakis also has legislation pending to create a three-strikes law for drunk driving convictions, revoking someone’s drivers license and vehicle registration for ten years after a third DUI. That bill passed the State Senate last year but has not yet this year.

“Anyone that would get behind the wheel and gamble with the lives of others on the road deserves to be punished to the fullest extent of the law,” said Malliotakis in a statement. “With the holiday weekend coming up, now is the most important time to focus on safety for drivers and pedestrians. Whether it’s a repeat drunk driver, or a person who flees the scene of a crime, the message must be loud and clear – reckless drivers will end up behind bars.”

Said Golden, “This week, another person was left to die on our streets after getting hit by a car. And all too often, we hear of families destroyed by drunk drivers. This must be the year that the Empire State stands up against hit and runs and drunk driving.”

Radio personality Kevin "Gravy" Canup delivers a bike, donated by Grand Rapids Bicycle Company, to Kenowa Hills High School in Walker, MI. Photo: Chris Clark for MLive.com

Tuesday morning, a group of intrepid high schoolers in the western Michigan city of Walker got onto their bikes and into a heap of trouble.

The Kenowa Hills High School students, eschewing a tradition of senior pranks that often destroy school property (spray-painting lockers and super-gluing doors, for example), opted to ride their bikes to the last day of classes in an impromptu parade.

They called the police department, which routinely accompanies similar events. They called the mayor of Walker, Rob VerHeulen, who rode along with the cops and even brought donuts. It was a “beautiful morning,” VerHeulen told WMXI, nearby Grand Rapids’ Fox affiliate.

But they neglected to call the school (it was a senior prank, after all). So when the convoy arrived — on time — they were greeted by Principal Katie Pennington, who promptly sent some 64 participating students home and informed them that not only would they be suspended for the last day of school, but they would also be prohibited from walking in the school’s graduation ceremonies. Cue the parental outrage.

One media mini-firestorm later, enough dust had settled for the school administration to rescind their suspensions and reschedule exams and commencement. A local radio host even convinced the Grand Rapids Cycle Company to donate a bike to the school, delivering it in person at a district board meeting to resounding applause.

“Did I overreact? In retrospect, of course I did,” Pennington said in a statement posted to the high school’s website yesterday. “My first response to learning of our high school seniors riding bikes to school on busy roads was to fear for their safety, and I responded in kind.”

And with that, whether or not it was their intention, the Walker 64 have helped draw attention to the sad state of bicycle infrastructure in many areas with considerable pent-up demand for cycling.

“The idea that a group of kids riding bikes to school constitutes a ‘prank,’ and a life-threatening one at that, raised eyebrows among more than a few cyclists, including myself,” said Ken Paulman, writing for Midwest Energy News. “But thanks to the magic of Google Maps, we can see that Pennington has a point.”

This bridge is the only way over a freeway on the way to Kenowa Hills High School. Image: Midwest Energy News/Google Street View

After taking his readers on a virtual tour of the students’ bike route, mainly composed of two-lane rural roads and not much in the way of safe space for biking and walking, Paulman gets to the crux of the issue:

[W]hen the mere act of kids riding bikes to school can cause a major disruption and bring down entire links in a community’s transportation system, that points to perhaps some deeper issues of urban planning. Critics of alternative transportation infrastructure often criticize it as “social engineering,” but plopping a school into a semi-rural area that’s only accessible by car takes away the students’ (and parents’) ability to decide for themselves how they want to get to school and back.

“We applaud the initiative and intention of the students, and we also appreciate concerns about the safety of cyclists and pedestrians,”  echoed Rhonda Romano, head of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Midwest Office, in a letter to the editor obtained by Streetsblog. “In fact, these two goals — cycling to school and providing safe facilities to do so — go hand in hand.” (RTC has recently shown that rural cycling rates fall more in line with major urban centers than one might think.)

“The terrific news is that the students of Kenowa Hills High School already get it — this isn’t going to be like forcing children to eat their broccoli,” Romano wrote.

Graphic by Carly Clark

At the February City Council hearing on NYPD traffic enforcement, council members and the public learned that a driver who injures a pedestrian or cyclist in New York City is not normally cited under the state vulnerable user laws unless an officer witnesses the violation. NYPD officials said department protocol prohibits precinct officers from issuing tickets under VTL 1146, the state statute that includes Hayley and Diego’s Law as well as Elle’s Law, because the citations are prone to being dismissed in court.

Legislation pending in Albany would amend Hayley and Diego’s Law by making clear that officers may issue tickets for careless driving whether or not they observe an infraction. Meanwhile, thousands of pedestrians and cyclists are injured in traffic every year with barely any repercussions for motorists. Though the department’s prohibition on careless driving citations does not apply to the Accident Investigation Squad — the 19-officer unit assigned to conduct full-scale investigations in instances where someone dies or is believed likely to die — NYPD rarely employs VTL 1146 to assign responsibility to drivers who injure and kill.

In 2011, the first full year after Hayley and Diego’s Law went into effect, 161 pedestrians and cyclists were killed on New York streets. NYPD issued just 84 citations for careless driving last year, according to preliminary data obtained by Transportation Alternatives from the state Department of Motor Vehicles. That number represents a drop from 2010, when officers issued 98 citations under VTL 1146.

“It is appalling that the number of 1146′s would go down after the passage of the Hayley and Diego amendments to it,” says attorney Steve Vaccaro. “Hayley and Diego’s Law was a clear indication that the legislature wanted enforcement against drivers who injure carelessly. The flat trend in 1146 citations means NYPD doesn’t care. It is also a reflection of the fact that staffing of the officers who write the bulk of the 1146′s — the AIS detectives — is far too low.”

In March, City Council Member Steve Levin announced a number of measures intended to reform the way NYPD handles traffic crashes, one of which was a bill to require that at least five officers per precinct be trained to conduct AIS-scale investigations. That bill has since been reduced to resolution status, as has another that would have mandated that NYPD investigative protocols conform to state law.

Graphic by Carly Clark

The gap between 1146 citations and pedestrian and cyclist injuries is enormous. In 2010, the latest year for which injury data are available, 13,892 pedestrians and cyclists were hurt in collisions with drivers — a large enough number that the 98 VTL 1146 tickets issued that year hardly merit consideration. Says Vaccaro: “The number of 1146 citations represent a fraction of one percent of the universe of cases in which the statute might apply — crashes involving a motor vehicle and a vulnerable street user in which the driver’s failure to use due care was a contributing factor.”

Juan Martinez, general counsel for Transportation Alternatives, describes a scenario that plays out across the city on a daily basis: “A cop gets to the scene of a crash. There are witnesses who want to tell their stories, to see justice. The cop wants to do justice. A lot of times there isn’t a lot of mystery — the wheels are over the pedestrian. But their hands are tied by the policy.”

Martinez says the prohibition against beat cops writing careless driving citations is contradicted by an opinion from the state attorney general, as well as case law.

“Because of this NYPD policy the law has been rendered impotent,” Martinez says. “The benefits to safety, which the sponsors and supporters of the law expected, we haven’t seen the effects on the streets.”

The amendment to Hayley and Diego’s Law is sponsored by Senator Dan Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh. To date, they are the only sponsors in their respective houses. Still, in a statement to Streetsblog, Squadron expressed hope that the bill will clear the legislature.

“Our bill to strengthen Hayley and Diego’s Law was one of the 311 bills that the Senate Republican leadership attempted to shelve by sending it to the locked vault of the Rules Committee,” said Squadron. “But there’s still over a month left in this legislative session — and we’re continuing to push to provide law enforcement with the necessary tools to effectively crack down on careless driving.”

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Photo: Wikimedia

Election Day is more than a year away, but the race to become the next mayor of New York City is well-underway. In the last two issues of its magazine, Reclaim, Transportation Alternatives has been asking the would-be mayors for their thoughts on transit (in the more recent interviews, one question about cycling was added). So far, TA has received responses from all of the major candidates except 2009 Democratic nominee Bill Thompson.

All this week, Streetsblog will be re-printing the candidates’ responses. Here are the answers TA received from City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

Q: What role does a well-funded public transit system play in New York City’s economic growth?

A: Investing in our transportation system must be a central part of any plan to grow our city’s economy. We want residents and businesses to be able to make long-term decisions based on the belief that our transit system is dependable and will continue to improve. Often a lack of transportation is one of the biggest obstacles for businesses looking to expand in a particular community and create jobs for working families. That’s why the Council’s efforts to expand the city’s booming tech industry from DUMBO and the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Downtown Brooklyn have focused in large part on increasing transit links between all three areas.

It’s also one of the reasons I worked with the Mayor to launch the East River Ferry last year, which currently serves 10,000 commuters a week. The East River Ferry has helped bring additional development to the Queens and Brooklyn waterfront, and business owners are already reporting an increase in economic activity. And just as importantly, we need to ensure that New Yorkers—no matter where they live—can commute to work or school in a timely fashion. This provides residents the opportunity to devote more time to their families and communities.

Q: What would you do as mayor to address transit deserts, which are locations where riders are faced with hour-plus commutes, multiple transfers or multi-fare rides?

A: When I meet with New Yorkers in communities around the city, one of the most common issues they raise is long commute times and lack of access to transportation. I believe New York City and the MTA need to continue to invest in infrastructure projects in underserved communities, to make our transit system more equitable. But we also need to aggressively pursue more immediate solutions. That’s why I support the expansion of Express Bus and Select Bus Service in all five boroughs—two ways we can quickly speed commute times for many New Yorkers. Ferries are another way we can shorten transit times without major construction, and the City Council has been leading the charge to expand ferry service to waterfront neighborhoods in all five boroughs.

Q: If transit fares go up on 1/1/13, it will be the fifth fare hike since 2008. Do you think transit riders are paying their fair share, and is it time for elected officials to seriously consider new sources of revenue for public transit?

A: I have spoken out numerous times in opposition to recent fare hikes, which have put an increased burden on New Yorkers at a time when many are already struggling to make ends meet. The MTA needs to develop a consistent funding stream for the future, instead of balancing their books on the backs of working New Yorkers. I also believe we need to be exploring alternative sources for transit funding at all levels of government.

Q: With the nation’s largest bike share program scheduled to open in the city this summer, can you give us your thoughts on bicycling as part of NYC’s larger transportation network?

A: Bicycling is an extremely important part of the city’s transit system. Community engagement is important to ensure that our new programs are meeting the needs of all New Yorkers. That’s why the Council recently passed legislation requiring DOT to engage community boards before installing new bike lanes, to make sure we’re expanding bike lanes in a way that is thoughtful and sustainable. We also passed legislation requiring parking garages to add bicycle parking spaces, and requiring commercial buildings to allow employees to enter with bicycles. In addition, we must continue to make every effort to protect the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians alike as these programs expand.

We welcome applications from engaging writers, reporters, and advocates who share our vision of Streetsblog as a respected, influential source of information and commentary on transportation and urban planning issues.

Responsibilities

Streetsblog combines a distinct advocacy bent with newspaper-quality journalism. Toward that end, we are seeking a reporter to craft original content, interviews, event coverage and engaging commentary. Applicants should be enthusiastic about the notion that journalism can be conducted with integrity and fidelity to the truth while espousing a clear point of view. Knowing how to effectively impart a message without overwhelming your writing is a critical skill for this position.

A day’s work at Streetsblog NYC can take you from SoHo to the South Bronx, or from a lively street party in a newly-reclaimed public space to an overheated community board meeting. You’ll cover bike lanes, pedestrian plazas, and the tabloid media’s often-unhinged response to both. You’ll write about transit-oriented development, giant parking lots, and the nitty gritty of zoning codes and budget documents. You’ll watchdog the NYPD’s response to traffic crashes and Albany’s (mis)handling of MTA funding. And you’ll meet the activists who work on all these issues and fight to make New York City more livable, sustainable, equitable, and safe.

The ideal candidate will have the background knowledge and analytical skills to accurately process information and make sense of it for a mass audience in a timely manner. A passion for livable cities and a firm grasp of local politics are also essential.

The reporter will:

• Create a daily stream of original news and content
• Track ongoing stories, such as pieces of legislation or specific street redesigns
• Research and write larger enterprise pieces about developments in transportation and urban planning policy happening around the city and elsewhere in the tri-state area
• Conduct interviews and cultivate sources among public officials, advocates, policy experts, and engaged citizens
• Produce commentary that holds officials to account for their decisions, and corrects errors and misperceptions that surface in the media
• Pinpoint opportunities for transportation improvements and reforms, and explain what has to change to enact them
• Mix in short posts and photo-based content

Qualifications

• Passion for and knowledge of progressive urban planning, transportation, and land use topics
• Excellent writing and research skills, as evidenced by clips
• Previous reporting experience, ideally covering transportation or planning issues, is preferable
• Experience with Word Press or other blogging/content production platforms a plus

To Apply

Send a resume, cover letter, and relevant clips/links to Ben Fried: ben@streetsblog.org.

Streetsblog is produced by OpenPlans, a New York City-based non-profit that improves cities using journalism and open-source software. The New York City reporter position is full-time, and will report to the editor-in-chief in New York. 

According to reports the woman was walking east across Broadway at 14th Street, in the crosswalk and with the light, when the truck driver, also heading east, made a right turn. The driver continued south on Broadway.

From the Daily News:

“He didn’t see her. It was a big truck, a dump truck,” said William Cayame, 22. “The light was for her. She had the walk sign,” he said.

“She fell on the floor. I just heard the sound, like bones breaking,” Cayame said, “It was awful.”

Another witness said he had just come out of a nearby drugstore and heard the awful sound of the woman being crushed.

“I heard the noise. I heard her get hit — boom,” said Rudy Dearaujo, 42. “I saw the police coming from the park and everybody standing here by her body. They were checking her pulse.”

The crash occurred at around 1:30 a.m. The victim, whose name has not been released, died at Beth Israel Hospital.

The News posted a photo of a truck with its coverage, though it’s unclear how the picture relates to the story.

Does Dallas need another downtown freeway? Mayor Mike Rawlings is weighing that question. Photo: Dallas Morning News

You can see the old sensibilities — “we need to widen roads to reduce traffic” — battling with newer, more enlightened solutions, like transit investment and land use planning. Whether or not they build this ridiculous freeway — and we sincerely hope they don’t — it’s a good discussion for Dallas to have.

This story has taken another interesting turn, as Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings — who recently said he supported the Trinity freeway project — now wants to get more information from TxDOT before making a final decision. Michael Lindenberger at Network blog Dallas Morning News’ Transportation Blog has this report:

Council members Angela Hunt, Sandy Greyson and Scott Griggs have shown him data and other information from state officials they believe prove that the toll road is both more expensive and less effective than improving Interstates 30 and 35, Rawlings said.

The new information contrasts with the answers he got when he was forming his opinion of the Trinity toll road, Rawlings said. As a result he has given TxDOT 30 days to present a simple matrix with the two approaches’ costs and benefits side-by-side.

“When I met with advisers and experts about Project Pegasus and the toll road, I was told the cost for Pegasus was not only prohibitive but that the funding wasn’t there. The questions raised in the last few days are good questions. I’ve re-assessed the numbers and am trying to get my questions answered,” he said.

If the answers favor a change in support from the city, Rawlings said he has no problem changing his mind over the Trinity. “Until the check is written, our obligation is to keep asking if we are doing the right thing.”

The question now is, are sensibilities evolving as quickly at TxDOT as they are in the Dallas City Council? Last we checked, they were not.

Elsewhere on the Network today: City Parks Blog ranks the American cities with the best access to park amenities. Bike Delaware runs a piece from DelDOT Secretary Shailen Bhatt about why he bikes. And the Urbanophile remarks on the rise of downtown Cincinnati.

TRAC members participate in a May Day rally. One of the transit rider coalition's top demands is for Select Bus Service on 125th Street. Image via Facebook

Select Bus Service is a big success on First and Second Avenues and 34th Street. Speeds are up, ridership is up, and the MTA is using the time savings to run even more buses along the busy corridors. So where in Manhattan is next for the popular package of bus improvements? One group of uptown transit riders hopes the answer is 125th Street.

The Transit Riders Action Committee is a new project of WE ACT, the northern Manhattan environmental justice organization, founded last year in response to the most recent round of fare hikes. After reaching out to neighborhood riders at bus stops and subway platforms, TRAC asked new members for their priorities in the neighborhood. After generating a long list of options, the new committee voted to focus on three priorities: keeping the fare affordable, improving the condition of Upper Manhattan’s poorly-maintained subway stations, and improving bus trips on 125th Street.

“The buses are incredibly slow,” said Jake Carlson, WE ACT’s transportation equity coordinator. “They are constantly battling for their own piece of the road. It’s an issue that really hinders people’s mobility.” He noted that he often ends up walking crosstown on 125th rather than taking the bus.

Despite slow speeds, bus ridership on 125th Street is sky-high. Four routes travel on 125th Street: the M60, M100, M101 and Bx15. Between them, around 32,500 passengers board on 125th Street on an average weekday, said Carlson, and around 31,000 get off.

TRAC organizers and members have already started to meet with community board members and feel there’s room for persuasion. “When you start talking about the problem, most people get it right away,” said Carlson. “They know what it means to get across 125th Street.”

When it comes to solutions, however, there’s more resistance. “Sometimes it’s difficult to imagine what else 125th might look like,” said Cecil Corbin-Mark, WE ACT deputy director. “They sometimes can’t conceptualize, physically, how the street could be transformed.”

Most of the objections, said Carlson, are those that surface before every Select Bus Service project in the city: worries about lost parking spaces or increased congestion. Uptown, there are also concerns about the additional police presence implicit in SBS’s proof-of-payment fare system. “The idea here is that it’s another opportunity for stop-and-frisk,” said Corbin-Mark.

This month, TRAC will step up its outreach and start to meet with the three local City Council members in the area and local businesses along the corridor. At the same time, said Carlson, DOT should be completing its alternatives analysis for improving transit access to LaGuardia Airport, which could include better service along the M60 and 125th Street.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Bike racks set up for MS 51's annual Bike-To-School Day are filled with students' wheels.

Based on this picture of rows of temporary bike racks, all filled, it looks like MS 51′s Bike-To-School Day was a big hit (photo via Lara Lebeiko of Bicycle Habitat, which provided volunteers for the event). Escorted rides, or “bike buses,” took students from Sunset Park, Carroll Gardens and Windsor Terrace/Kensington to the Park Slope school and back. During the day, a bike skills and safety course helped teach the students how to ride on their own.

MS 51 has been holding a Bike-To-School Day event since 2010. Check out Streetfilms’ coverage of the school’s first year of festivities here.

But even a coordinated effort to promote biking to school didn’t eliminate one of the most persistent perils on the route to MS 51. In the morning, Fifth Avenue is a mess of double-parked parents dropping off their kids out in front of school. The bike lane in front of the school is routinely impassible, and today was no exception, as the below photo from Streetsblog reader Car Free Nation illustrates.

It’s great to see a city school promoting cycling to its students. To keep them riding, though, it looks like the city needs some traffic enforcement.

Double-parked cars block the Fifth Avenue bike lane before school starts.

National Bike to Work Day, as observed last Friday in St. Louis, MO. Photo: @aboutcycling via NPR

It gets even better, as a recent article in Forbes pointed out:

The average annual operating cost of a bicycle is $308, compared to $8,220 for the average car, and if American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the entire year, it would save more than two billion gallons of gas, for a total savings of $7.3 billion a year, based on $4 a gallon for gas.

The Forbes story made it into our headline stack on Monday, but as congressional Republicans seem poised to make another run at eliminating the Transportation Enhancements program (a major source of funds for bike infrastructure), the numbers bear repeating.

Especially these numbers: Biking and walking put together make up 12 percent of trips, but bike-ped funding accounts for less than two percent of transportation spending. Furthermore, though the U.S. had 40 percent more bicycle commuters in 2010 than in 2000, efforts persist to gut what few bike-ped programs remain in favor of increased highway spending.

And yet, here’s a list of bicycling facts that have emerged (or re-emerged) in recent research:

• Bike path and trail projects create more jobs per million dollars spent than highway projects.
• Building bike paths and trails encourages more people to ride more often.
• Cycling is not a purely urban phenomenon.

Add to that the knowledge that transportation is overtaking housing as the single largest household expenditure in America, especially among low-income households, and it should be a no-brainer: Funding bike-ped infrastructure is a bargain.

Comptroller John Liu. Photo: DelMundo for Daily News

Election Day is more than a year away, but the race to become the next mayor of New York City is well-underway. In the last two issues of its magazine, Reclaim, Transportation Alternatives has been asking the would-be mayors for their thoughts on transit (in the more recent interviews, one question about cycling was added). So far, TA has received responses from all of the major candidates except 2009 Democratic nominee Bill Thompson.

All this week, Streetsblog will be re-printing the candidates’ responses. Here are the answers TA received from Comptroller John Liu.

Q: What role does a well-funded public transit system play in New York City’s economic growth?

A: Public transit is paramount to New York City’s economy. More than half of NYC’s commuters rely on our network of subways, trains, buses and ferries to get to work (subways are the mode of choice for more than a third of commuters to NYC). New York City’s transit, especially its subways are a defining characteristic of our city and transit is an efficient use of resources – economically and environmentally. Transit makes our dense business districts and neighborhoods possible and adds to the diversity and vibrancy of the city.

New York City’s population is growing and along with it ridership levels on our transit systems. In fact, MTA’s average weekday ridership in 2011 was the highest since 1951. Growing ridership on our transit system requires that we ensure adequate resources to keep up with that demand. Time lost in congestion is counter-productive for our economy, but is also frustrating to commuters and residents. It is essential that we ensure that transit is funded, and managed in a way that keeps the city and its economy moving.

Q: What would you do as mayor to address transit deserts, which are locations where riders are faced with hour-plus commutes, multiple transfers or multi-fare rides?

A: The next Mayor, whoever that may be, will need to address this issue. Last year, the Center for an Urban Future released a report that demonstrated that a large part of the city’s job growth and population gains have occurred outside of Manhattan. This de-centralized growth pattern has translated into longer commutes for low-income workers. Around the world, and recently in NYC, transit authorities have been using buses as a cost-effective way to close gaps in transit service. Expanding Select Bus Service where appropriate and bringing additional bus service to growing job and population centers can be an effective way to address transit deserts.

Q: If transit fares go up on 1/1/13, it will be the fifth fare hike since 2008. Do you think transit riders are paying their fair share, and is it time for elected officials to seriously consider new sources of revenue for public transit?

Transit riders are paying more than their fair share. As you mention, there have been four fare hikes since 2008, there will be one in 2013 and another in 2015. Of course, these fare-hikes hurt our low-income commuters the most.

While it is good for transit riders that Governor Cuomo’s budget funded the next three years of the MTA capital budget, it is largely funded through debt. This exacerbates debt service payments, the fastest growing piece of the MTA budget. Ensuring adequate funding for our transit system will be a key issue going forward. With that said, it is also essential to ensure that the MTA is managed in a cost-effective manner.

Q: With the nation’s largest bike share program scheduled to open in the city this summer, can you give us your thoughts on bicycling as part of NYC’s larger transportation network?

A: I myself have biked from Queens to City Hall, and my main concern remains safety. It will be necessary to ensure that tourists and locals alike understand the rules of the road and bicycle responsibly.

Sens. Barbara Boxer and James Inhofe worked hard to negotiate an agreement on transportation enhancement funding -- a deal now threatened by House Republicans. Photo: Transportation Issues Daily

Transportation Enhancements is the primary source of funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. It comprises less than two percent of total federal transportation funds but has been a source of bitter contention, nearly derailing talks in the Senate. The two sides eventually made a deal under which TE is subsumed under the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program’s “additional activities” category. Per that agreement, states can opt out altogether, and some road uses compete with bike and pedestrian projects for funding. An amendment to maintain some local control over the funds made it somewhat more palatable for advocates.

Sen. James Inhofe, the conservative top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, warned House members at the outset of the conference that “the conservative position is to pass this thing,” even if members are not 100 percent satisfied with the compromise. The changes to the enhancements program constituted “the most meaningful reform to conservatives” in the bill, he said.

Transportation conference chairwoman Barbara Boxer said today that lawmakers “have a chance” to make the bill longer than two years, as the Senate bill is written. She also said that 80 percent of the EPW Committee’s portion of the bill is not controversial and has been agreed to. According to Boxer, House Speaker John Boehner told her last night that he has instructed House negotiators to get a bill done.

Still, a staffer familiar with the ongoing conference talks has told Streetsblog that TE is again an issue of contention. Freshman Republicans have made a point of expressing their dissatisfaction that any funding whatsoever remains in the bill.

In addition to TE, Republicans took issue with one of the most popular bill elements among transportation reformers: the provision allowing for more flexibility for transit agencies in times of high unemployment. The Senate bill allows agencies in such cases to spend federal funds normally reserved for capital improvements on operations. GOP opposition to these programs is part and parcel of the urban/rural divide, according to Streetsblog’s source, who said some House members are bent on redistributing money from urban areas to rural districts.

Image: NYPD

Seventeen vulnerable users were killed on city streets in April, according to the latest NYPD crash data report [PDF].

City-wide, 12 pedestrians and five cyclists were fatally struck by drivers: three pedestrians and one cyclist in Manhattan; three pedestrians and one cyclist in the Bronx; four pedestrians and two cyclists in Brooklyn; one pedestrian and one cyclist in Queens; and one pedestrian in Staten Island.

Across the city, 934 pedestrians and 316 cyclists were hurt in collisions with motor vehicles. Per NYPD policy, few if any of these crashes were investigated by trained officers.

Five motorists and six passengers died in the city in April; 1,662 and 1,799 were injured, respectively.

There were 16,244 motor vehicle crashes in the city last month. After the jump: contributing factors for crashes resulting in injury and death.

Image: NYPD

The MTA will increase transit service to the Barclays Center on game nights, but Forest City Ratner won't be paying for that increased service or for discounted fares. Photo via Brownstoner

The MTA will be adding extra transit service on Barclays Center game nights. But past promises of free or discounted MetroCards for arena-goers did not materialize in the transportation demand management plan revealed yesterday by developer Forest City Ratner, which local advocates are calling “too little, too late.”

Under the plan to reduce the number of people who drive to the arena, developed by Sam Schwartz for Forest City, more 4 and Q trains will run at the end of a Nets game, according to Norman Oder at Atlantic Yards Report. LIRR trains will run from to Jamaica every 15 minutes, rather than every 25. Nine subway lines already run directly to the now-renamed Atlantic Avenue/Barclays Center station.

Additionally, 541 parking spaces will be built on-site, fewer than half what had been planned earlier this year. The reduction in parking capacity will make driving to the site that much more difficult. Four-hundred bike parking spaces will be provided, but despite past promises from Forest City Ratner, they will not be indoors.

Beyond that, the transportation demand management plan focuses on marketing measures urging fans to take transit. The arena’s website, for example, tells those who look for information on where to park, “Parking at Barclays Center is very limited. We strongly recommend using public transportation.”

But the plan goes neither as far as the developer had promised, nor as far as arena neighbors and sustainable transportation advocates would like. “The plan released today doesn’t even include the free subway fare for Nets ticketholders promised in 2009,” said Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and a member of the BrooklynSpeaks coalition, in a press release. As recently as last year, free or discounted transit fares were being discussed by Forest City Ratner. Now it looks as if riders will have to pay full freight.

Slevin also pointed to the cost to the MTA of providing additional service on event nights. “The TDM assumes the public will bear the cost of adding transit capacity after arena events,” she said. “Instead, the developer should be paying for service enhancements.”

Such a contribution would surely be welcomed by the cash-strapped MTA. But asking taxpayers to pick up the tab for extra service fits the pattern in New York City, where new sports venues have not been asked to cover the cost of transit investments to serve their fans. The city and state picked up the $91 million cost of a new Metro-North station at Yankee Stadium, for example.

Many neighborhood groups resumed their call for residential parking permits around the arena area, saying the plan failed to provide sufficient disincentives to drive. “It’s time to put politics aside and do what’s necessary to implement meaningful demand management strategies—like residential parking permits—so that arena patrons will leave their cars at home,” said Jo Anne Simon, a Democratic district leader in the area.

The city Department of Transportation is currently studying the use of residential parking permits around the Barclays Center and Yankee Stadium, but the Bloomberg administration is opposed to a widespread implementation of the policy. Authorization for residential parking permits faces a tough fight the State Senate, where BNew York City Republicans Andrew Lanza and Marty Golden oppose them.

Bike licensing: Why? Photo: Wild Bell

Putting up barriers to healthy choices like biking makes no sense from a policy perspective — especially since many people cycling are children or very low-income, for whom the registration and licensing process may be especially difficult, offputting, or nonsensical. (By the way, if you don’t have a car, how do you legally get to the registration point?)

But in case you needed another reason, James Sinclair at Network blog Stop and Move has a good one for us today: police profiling. Sinclair points to a recent statement from the police department in Clovis, California:

From what I understand, Clovis still has a law on the books requiring that all bikes be registered (with a fee). Fortunately, that law hasn’t been enforced in years, and it’s entirely possible the current PD doesn’t even realize that law exists.

Anyway, in the title of the post, I mention that profiling is included. What do I mean by that? Well, the ABC news broadcast has a very unfortunate quote from a Clovis PD rep.

Calli Biaggi of the Clovis Police Department is quoted as saying:

If we stop somebody and they’re on a bicycle and it doesn’t look like maybe they should have that bicycle, we can run the serial number of the bike and then we can see that its owned by someone else. And then we can contact that person and see if that bike is supposed to be with that person.

Sinclair responds:

That sounds exactly like a healthy dosage of profiling and it shouldn’t be something that department is boasting about doing.

Unless we’re talking about an adult on a bike intended for a small child, how exactly can an officer determine that “it doesn’t look like maybe they should have that bicycle”? We all know what’s actually going on here, and it’s wrong.

Sinclair says he does support voluntary bike registration as a way to assist police in recovering stolen bicycles. We concur.

Elsewhere on the Network today: Urban Velo goes into further detail about the problems with bike licensing. Bike Delaware celebrates the First State’s new status at the country’s 10th bike friendliest. And Copenhagenize is disappointed with New York City’s new pedestrian and cyclist safety campaign, because it is aimed at cyclists and pedestrians rather than motorists.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Behind these doors is a public passageway meant to relieve pedestrian crowding on Midtown avenues. The developer of the Metropolitan Tower included the passage in exchange for rights to construct a taller building. Photo: Jake Schabas

“It’s a private property with public access,” a security guard explained after stopping me from taking photos of a mid-block passageway through the Metropolitan Tower on 56th Street. The space in question, which connects 56th to 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, is one of more than 150 privately owned public spaces in central Midtown, many of which are products of a 1980s zoning program to improve pedestrian circulation. In exchange for development bonuses that today are worth millions of dollars in rentable square footage, developers were supposed to build and maintain publicly accessible mid-block passageways to help ease pedestrian congestion on the heavily used north-south avenues. The problem is many of these semi-public spaces now appear so private, most walkers wouldn’t even know to use them.

This summer, the Department of Transportation is looking to change that with a series of midblock crosswalks tying 51st Street to 57th Street between Sixth and Seventh [PDF]. Approved earlier this month by Community Board 5, the crosswalks will string together six passageways and enhance a much-needed pedestrian path on some of the most-walked streets in the city. The project is an important first step toward reclaiming several privately-owned public spaces — or POPS, as they’re known — that could be doing much more for Midtown pedestrians.

A midblock crossing proposed by NYC DOT for "6½ Avenue" in Midtown. Image: NYC DOT

POPS are the product of New York’s epochal 1961 zoning law and come in all shapes and sizes, from passageways and arcades to plazas and parks. The basic idea is that developers can erect taller buildings if they provide and maintain a public amenity. These amenities can be as utilitarian as a covered outdoor passageway — for example, the Rihga Royal Hotel’s POPS connecting West 54th and 55th Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues —  to the more intricate, landscaped Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan.

The Rihga Hotel's utilitarian POPS connects 54th Street and 55th Street. Photo: Jake Schabas

As the Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti demonstrated, these semi-private, semi-public spaces inhabit a legal grey area. Different rules apply to each space, from the hours the space is accessible to the number of tables and chairs that must be provided. OWS-style challenges to the rules governing these spaces are rare. More common is the slow creep of private uses that crowd out the public. Nowhere is this more clear than in midtown Manhattan’s mid-block connectors.

The AXA Building, between 51st and 52nd Street, features one of Midtown's best and most accessible midblock pedestrian connections. Photo: Jake Schabas.

The idea of incentivizing pedestrian mid-block connections to take pressure off the avenues is credited to William Holly Whyte, the groundbreaking urbanist and public space analyst. Over the years, a special Midtown zoning passed in 1982 punched dozens of walkways through the middle of 900-foot long blocks, until it was repealed in 1996. While some property owners took this opportunity to create beautiful arcades and gallerias — not just utilitarian throughways but linked plazas like the PaineWebber urban plaza in the AXA Building between West 51st and West 52nd Streets — others saw a chance to exploit the ambiguity of POPS, pedestrians be damned.

Consider Le Parker Meridien Hotel. One of three mid-block POPS connecting West 57th and West 56th Streets, the hotel’s two-story polished marble lobby, complete with bellmen and security, is part of the 6,820 square feet of space exchanged for thousands of square feet in additional developable floor area. A narrow arcade linking the lobby to West 57th Street acted as a coffee bar until a freak concrete spill last month shuttered Knave, as it’s known. The place appeared so private prior to the spill that it apparently fooled the New York Times, which described it as “a gracious room normally swathed in red velvet curtains, where a hot chocolate costs $6.” No mention was made that it was actually a public space. Or that it had been at the center of lawsuits in the early 1990s for violating its original purpose: to improve pedestrian circulation.

"The Knave" is supposed to be a public passageway -- can you tell? Photo: Le Parker Meridien

With enforcement remaining a problem, community groups, with the support of the Department of Transportation, are stepping forward to rectify what is essentially a transportation issue. Prompted by the Friends of Privately Owned Public Spaces, the DOT has created a plan that makes a six-block stretch of POPS connecting West 51st and West 57th Streets an official pedestrian route. Dubbed 6½ Avenue, the Midtown Midblock Enhancement plan calls for creating raised crosswalks, stop signs and curb extensions to tie together the different passageways. This will improve safety for the thousands of people already using 6½ Avenue while also acting as a wayfinding mechanism to make other people aware of the pedestrian-only route.

Community Board 5 voted unanimously in favor of moving ahead with the plan, an important first step in reclaiming these spaces for public use. The next step would be to clarify the rules and regulations over POPS, which is not to say private uses should be banned from them. Like sidewalk cafes or park kiosks, some private uses are indeed essential to successful public spaces. But when businesses have so thoroughly privatized these spaces that people are intimidated from using them as intended — as public spaces for pedestrian circulation — then clarity and enforcement are called for.

The gates to this passageway, connected to the Flatotel between 52nd and 53rd Street, close at 7 p.m.. Photo: Jake Schabas

While 6½ Avenue is the largest and best known mid-block pedestrian network, it’s not the only one. According to Harvard professor Jerold S. Kayden, the author of Privately Owned Public Space: The New York City Experience, there are five smaller mid-block passageways, one stretching four blocks between West 44th Street and 48th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

Like the spaces that link 6½ Avenue together, other POPS throughout the city should become part of the pedestrian network, complete with crosswalks and adequate public enforcement of their use. It’s time to put the public back in POPS.

Palumbo was crossing East 23rd Street near Second Avenue at around 1 a.m. on Friday, May 18, when reports say he was struck by a 1997 Acura driven by a 72-year-old woman. According to DNAinfo, the then-unidentified victim was crossing East 23rd “south to north in the middle block” when he was hit by the westbound motorist.

DNAinfo reported that Palumbo was in a wheelchair, while the Post said he was using a walker after a recent hip surgery. An NYPD spokesperson told Streetsblog he had no information on which version of the incident was correct.

A witness told the Post that the impact of the collision sent Palumbo “literally, 20 feet flying into the air.” Said the witness: “He just came down and smashed the windshield and went straight to the ground.” DNAinfo said Palumbo was “discovered lying in the street with severe injuries to his body.” He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.

Despite indications that the unidentified driver was traveling at an excessive speed, NYPD confirmed that “no criminality is suspected.”

This fatal crash occurred in the 13th Precinct. To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector Ted Berntsen, the commanding officer, go to the next precinct community council meeting. The 13th Precinct council meetings happen at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month at the 13th Precinct station house, located at 230 East 21st Street. Call the precinct at 212-477-7411 for information.

Palumbo was at least the second vulnerable street user killed in the city since Friday. Last night, 33-year-old Amjad Barakat was fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver in Bay Ridge. As of this writing, no fewer than 43 pedestrians and cyclists have died on city streets in 2012.

DOT's newest PSA campaign urges cyclists and pedestrians to pay attention and follow the rules of the road.

“Heads Up.” That’s the Department of Transportation’s newest message for cyclists and pedestrians, which will appear on six billboards, 300 bus shelters and 250,000 coffee cup sleeves around the city.

The new campaign marks a more positive tone than DOT’s “Don’t Be A Jerk” campaign, which many cyclists felt unfairly stigmatized bike riders. It’s also an expansion of emphasis from that campaign, aiming to influence pedestrian behavior as well.

Cyclists are urged to use lights at night, yield to pedestrians, travel in the direction of traffic, and stop at reds (“because it’s always better to arrive fashionably late,” says the ad). Pedestrians are told to watch for turning cars while crossing the street and not to cross mid-block. We’re not too optimistic about the effectiveness of any PSA campaign to convince New Yorkers not to walk the straightest route between point A and point B.

While the warning about turning cars indirectly acknowledges the danger posed by drivers who fail to yield, there is currently no equivalent PSA aimed at motorists. DOT will continue its current motorist public education campaigns, “That’s Why It’s 30,” focusing on speeding, and “You The Man,” supporting designated drivers.

Image: NYC DOT