Streetsblog New York City

It's a quiet week on the calendar, highlighted by Sunday's Tour de Bronx. History buffs may also consider stopping by the New York City Transit Museum on Sunday for a look back at the last day of the Myrtle Avenue El, which departed Borough Hall for the final time in October 1969.

• Wednesday: Transportation Alternatives Bronx Committee meeting. The Bronx Committee is one of TA’s most successful volunteer campaigns. Founded in 1994, the committee was involved in developing the Bronx Greenway Plan and organizing the first Safe Routes to School program in North America. The committee also partners with the Bronx borough president’s office on the Tour de Bronx, which marks its 15th year this weekend. 7 p.m.
• Sunday: 15th Annual Tour de Bronx, a free bike tour offering 25- and 40-mile routes, and including a NYC DOT bike helmet giveaway. Staggered start times. Advance registration required. Register online by 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, October 15.
• Sunday: Artist Theresa King leads a gallery tour of her New York Transit Museum exhibit on the Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue Elevated Train. The exhibit runs through February 28, 2010.

Keep an eye on the calendar for updated listings. Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.

We just love when we hear Streetfilms motivational stories from around the globe. Our latest report comes out of Boulder, Colorado.

Last year, I traveled there for four days to document the city's League of American Bicyclists Platinum Status. As is usual on one of these trips, we try to designate one night for a screening of Streetfilms, and nearly 100 people turned out to an event graciously hosted by local bike shop Full Cycle.

One of the films we screened was Portland's "Intersection Repair." A few days ago I received an email from Cara Priem, who thanked us for the event. "I was in attendance," she wrote, "and was inspired by your 'Intersection Repair' video to do the same thing in our Boulder neighborhood."

As reported by The Daily Camera, that neighborhood is Martin Acres, in south Boulder, where residents painted a 30' by 30' street mural a few weekends ago.

This is what Streetfilms is all about: trying to inspire, educate, entertain, and inform through the medium of video, and providing a resource for cities to see what others are doing better. If you'd like to arrange a Streetfilms showing in your city and have a venue, just drop us a line at info@streetfilms.org.

Finally, another Boulder news item. I just checked out a new film called "Boulder Bike Story," put together by Mathew Barlow of Bikes Belong, which contained a startling fact: In 2008, Boulder devoted 46 percent of its transportation budget to bikes, transit and pedestrians. If more cities were doing that kind of funding split, we could solve a lot of problems fast.

We didn't want to let the week slip by without following up on some promising news from the Upper East Side. On Wednesday, a day after Community Board 7 deliberated, and ultimately approved, a resolution supporting protected bike lanes, Community Board 8's transportation committee considered a similar reso:

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board 8 is concerned about the safety of all people who use our streets and sidewalks,

WHEREAS, protected bike lanes have brought measurable safety improvements to other neighborhoods in Manhattan,

WHEREAS, many members of the Upper East Side public, business community, and elected officials have all expressed support for protected bike lanes in petitions, surveys, letters, and public testimony,

WHEREAS, Manhattan Community Board 8 wishes to encourage safe, responsible cycling in, to, and from this district,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that CB8 supports the DOT's initiative to create protected bike lanes and requests that DOT prepare a study for a neighborhood bicycle network that includes Class 1 protected bike lanes (including information on projected impacts on pedestrian safety, bike safety, parking, truck traffic, and neighborhood business) that would be subject to review and comment by Community Board 8.

The resolution passed unanimously.

Though there were glimmers of hope at CB 8 forum last week, given the board's history when it comes to bike infrastructure, this is an amazing development. We'll have more coverage later, but for now cycling and pedestrian advocates, and anyone interested in safer Upper East Side streets, should mark their calendars for the big day: October 21, when the resolution is scheduled to be taken up by the full board.

In the meantime, congratulations to everyone who made this happen.

Independent auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have just released the results of their lengthy investigation of the Railroad Retirement Board, the federal agency that evaluates disability claims by commuter railroad workers -- and has historically approved more than 99 percent of them.

The New York Times obtained an early copy of the GAO report and quoted the Retirement Board's general counsel as admitting that internal reforms had not succeeded in slowing the growth of disability applications and approvals by rail workers, specifically employees of MTA's Long Island Rail Road.

A Times investigation revealed that LIRR workers -- even white-collar managers who had little active role in running trains -- had won approval for approximately $250 million in taxpayer-funded disability payments since 2000.

In fact, the GAO found that LIRR employees have filed Retirement Board claims at a rate 12 times higher than the other seven railroads covered by the agency (a list is available after the jump). Meanwhile, LIRR riders are facing yet more fare increases amid a massive budget gap at New York's transit authority.

How could the Retirement Board get away with sending disability payments to rail workers who the Times found well enough to spend most days golfing? By setting the bar for claims much lower than the Social Security system, which administers disability requests for most American employees.

The Retirement Board requires rail workers claiming a disability to have 20 years of work experience at any age level or 10 years, for those who have already turned 60. Social Security, by contrast, requires 20 quarters of participation in the system during the 10 years prior to the claim.

Once that standard is met, the Retirement Board asks workers to prove that they are prevented from working in their regular railroad position due to a permanent mental or physical condition. Most LIRR claimants provided their medical evidence of disability from one of three doctors, which the GAO deemed "an indicator of fraud or abuse."

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Join us Saturday for Wikis Take Manhattan: a photo scavenger hunt for free-content images for StreetsWiki and Wikipedia. Prizes include Eye-Fi memory cards, which automatically upload photos from your camera to your computer and to sites like Flickr.

Here's video from last year's event.

Tomorrow's hunt coincides with Open House New York weekend, where you can also catch Livable Streets' Rebecca Jacobs leading a Times Square walking tour for kids age five and up.

So grab your camera and meet us at The Open Planning Project (148 Lafayette St.) at 1 p.m. tomorrow. We'll send you out on a wild chase that may just win you a free bike trip to Tuscany.

Full details and registration here.

Bike Pittsburgh has posted some great, sortable data about how commuters get to work in major American cities, drawn from a Census Bureau report. As you'd expect, New York comes in as the city where the least amount of people commute solo by car -- only 23.3 percent, followed by 37.2 percent in Washington, D.C. and 38.4 percent in San Francisco. Wichita, Kansas ranks as the place with the highest percentage of drivers: 85.1 percent of commuters use a car to get to work. The unfortunate national median for commuting by car is 74.15 percent.

There's also an interesting chart on bike commuting trends by gender, in response to a Scientific American article which posits that cycling needs to be made more attractive to women in order to boost overall urban cycling numbers. The argument seems to check out: according to Bike Pittsburgh's data, even in cities with relatively high levels of bike commuters, men cycle to work significantly more than women.

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.

Fatal Crashes (11 Killed This Week, 201 This Year*, 20 Drivers Charged**)

• Manhattan: Elderly Harlem Man Hit by NYPD Cruiser (Post, News, NY1)
• Queens: Teen Pedestrians Struck by SUV Driver; 1 Dead, 1 Critical; "No Criminality Suspected" (AP)
  
• Queens: Livery Driver Crushed Changing Flat Tire (News) 
• Kent, NY: Motorcyclists Hit Pick-up; 1 Dead (LoHud)
• Greenwich, CT: Motorcyclist Killed in Car Collision (CT Post)
  
• Livingston, NJ: Mother, Daughter Struck in Crosswalk; 1 Dead (Star-Ledger, The Local)
• Summit, NJ: Woman Walking Dog Hit by Livery Driver (Indy Press)
• Elizabeth, NJ: Teen Pedestrian Struck (Star-Ledger)
  
• Parsippany, NJ: New York Post Employee Rear-Ends Tractor-Trailer, Killed (NJLN)
• Wall, NJ: Man Killed in Collision With Unlicensed Hit-and Run Driver (Star-Ledger)
• Hopewell, NJ: Driver Killed in One-Car Crash (Times)
  

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Former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who served for eight years in George W. Bush's DOT, sat down with Streetsblog Capitol Hill this week to urge that Congress add a dedicated funding stream of $1 billion each year for transportation technology to the next long-term infrastructure bill.

Since leaving office, Peters has transitioned to private consulting work in her home state of Arizona and joined the board of directors at Aldis, a Tennessee-based traffic management company.

Alids' GridSmart program, a panoramic camera that captures vehicles and pedestrians at intersections and helps "smartly" synchronize traffic signals accordingly (see the above video), would stand to gain if Congress heeds Peters' advice and directly funds transportation technology.

Peters acknowledged that her proposal for the next infrastructure bill would help Aldis, but she described the billion-dollar dedicated funding as an opportunity for states and cities to choose their own high-tech solutions for traffic management. "This is a great application," Peters said of the GridSmart, "but there are others out there."

The House's original version of the 2005 transportation bill, which was recently extended for another month amid political wrangling, included $3 billion over five years for technological upgrades, also known as "intelligent transportation." But that money was removed from the legislation during conference talks with the Senate, Peters noted, leaving states without federal help with modernizing their congestion management.

The annual $1 billion fund Peters is backing would be distributed to states by formula, but state DOTs would have to report back to Washington on how effectively their technological investments were meeting specific performance targets. (For more on Peters' support of a federal role in setting transportation standards, see Part I of the Streetsblog interview.)

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Anyone who regularly uses a bicycle for transportation in the United States knows the feeling -- the nagging anxiety about what will happen when you arrive at your destination, especially if it's a place you've never been on your bike before. Will there be a place to lock up? Will security guards be helpful or will they hassle you? Will your bike be there when you get back? Or will it be gone -- not stolen by a common thief, but clipped by the building management or by the police?

It can be kind of humiliating, frankly, to be treated as if your mode of transportation is something so dirty and dangerous and unsightly that there's no decent place to put it. Not to mention infuriating.

New York City's pending Bicycle Access Law is a big step in the right direction. But this country has a long way to go before it begins to be the kind of placing where rolling up on a bike, locking it and heading about one's business is considered normal -- or even acceptable.

To wit, this post from Streetsblog Network member Soapbox LA:

Bicycle-unfriendly in Denver. Photo by Jeffrey Beall via Flickr.

On Tuesday night, flush with victory after sitting through hours of LA Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, several cyclists rode from the LAPD's Parker Center (a facility that has a new "wave" bike rack which fails the city's bike plan specifications for adequate bike parking) in search of sustenance and nutrition. The cyclists rode the deserted streets of downtown LA and found themselves at 5th and Flower, which features Weiland Brewery Underground, a wonderful restaurant and pub that serves great food long after the rest of the downtown dining opportunities have closed shop. The Weiland website also features abundant driving instructions and directions to the automobile parking. As for bikes, not a mention.

Arriving at 5th and Flower, the cyclists crossed a fairly deserted and typical downtown business district courtyard…. With no bike racks near the entrance, they locked their bike to a rail that surrounded the courtyard and that already hosted a couple of bikes. They chatted with a security guard who wore a blazer and carried a clipboard and grew confident that this was a safe place to lock their bikes.

Then "Gilbert" appeared. With a smile on his face he informed the cyclists, "If you leave your bikes here, they will be gone when you return."

Thinking he was referring to the safety of this area, the cyclists looked around but it was well lit, it was close to the entrance, it was in the most traveled area of the entire complex and there were already bikes there indicating that others also considered it to be a safe place. Gilbert clarified "If you leave your bike there, we will cut the locks and take them."

Under what authority does a security guard threaten to impound personal property? …Why can't they treat those who walk, ride or take mass transit with the same respect as those who arrive with thousands of pounds of personal property? If a motorist parked his car illegally would "Gilbert" and the clipboard team break in and roll the car off into City National Plaza McGuire impound? I think not!

More from the network: Bike Portland reports record participation in the city's Bike Commute Challenge. Transit Miami has the news on a master plan for bikes there. And M-Bike.org talks about how Michigan stands to lose millions in funding for bike trails.

In New York City, about 80 percent of kids walk to school. This is amazingly high compared to the national average of about 13 percent.

On October 7, over 40 countries celebrated International Walk to School Day. Livable Streets Education and the National Center for Safe Routes to School hosted a walk to school celebration in Washington Square Park in conjunction with the Walk 21 Conference.

After students participated in activities promoting better urban mobility, Gil Penalosa spoke to the students and beatbox master Rahzel performed. Check it out.

Part of designing more walkable cities -- a goal of this week's Walk21 Conference -- is figuring out how pedestrians actually interact with the space around them, something that seems inherently difficult because of the erratic and unique behavior of your average walker. But two Austrian researchers came to the conference with with some intriguing ideas for measuring walking. Alexandra Millonig, of the Vienna University of Technology, and Norbert Brändle, of the Austrian Institute of Technology, decided to study and categorize pedestrian behavior based on a survey of Austrian shoppers. They lumped them into four basic types, as you can see above.

The researchers studied pedestrian shoppers in a variety of ways. On top of interviews, they followed shoppers on the street (Brändle called it "stalking"), noting their trajectories, speed, and number of stops. In another phase of the project, they equipped people with Bluetooth and GPS location trackers to map out each walking trip. If you know what different pedestrians look for based on these categories, you can build urban environments that have features that are appealing to each kind of walker.

Designing walkable environments, as you'd guess, is more complex than the grid-and-pavement planning of car-centric areas. The study found that, unlike drivers, who want the shortest path possible to their destination, walkers prefer more convoluted routes, and, more importantly, Brändle said, would prefer to take a different route home than the one they arrived on. That lends further credibility to the argument that in order to make areas more walkable, we also need to give them greater connectivity -- with more routes to and from the places pedestrians need to go.

If you want to see the full results of their study, Millonig and Brändle have made them available on an easy-to-read poster, which you can download here.

Wednesday morning in Douglaston, Queens, an out-of-control driver plowed into a small crowd of commuters waiting for a Q30 bus. Witnesses say the as-yet-unidentified motorist, 17, was attempting to pass another vehicle when he lost control on rain-slicked Douglaston Parkway and jumped the curb. Reports vary, but of the approximately half-dozen people hit, several suffered serious injuries. Some victims were knocked through the back wall of the shelter, shattering the glass.

Despite the carnage and eyewitness accounts, none of which appear contradictory, NYPD told the Queens Courier the driver would face no charges:

According to police, the driver "had a clean license;" he was neither arrested nor issued any summons. “We weren’t there to witness an infraction,” the police source said.

This case again plainly exposes the hypocrisy in how city law enforcers handle cases involving drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, depending on the identity of the "victim."

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The debut Streetfilms Shortie caught an errant scooter blocking a bike lane. This time it's New York's Finest, camped out in the Manhattan Bridge bike path at Canal and Chrystie.

A half-step forward, two steps back.