East Side residents sign on for safer, greener streets.

"We're really hoping to put a finger on the scales, and push for fully-protected bike lanes while the DOT and East Side communities work on improving the M15 corridor," said Transportation Alternatives' Wiley Norvell. "To not address the huge demand for biking on First and Second avenues, something the DOT pledged to do as step number one in its 1997 Bicycle Master Plan, would be a huge missed opportunity."

TA counted 3,356 cyclists on the First and Second Avenue corridor during a 12-hour stretch last month, a figure that far exceeds the DOT's 2008 screenline count at 59th Street, Norvell said. All those cyclists are a fearless bunch -- braving rivers of traffic and some of the city's most intimidating cycling conditions. Imagine how many more New Yorkers would bike down the avenues if they didn't feel they were risking life and limb.

Norvell says TA staff and volunteers have been gathering letters from East Harlem down to the Lower East Side in support of protected bike infrastructure. Yesterday's delivery put hundreds of letters in the hands of East Side electeds, including City Council Members Rosie Mendez and Daniel Garodnick.

"The meetings were very positive," said Caroline Samponaro, director of TA's bike program. "Their staff agreed that we shouldn't redesign First and Second avenues without including provisions for cyclists and pedestrians."

Active support from East Side representatives will be critical as plans for the corridor advance. "Every project is about political will," said Samponaro. "What these projects need is political leadership from the electeds. They need to be the spokespeople for their constituents."

The optimal re-design of First and Second avenues would give buses and cyclists "space that allows them to travel safely and efficiently without having to compete with each other," she added. "These corridors can serve the non-driving majority and set a standard for how other major avenues will be treated."

Last week PA Walks and Bikes alerted Pennsylvania residents to an opportunity to give input on the state's new Climate Change Action Plan. The state has produced a report identifying specific actions that would reduce emissions by a target date of 2020.

Recent and projected GHG emissions from the Land Use and Transportation sector, as shown in Pennsylvania's Climate Change Action Plan

In his critique, LSC member John Boyle points to some notable omissions in Chapter 6, which focuses on transportation and land use:

There is no mention of bicycling and walking in the plan. There is a desire but no stated goal for reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled. The plan focuses instead on keep-driving actions such as proper tire inflation and "Eco Driving." Enhanced Support for Existing Land Use Policies sounds like a really weak action. Why not strengthen and enforce better Land Use Policies? Why not have a plan to make build more sidewalks and bike lanes?

The plan is open to public comment through November 9. PA Walks and Bikes explains how Pennsylvanians can give input on the group's blog.

Meanwhile in New York, residents will have a chance to make a difference in their neighborhoods at the second annual Community Board Join-Up Jammy Jam, hosted by Transportation Alternatives and the Livable Streets Initiative on November 23. As TA reminds us, community boards are "only as open-minded and effective as the people who sit on them." Join us to apply for your board and enjoy dinner, drinks, and conversation with current board members. Please RSVP by November 18.

In other news, the Livable Streets Community welcomes a new group working for more livable streets all the way over in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The Weekly Carnage is a Friday round-up of motor vehicle mayhem across the metro region. For more on the origins and purpose of this column, please read About the Weekly Carnage.

Damon Padmore, driving this SUV, hit and killed 38-year-old Dorothea Wallace as she made her way to work in Downtown Brooklyn. Padmore, a corrections officer at Sing Sing, was arrested for driving with a suspended license, but was not charged for killing Wallace. Photo: 1010 WINS

• Bronx: NYPD Detective Hits, Kills 67-Year-Old; Charged With DWI, Homicide (News 1, 2, Post 1, 2)
• Related: Commissioner Kelly Forms Panel to Speed DWI Evidence Collection (Streetsblog)
• Brooklyn: Unlicensed Prison Guard Strikes Woman, Not Charged for Death (News, Post, NY1)
• Manhattan: 22-Year-Old Student Run Over By MTA Bus in Hell's Kitchen; No Charges (Streetsblog)
  
• Bronx: Halloween Vandalism "Prank" Ends With Man Fatally Struck by City Bus (AMNY, News)
• Staten Island: Woman Killed in SIE Crash; Boyfriend Charged With DWI, Homicide (News, Advance)
• Harrison, NY: Livery Driver Killed, Passerby Injured Changing Tire on I-95 (LoHud)
  
• Seaford, LI: Man Killed Crossing Road After Crash (Newsday)
• Nutley, NJ: Driver Speeds Through Popular Trick-or-Treat Zone, Kills Kid; No Charges (S-L 1, 2, 3)
• South Brunswick, NJ: Elderly Florida Couple Killed in Wrong-Way Jersey Tpk. Collision (S-L)
  

No charges were filed against the Parks Dept. employee who seriously injured former Off-Broadway actress Shami Chaikin as she rode her motorized wheelchair in the Eighth Avenue bike lane. Photo: New York Post

• Gothamist Newsmap: 3 Unidentified Pedestrians Struck Since Saturday (Gothamist 1, 2)
  
• Manhattan: Woman in Wheelchair Hit by Parks Employee in 8th Ave. Bike Lane (Sblog, Post, News)
  
• Manhattan: Cabs Crash Into Scaffolding in East Village; 6 Injured (Gothamist)
  
• Manhattan: Al Sharpton's Daughter, Ex-Wife Charged With Resisting Arrest After Traffic Stop (Post)
• Queens: Driver on PCP Arrested En Route to Pick Up Daughter at School (News)
  
• Post Blotter Notes DWI, Road Rage Crashes on Staten Island
• Staten Island: Suspected Gang Member on PCP Crashes After Police Stop (Advance)
  
• Staten Island: Rider Snaps Photos of Texting Express Bus Driver (Advance)
• Staten Island: SUV Driver Mounts Car in Parking Lot; No Injuries Reported (Advance)
  
• Eastchester, NY: Driving Home From Game 6, Joe Girardi Renders Aid at Crash Site (LoHud)
  
• Smithtown, LI: Motorcyclist Charged With DWI After Passenger Falls Off, Hit by Driver (AP)
• Tractor-Trailer Collides With SUV, Closes LIE for 12 Hours; 1 Injured (Newsday)
• Stamford, CT: 12-Year-Old Struck, Critical; No Charges Expected (CT Post)
  
• Jersey City: 6 Passengers Injured in NJ Transit Bus Crash (Jersey Jrnl)
  
• Jersey City: Man Arrested for DWI After Halloween Crash Into Cemetery (Jersey Jrnl)
• Branchburg, NJ: Woman Hit, Seriously Hurt Trying to Help Injured Deer (Reporter)
  
• Clifton, NJ: Driver Misses Curve, Sails Into House (Record); Witty S-L Reader Commentary Ensues
• Linden, NJ: 69-Year-Old Gas Station Attendant Attacked by Deadbeat Motorist (NJLN)
  
• Edison, NJ: Road Worker's Leg Crushed by Steamroller (S-L)

Following Up

• Brooklyn: Officer Andrew Kelly Pleads Not Guilty for Vionique Valnord Death (News, Post, City Room)
• Queens: Man Gets 34-to-Life for Trying to Run Down Cops With Stolen MTA SUV (Qns Trib, YourNabe)
• Staten Island: Thousands Pay Tribute to 16-Year-Old Killed in One-Car Wreck (Post)
• Nassau Co.: Man Gets 5-10 Years for DWI Crash That Maimed Queens Cop (News)
  
• White Plains: Woman Sentenced to 1-3 Years for Killing Friend in DWI Crash (AP)
  

Photo: Nevada Appeal

• Los Angeles: Road Rage Doc Thompson Convicted for 2008 Assault on 2 Cyclists (Streetsblog)
• Related: Civil Suit Filed by Victim Ron Peterson (AP)
  
• Herkimer, NY: Man Struck, Killed While Trick-or-Treating With 8-Year-Old Son (AP)
• Forestport, NY: Road Worker Holding Stop Sign Killed; No Immediate Charges (AP)
  
• Galen, NY: Man Tries to Torch Car With Wife Inside (AP)
• Carson City, NV: 3-Year-Old in Stroller Hit During Family Halloween Outing (Appeal)
  
• Portland, OR: Man Guilty in Hit-and-Run of Pedicab Driven by Large Orange Rabbit (AP)
• Dickinson, ND: 3 Missing College Softball Players Found in Submerged SUV (AP)
  
• Berlin: Soldier Drives Car Into Fellow Troops, Injuring 13 (AP)
• Sacramento Kings' Andres Nocioni Arrested on Suspicion of DUI (NBA.com)
  
• Tokyo: Brad Pitt Shops for New Motorcycle After LA Crash (AP)
  
• Morgan Freeman Settles Civil Suit Stemming From 2008 Rollover (BBC)
  

Trends and Other News

• Brooklyn: Student Speeders Terrorize Manhattan Beach (Post)
• Staten Island: Following Death, Great Kills Residents Want Relief From Cut-Through Drivers (Advance)
  
• NY State's Watered-Down Texting Ban Now in Effect (NY1)
• Cellphone Maker Garmin Pushes DWD as Product Selling Point (Streetsblog)
• Text-Crash Teen: Every Kid I Know Texts While Driving (News)
  
• Britain Gets Tougher on DWD, But Even Victims Still Sympathize With Killer Drivers (NYT)
  
• Deadly Toyota Acceleration Defect "Goes Beyond Floor Mats" (Consumerist, Wheels)
• Consumer Group Says Power Windows Dangerous to Kids; NHTSA: Meh (Wheels)
• Many Drivers Apparently Don't Expect Pedestrians in Parking Lots, Either (WaPo)
  

* Since the week of June 8
** Drivers charged for deaths since the week of June 8, based on latest available reports

The Schleppie came five days after several prominent New York City Democrats lent their support to the Nostrand Avenue Merchants Association at a small press event protesting plans to upgrade B44 service. Brooklyn's first Select Bus Service corridor is slated for Nostrand and Rogers Avenue, with implementation projected for 2011. The package of improvements would alleviate exactly the problems that B44 riders put up with.

In light of the B44's new Schleppie, I called Council Member Tish James, whose office sent out the alert for Saturday's presser, to get her views on enhancing bus service. While James said she favors bus improvements, she made her support for Select Bus Service conditional. "Given the poor service and the lack of reliability I believe we need to improve service," she said. "At the same time, we have to balance the interests of businesses and improving mass transit."

How much longer will B44 riders have to wait for more reliable service?

While James said DOT has informed her the Nostrand Avenue configuration would differ from Select Bus Service on Fordham Road in the Bronx -- which converted a curbside parking lane to an exclusive bus lane -- she wants the agency to show merchants a specific plan.

A sit-down is in the works: Her office has arranged a meeting between business owners and DOT, which she says the agency put off until after Tuesday's election. And James seemed to agree that apprehension about a new street configuration shouldn't stand in the way of better service for bus riders. "I understand that people are afraid to embrace change," she said. "That's why we need to assuage their concerns."

James spoke most forcefully when I suggested that, judging from the comments of merchants association head Lindiwe Kamau, business owners might let their attachment to convenient personal parking spots guide their opinion of bus improvements. "I'm not concerned about people having to walk two blocks from where they parked," she said. "We don't need guaranteed parking in New York."

Out of three Brooklyn City Council members Streetsblog contacted about Nostrand Avenue bus improvements, James was the only one to return phone calls. Council members Mathieu Eugene and Al Vann, whose districts are also served by the B44, have not answered requests for comment.

Stephen Box at SoapBox LA reports:

These kids from the West Side of LA were determined to let the city know what they think about bike commuting.

The FIRSTteamWestside (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a group of kids who prepared a presentation that they intended to give at the Bike Plan (draft) workshops.

Their mission was to develop a plan to improve local transportation. They did the research and they prepared and they discovered that the public workshops were not the robust public arena they desired, so they adapted.

Their coach reports, "The kids were hoping to give a presentation at one of the "public forums" but were badly disappointed when they found out that members of the public would not be allowed to speak so they posted it on YouTube and submitted the link at labikeplan.org."

The kids give an amazingly articulate and informed statement, recommending additional bike cars for the region's commuter rail system. The future is coming.

More from the network: The Transport Politic looks at the importance of aligning transitways with walkable neighborhoods. On Transport discusses the concept of "lifestyle centers" and their aspirations to create a sense of community in a suburban mall setting. And Intersection 911 reports on the 38 percent bump in Philadelphia bike commuting during the SEPTA strike.

The first time I saw this ad I thought my eyes and ears were deceiving me. But no, there it is: a young woman holding a cellphone toward the camera as "nüvifone" maker Garmin beckons viewers to "communicate while navigating."

"With my nüvifone, I can take calls from my friends while I'm driving to them," she says as she's shown piloting an SUV with two passengers, one of whom accepts an incoming call on a phone mounted to the windshield. (Note to Garmin: Hands-free is not brain-free.)

Maybe the most egregious aspect is the "Do not drive while distracted" disclaimer -- which pops up as the young woman is depicted driving while distracted.

What sticks out to us is not so much that 3 percent of voters rated transportation as the "one issue" that mattered most to them, since many who participated could care a great deal about transportation and you wouldn't know it. Notice instead how Bloomberg dominated the issue of economy and jobs, even in this terrible downturn, despite Thompson's attempts to portray livable streets improvements as assaults on small businesses.

Obviously, despite the low level of interest indicated here, transportation matters. Otherwise pols wouldn't drone on about the MTA ad nauseam. But what do these numbers tell you?

Waiting to board the B44 in Brooklyn. Photo: Benjamin Fried

Crowding is just one indignity transit users have to face. Others include inadequate bus shelters, nonexistent or vandalized seating, blocked entrances -- you know the stuff.

Send us your pictures of crummy transit service and infrastructure where you live and we'll put together a new slide show. You can e-mail JPEGs to me at sarah [at] streetsblog [dot] org, or tag them with "streetsblog" and "transitfail" in Flickr. Get your submissions in by next Thursday morning.

Seth Kahn, pictured here with late TV pitchman Billy Mays. Photo via Facebook

Inevitably, some media reports portray Kahn, who was in the crosswalk, as trying to beat the light, while making less of the fact that the bus driver, turning left from 53rd, must have also rushed into the intersection. The driver was not charged.

Despite the constant presence of pedestrians, Ninth Avenue is a notoriously dangerous place for people to walk. The quotes have been removed from the story now, but a local resident told NY1 (via Gothamist): "That particular corner always has some accidents. All the cars travel very fast and there's too many buses using 53rd Street and they don't even look for pedestrians."

Kahn was the fourth known pedestrian to die in the city in less than a week. On Tuesday a corrections officer with a suspended license hit Dorothea Wallace of Prospect Heights as she walked to work. Luis Rivera of the Bronx was struck and killed by a city bus driver on Halloween after he reportedly threw something at the bus' windshield. And last Friday, off-duty NYPD detective Kevin Spellman ran down 67-year-old Drana Nikac as she crossed a street in Kingsbridge.

A Parks Department sanitation truck struck a 78-year-old woman using a motor-assisted wheelchair in the Eighth Avenue bike lane this morning shortly before 10 a.m., just north of Bleecker Street. The victim suffered head trauma and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she is in serious condition, a police spokesman said. No further details on the collision are available at this time. NYPD said the investigation is ongoing.

The driver was heard repeating that he "didn't see" the victim, according to Michelle Ernst of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, who passed the scene of the crash this morning and sent in this picture.

Streetsblog has requests in with DOT and the Parks Department to determine if a policy is in place governing the use of protected bike paths by city vehicles. We'll post more information as it becomes available.

Portland Transport has a post on the connection between cul-de-sac development and safety for all street users, as discussed at the Congress for the New Urbanism Transportation Summit in Portland.

What are the dangers of cul-de-sac development? (Photo: TheMuuj via Flickr.)

For me the highlight presentation on opening day…was about the safety effects of different street network types.

The study was based on looking at all cities in California with population of 40,000 or greater. The surprising finding was that cities built before 1950 are safer (in terms of both serious injuries and fatalities for all classes of users: auto drivers/passengers, cyclists and pedestrians) than cities built after 1950.

The differences appears to be in the type of street network. Compact street grids seem to be safer, compared to the arterial-collector-local street 'tree' style of street network popular in post-war development.

No link to the study itself yet, but we're interested in hearing more.

More from around the network: Urban City Architecture launches a series of posts on the pressing issue of pedestrian safety in Miami. Bello Velo reports on a new driver education campaign designed to improve cyclist safety in Huntsville, Alabama. And Copenhagenize is looking for your opinion on the safety of daylight headlight requirements.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: AP)

The environment panel's chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had offered Republicans several days to abandon their walkout, promising time to consider GOP amendments and a complete Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) modeling of the bill before it comes to the Senate floor.

But environment committee Republicans were unmoved, insisting on an immediate five-week delay for EPA analysis despite testimony from the EPA that such work would produce little new information. Boxer's GOP counterpart on the panel, Sen. Jim Inhofe (OK), seemed to delight in forcing the chairman's hand as he labeled the no-amendments move the "nuclear option."

The question now becomes whether the specific proposals added by Boxer's panel -- including grant programs for transit and clean transportation that nearly triple the funding approved by the House -- can survive a long slog through as many as five other committees.

Boxer insisted this morning that "many things in this bill ... are going to be part of that comprehensive bill" that ultimately reaches a full Senate vote. But others on the committee acknowledged that the bill's one-party approval would not bode well for its political prospects.

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the chief sponsor of efforts to boost the climate bill's clean transportation provisions, described himself as "very, very, very disappointed," particularly given the loss of a chance to amend the legislation.

Carper submitted an amendment that would have added more than $400 million to the bill's annual set-aside of climate money for transit, inter-city rail, local land use planning and other projects.  "I don't like this process," Carper said this morning. "I don't think any of us do."

The question now becomes whether Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC), the lone Republican who has shown willingness to work with Democrats on the climate bill, can provide the momentum needed to overcome the Senate's molasses-slow pace.

Even if Graham's work produces an end result that can win over liberals and centrists, the billions of dollars that the environment committee devotes to transportation is not guaranteed to survive that process.

The lone vote against the environment committee's climate bill came from Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Finance Committee -- which has asserted jurisdiction over the apportionment of valuable climate "allowances" to various sectors of the economy, including transportation.

Update: While the environment panel was finishing up its work on the bill, Inhofe was giving an interview to Fox News (which mistakenly labeled it the "energy committee"). Inhofe called Baucus' no vote a sign that the bill is "dead" and claimed that this summer's conservative protests at town-hall meetings were driven as much by concern over the climate bill as over the health care bill. Check out the video below:

Photo: US Department of Agriculture

Just how much will the tax credit mushroom thanks to the deal reached in the Senate? As the New York Times explains, it's time to take the "new" off of the credit's name:

The homebuyers’ credit ... would be extended to cover homes under contract by April 30. Also, it no longer would be limited to first-time buyers; people who have owned a home for at least five years could get a $6,500 credit on a new residence. Income limits for eligibility would be raised, making many more people qualify.

Extending and expanding the credit would cost an estimated $11 billion, on top of the $10 billion spent so far.

As Ryan pointed out earlier this week, the higher rate of home ownership in suburbs tilts the credit's benefits notably away from urban areas. But that's nothing new for the federal government, which has lavished subsidies on home buyers while paying much scanter attention to improving rental affordability.

In the fiscal year that ended October 1, Washington's support for home ownership totaled $230 billion, while parallel support for home renters was $60 billion, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported yesterday. That nearly four-fold gap is visible in the below chart:

Image: CBO

Even as federal lawmakers keep promoting home ownership as the "American dream," rental rates rose to one-third of the country in 2008, in part due to low-income and minority residents who were forced into default on risky mortgages. For many of those residents, as well as city dwellers in general, rentals tend to be the only housing option that offers access to affordable transportation -- but help from Washington has been perilously slow in coming.

And it may not come for a while yet. Legislation updating the Section 8 voucher program for rental housing was approved over the summer by the House Financial Services Committee but has yet to see floor time in the full chamber, let alone the Senate.

Meanwhile, the larger home buyers' credit is currently attached to a long-sought extension of unemployment benefits, making its approval a political fait accompli (though one much-delayed by partisan bickering).

The deaths of Vionique Valnord and Drana Nivac may spur movement to reevaluate procedures employed to gather DWI blood evidence. What took so long? Photos via New York Times

It took five hours to get a blood sample from Kevin Spellman, the NYPD detective who reportedly stumbled out of his government-leased Chevy Malibu after hitting 67-year-old Bronx grandmother Drana Nikac last week. Even so, officials said Spellman was found to have a blood alcohol level of .21. As with the Andrew Kelly case, the lag time between the arrest and obtaining blood evidence was heavily scrutinized by the media, perhaps putting pressure on Commissioner Kelly to act.

"I feel it is extremely possible to speed up the process and can say the DA offices are very interested in working with the Police Department to do so," says Joseph McCormack, chief of the Vehicular Crimes Bureau of Bronx DA Robert Johnson's office. "There are also some legal changes that would help."

One proposed measure supported by McCormack would remove the state requirement that a doctor be present to supervise blood withdrawals. In 2002, 91-year-old former Olympian Jack Shea was killed in Saranac Lake by a driver who was indicted for vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and DWI. Charges were ultimately dropped after courts ruled blood evidence inadmissible based on the fact that, since there was no doctor on duty at the small clinic where Shea and the driver were taken after the crash, the sample was drawn by an EMT. Appellate judges in the Shea case, according to the bill, "called on the legislature to amend the statute to remedy what they saw as an unnecessary restriction in the law."

McCormack and Nassau prosecutor Maureen McCormick are also working on a proposal to remove the up-front warrant requirement in cases of death or serious injury where there is probable cause for DWI. Such procedure is common in other states, says McCormick: "There is no constitutional issue of self-incrimination, which applies only to statements. Blood is physical evidence and subject to a different analysis. The trial judge would review the arresting officer's assertion of probable cause during pre-trial hearings and if there was not sufficient probable cause to take the evidence it would be suppressed."

Both stress that altering current warrant protocol would enhance the ability of police and prosecutors to gather crucial evidence, but would not change evidentiary requirements.

"These are the exact same circumstances under which blood can be drawn now," McCormick says. "The only change is that instead of precious time being taken up front for a judge to review the probable cause -- while the BAC evidence is literally disappearing -- the judicial review would take place pre-trial, when time is no longer such a critical issue."

On the subject of time, one can't help but wonder of Commissioner Kelly's new committee: What took so long? It's common knowledge among police, for example, that it is to their advantage to refuse breath tests if suspected of DWI. Did two more innocent people have to die -- and at the hands of NYPD officers -- for officials to address such a blatant systemic shortcoming?

For the next four years, Mike Bloomberg will be joined in citywide office by Democrats Bill de Blasio and John Liu.

And how few votes were cast. Total turnout -- 1.1 million out of about 4 million registered voters -- looks to be even lower than in Ed Koch's election to a third term, back when a million fewer people lived in the city. Participation in New York City's democratic process hasn't been this paltry since the days before women were enfranchised.

The Thompson camp appeared to take some satisfaction in the relatively close finish. Still, Democrats have got to be second guessing themselves today. No doubt much hand-wringing will ensue about the failure of President Obama and local power brokers to rally around the party's standard bearer.

But here are some numbers to chew on: Thompson lost by 50,000 votes, and New Yorkers make more than two million bus trips every day. What if the Democratic candidate had actively campaigned on specific ideas to improve bus service? Vastly outspent or not, Thompson couldn't clear the bar set by Freddy Ferrer in 2005 despite an electorate that seemingly felt little enthusiasm for the incumbent. (Disgust with the term limits extension may explain why Bloomberg himself garnered 200,000 fewer votes than he did four years ago, even though his approval rating, at 70 percent, remains quite high.)

Instead, when it came to New Yorkers' transportation concerns, Thompson sounded few consistent themes except the notion that self-serving complaints from a few local merchants should take precedence over safety gains and transit improvements on our streets. The Democratic Party -- purported defender of the working class and the environment -- failed to make the connection between urban transportation, economic opportunity, and sustainability.

Overall, transportation remained a second- or third-tier issue during the campaign. Under Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg's Department of Transportation has made notable strides to improve walking, biking, and transit, but the mayor seldom strayed from his core themes of falling crime rates and rising student test scores. In the televised debates, parking tickets got more attention than pedestrian safety. The city's 2008 toll of 292 motor vehicle fatalities and annual rate of 50,000 traffic injuries were never even mentioned.

Transportation issues may not have affected this election, but this election will affect transportation policy. Bloomberg will be joined on the citywide stage by two ambitious Democrats, John Liu and Bill de Blasio, whose records on progressive transportation have so far appeared to vary according to the political opportunities available. With Liu in the Comptroller's office and de Blasio taking over as Public Advocate, each now commands a high-visibility bully pulpit, presumably with an eye cast toward 2013. Each can choose to reinforce, ignore, or obstruct livable streets policies.

And the next four years will be an intensely active time for livable streets in New York City. Since Bloomberg appointed Sadik-Khan to run DOT in 2007, we've seen a string of innovations: the city's first rapid bus corridor, major new pedestrian plazas, and the beginnings of a safer, protected bike network. As of today, these important changes to New York's streets exist mainly as experiments and fragments. Expect the question of how to allocate street space to play out on a much bigger scale as the city attempts to expand and solidify its recent progress.

This term also gives Bloomberg the chance to address the gaping holes in his sustainability agenda. By 2013, will NYCEDC and the City Planning Commission still foist anti-urban disasters like the Gateway Center Mall and East River Plaza on New York's car-free majority? Will NYPD rein in reckless driving so New Yorkers can walk and bike without fear? Bloomberg's legacy on the environment, transportation, and quality of life depends on these questions as much as anything.

In the days ahead, Streetsblog will publish a series of essays from local advocates and experts about New York City's transportation and public space agenda for the next four years. What should the mayor set his sights on, and how much can the city accomplish? We'll kick things off next Monday, so stay tuned.

Right now, you might just want to breathe a sigh of relief -- no one's about to rip out bike lanes or ax plans for bus improvements. At least not for the next four years.

Elly Blue writes:

Multi-use paths like the
Hawthorne Bridge have the
highest injury potential. Photo: Jonathan Maus

There’s a constant chorus -- sometimes soft, sometimes overpoweringly loud -- in every conversation about bike infrastructure in America. Its refrain: You’re safer without any bike lanes, separated lanes, cycle tracks, bike boulevards, off-road paths. Just take the lane, follow the rules, wear your helmet, and you’ll be fine.

A group of scholars at the University of British Columbia have found otherwise. They conducted a literature review, looking at all available studies linking bicycle safety with infrastructure. Their conclusions will be counterintuitive for some.

“Results to date suggest that sidewalks and multi-use trails pose the highest risk, major roads are more hazardous than minor roads, and the presence of bicycle facilities (e.g. on-road bike routes, on-road marked bike lanes, and off-road bike paths) was associated with the lowest risk.”

“One of the major advantages of infrastructure-based improvements, compared to personal protective devices such as helmets, is that safe infrastructure provides population-wide protection for all cyclists,” study co-author Meghan Winters said in a press release.

The study's abstract draws these conclusions:

Evidence is beginning to accumulate that purpose-built bicycle-specific facilities reduce crashes and injuries among cyclists, providing the basis for initial transportation engineering guidelines for cyclist safety. Street lighting, paved surfaces, and low-angled grades are additional factors that appear to improve cyclist safety. Future research examining a greater variety of infrastructure would allow development of more detailed guidelines.

I'm sure that many of our network members will want to dig deeper into this one. 

More from around the network: a rant against bike chic from Biker Chicks of West Chester. Extraordinary Observations makes the connection between free burritos and traffic congestion. And the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia reports on biking the transit strike in that city.

Who will rule NYC streets come 2010? Photo: City Room

Leave your late-breaking news and observations in the comments.