Streetsblog New York City

A 1010 WINS report appears to confirm a comment from wooDave on what sounds like a horrific pedestrian-involved crash in the East Village:

Eight pedestrians have been hurt in a car accident involving a New York City police cruiser on the Lower East Side.

Police say the accident happened Tuesday afternoon on Avenue D near East 5th Street.

EMS says five of the injuries were serious.

It is unclear what led to the crash.

According to wooDave the officer(s) may have been pursuing a cyclist. If you know of other coverage of this breaking story, please link from comments.

Update: The Daily News says the cruiser hit another car, "at least five" pedestrians "including a baby," and a building.

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After months of negotiations and fine-tuning, the Bicycle Access Bill was expected to come up for a vote in the City Council this afternoon. Despite the support of Mayor Bloomberg and 29 co-sponsors, that's not going to happen. For many thousands of cyclists, riding to work will remain an unappealing option due to the lack of a secure place to lock up.

Danny Kanner, a spokesman for bill sponsor David Yassky, confirmed this afternoon that the landmark piece of legislation has yet to clear John Liu's transportation committee. "The bill has been laid on council members' desks for eight days, which is typically what is done before a bill comes before the full council," said Kanner. "That was done with the anticipation that it would be voted out of the transportation committee today."

Liu's office has not yet returned requests for comment. But here's what we know.

• When a previous version of this bill surfaced in the council in 2006, John Liu was a co-sponsor.
  
• Last September, Liu joined Yassky and Tish James on the steps of City Hall to call for better bike access to buildings. Rally speakers noted the odd aversion many building owners display toward letting bikes inside office buildings, and the manifold benefits of legislation to correct that bias.
  
• In March, Liu switched from the crowded public advocate race to the somewhat less crowded comptroller race, in which he faces two other candidates from Queens -- and Yassky.
• At the last transportation committee hearing on the bill, Liu started questioning whether DOT should have jurisdiction over bicycle access to buildings. No one else on the committee voiced similar concerns. DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan and Buildings Commissioner Robert LiMandri assured Liu that their agencies would have it covered.
• Today, Liu's committee did not meet and advance the bill despite the widespread expectation that it would do so.
  

The next opportunity to move the bill will come in July, when the full City Council is scheduled to hold a stated meeting. "David and a variety of advocates have worked hard on this bill, a bill that will reduce congestion, carbon emissions, and improve public health," Kanner said. "It should pass."

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly testified Monday in favor of City Council legislation to require every bank branch in the city to install bullet-proof "bandit barriers" between tellers and customers. According to City Room, Kelly told the public safety committee that he believes the measure would help reduce bank hold-ups, which he called "an ever-increasing source of burden on the Police Department’s resources."

“We don’t want to tell anyone how to run their businesses until it impacts our business,” Mr. Kelly said.

According to data provided by the Police Department, there were 444 bank robbery attempts in 2008 -- up 57 percent from the year before.

While statistics produced by both sides show that about 90 percent of the 1,700 commercial bank branches in New York already have some form of barrier in place between tellers and would-be robbers, many small local banks -- and some chains like TD Bank -- do not have them.

The effectiveness of the barriers is questionable. Kelly himself said that last year 47 percent of bank robberies in the city occurred at banks with the barriers, while 53 percent of banks targeted by robbers did not have them. And Gregory B. Braca of TD Bank testified that the barriers can actually invite additional trouble, saying, "There is evidence that if we had to install barriers, it could increase the risk of hostage-taking and injury to our customers."

Now, for comparison's sake, consider the 444 attempted bank robberies in 2008 alongside the 15,000 injuries and 150 deaths suffered by pedestrians at the hands of New York City drivers in the average year. Many of those victims are injured and killed not in the street, but while standing on a corner, walking down a sidewalk, or having a meal inside a restaurant.

Couldn't Commissioner Kelly also advocate for additional barriers between people and outlaw drivers? "Bandit bollards" has a nice ring, doesn't it? Or, if Kelly has his way and bank barriers are eventually mandated, might NYPD redeploy officers from banks to the streets to protect pedestrians? After all, those 15,000 calls a year must also be a burden -- and much like a bank, we never know who'll be hit next.

Last week DOT unveiled this conceptual plan for a better gateway to the Brooklyn Bridge [PDF]. For the thousands of pedestrians and cyclists who access the bridge on the Brooklyn side every day, it's a winner.

Presented at a public meeting in downtown Brooklyn, the new design features a more generous, boulevard-style bike-ped access ramp to the bridge, plus wider medians and sidewalks, curb extensions, and separated bike lanes on each of the three approaches to the ramp. If implemented, the proposal would greatly improve safety at one of the most complex, heavily-trafficked intersections in the city.

The project is still in its early stages. This plan, based on input from an earlier public workshop in January, will be refined again, with DOT aiming to bring a more finished proposal before Community Board 2 this fall. The multi-million dollar reconstruction of Tillary Street and Adams Street, which cross paths at the foot of the ramp, is slated to begin in 2012.

A reader who went to last week's workshop tells us the reception was generally positive. About 40 people attended, and after DOT's presentation, everyone marked up large copies of the plan with notes about what they liked and didn't like.

Some highlights from the concept plan:

• The entry ramp, currently a concrete barrier-lined chute where pedestrians and cyclists vie for space on a 10-foot wide path, would expand to a 14-foot wide path with plantings on each side. To make room, existing medians would be consolidated and service lanes on Adams Street would be eliminated or reduced in width.
  
• Two-way protected bike paths would extend at least one block in each direction from the foot of the ramp. On Adams Street, cyclists would have a straight shot to and from the ramp thanks to a center median two-way bike path.
• More pedestrian space -- including wider sidewalks, medians and curb extensions -- all along Tillary from Clinton Street to Flatbush Avenue. Similar treatment on Adams directly south of the access ramp.

The city is, in some ways, making up for lost time on this one. An earlier DOT regime passed up the chance to improve safety at the Tillary/Adams intersection when the Adams Street median was redesigned in 1998.

More graphics from DOT's concept plan after the jump.

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We wondered a few months back why Upper Manhattan Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat, a supporter of congestion pricing, would side with the usual suspects in opposing Ravitch-backed East and Harlem River bridge tolls. At the time, Espaillat told Streetsblog readers that new tolls would place an unfair burden on his district, and blamed MTA financial woes on "contemptible bookkeeping and abject failure to control spending."

Espaillat didn't make his true views on MTA deviance and recklessness known a year earlier when, joined by Lee Sander, he called pricing -- which, of course, was also intended to provide much-needed transit funding -- "a rational, practical solution to a very serious problem." But now he's reading from a different script, going so far as to claim that Upper Manhattanites prefer higher fares and reduced transit service to bridge tolls.

At a "town hall" meeting in Inwood last Thursday, Streetsblog reader Peter Brinkmann again found the assemblyman indifferent to concerns about auto-inflicted quality of life issues. Writes Peter:

In response to my question about distorted traffic patterns caused by car commuters who take the Broadway bridge [into and out of Inwood] in order to avoid paying the toll for Henry Hudson Bridge, he launched into his usual routine about how East River bridge tolls would be a regressive tax on families; he didn't address the issue of a residential neighborhood serving as a bypass for a major artery. When asked about possibly repaving 218th Street, he seemed to be in favor, in part because 218th Street draws a lot of traffic from drivers who want to avoid Henry Hudson Bridge. In other words, he's aware of distorted traffic patterns and doesn't seem to have a problem with them.

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Fallout continues in the wake of last Friday's narrow passage of the Waxman-Markey climate bill, otherwise known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, in the House of Representatives. Paul Krugman can't believe 212 reps voted against it, while Matthew Yglesias points to a conservative faction that has branded eight Republicans who helped pass it as "traitors."

Then there are those who say Waxman-Markey isn't enough to stem the imminent threats posed by climate change. Grist reports that MoveOn.org may launch a campaign to have the bill strengthened, and on the Streetsblog Network, Robin Chase of Network Musings compares the massive and sustained public outpouring surrounding the death of Michael Jackson to the relatively meager attention given to an alarming new climate study. MIT researchers say global temperatures could rise by nearly 10 degrees by 2100 -- more than doubling prior predictions. Writes Chase:

There is little about the world we live in and rely upon today that will be familiar or viable in that world just 90 years from now. Water, agriculture, land use, species -- our survivability -- will be in a totally different territory. Really, not just metaphorically.

We need this reality to get at least as much attention as Michael Jackson's death. It should motivate more tweets, more street action, more conversations, more pondering about what life means, makes it worth living, legacies, life potential, and the fate of offspring.

If MJ's death motivated to you spend 4 minutes listening to a song you wouldn't have listened to last week, then email your Senators and tell them the climate change bill before them is far too weak and too slow. Tell them that you'll willing to commit more than $175/year by 2020 in high energy prices (the impact of the House version of the bill), and then start talking with everyone you know.

Also today: Second Avenue Sagas questions the relevance of the Straphangers Campaign; DC Bike Examiner wonders if motorist-cyclist conflicts are over-hyped; Carfree Chicago hopes for a transportation commissioner who gets it; and Bicycle Fixation applauds an effort in the UK to encourage cycling among rail passengers.

Today is the deadline for state DOTs to allocate at least half of the transportation money they received under the economic stimulus law, and Smart Growth America marked the occasion with a study of what types of projects are getting that cash.

Distressingly -- but unsurprisingly -- quite a lot is going to new roads rather than repair of existing ones. Of the $26.6 billion sent to states under a flexible transportation mandate, SGA found that $6.6 billion has gone towards building new highway capacity.

Only $185 million of the flexible stimulus aid has been used on transit and non-motorized transportation, which was given about $8 billion in separate funding as well.

One culprit behind this questionable use of taxpayer money, as SGA reports, is a theme at risk of repeating itself during the upcoming debate over broad transportation reform: the lack of accountability.

Most states and localities reported the projects they selected for stimulus aid only after the fact, allowing a privately run website to monitor the process much faster than the Obama administration.

But inconsistent reporting is just the beginning of the problem, as SGA points out in its report:  

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This email alert from Transportation Alternatives just hit our inbox. The Bicycle Access Bill (Intro 871, sponsored by David Yassky), is scheduled for a City Council committee hearing tomorrow and possibly a floor vote if it can get that far. Despite the support of the mayor and 29 co-sponsors, we're hearing rumblings that the City Council might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory on this historic piece of legislation:

We Are Not There Yet -- Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill in Jeopardy

Your voices are needed. Now! With the expected passage of the Bicycle Access to Buildings Bill slated to take place at tomorrow’s City Council meeting, we are concerned to learn that there still may be some strong opposition to the bill. Please immediately call Council Member John Liu, chair of the Transportation Committee, and let him know that you support this bill and that we need his support too!

Information:
Council Member John Liu
Chair, Transportation Committee
City Hall office: 212-788-7022
District office: 718-888-8747

Advocates have been fighting for this legislation for years. Its passage would make it much easier for thousands of cyclists to ride to work -- boosting bike commuting by as much as 50 percent -- and one last push from supporters can help put it over the top.

Ben Kabak at Second Avenue Sagas is on a roll critiquing media coverage of the MTA fare hike, which went into effect yesterday. Last week he questioned the coalition-building skills of transit advocates. Today he goes after the reporters:

Instead of focusing on the whys and wherefores of the fare hike, instead of explaining how Albany has left the MTA out in the financial cold, it’s far easier to find people outraged than it is to educate.

Take, for example, Irving DeJohn and Stephanie Gaskell’s piece in the Daily News about rider reaction to the fare hike. It is chock full of quotes bemoaning the price increases, and the statements of the riders are, frankly, ignorant.

Take the first one in the article from Emmanuel Louis of Brooklyn: "You shouldn’t raise the fare if you’re not going to increase service. It's just not fair." This is where a reporter should challenge Louis and ask him how he feels about raising the fares if the alternative means worse service and significantly less of it.

You really can't overstate the significance of the vicious cycle at work here. The person-on-the-street MTA bashing echoes the MTA bashing you hear from legislators every time they're asked to make a tough decision on how to fund transit. If this is a co-dependent relationship, there's no doubt that the press plays the role of enabler too. Rare is the story that mentions the root causes of the MTA's financial woes. Common is the hatchet job about executive salaries or personal commuting habits.

The Daily News editorial board held Albany's feet to the fire for months during the last round of debate about transit funding. We'll be going through all of that again, very soon. Can newsrooms figure out how to keep up the heat?

It seems the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation has altered its policy prohibiting overnight bike rack parking. In an effort to keep them clear of abandoned bikes, the RIOC previously announced that any bike found on the public racks by the subway and tram stations between 2 and 5 a.m. would be confiscated and, if not claimed within 48 hours, donated to the island thrift store.

Now, reports Roosevelt Islander, the RIOC is making allowances for late-night cyclists -- providing they let the agency know who they are ahead of time.

Roosevelt Island Public Safety Director [Keith] Guerra advises that bikes may be locked up at the tram and subway bike racks during the 2-5 AM hours but there has been no change in the policy that prohibits overnight storage of bikes on a regular basis. The intent of this policy is to allow late night commuters to use the bike racks, not to allow residents to use these bike racks as a permanent storage area as some have previously been doing. As of now, contact the Public Safety Department each day you plan on having your bicycle locked up at the Subway or Tram bike racks during the 2-5 AM hours and it will not be removed. If you need your bike locked up during these hours on a regular basis, advise the Public Safety Department of your situation. They will attempt to work out a solution.

Does this sound like a viable step to meet regular island cyclists halfway -- or is it, however well-intentioned, another obstacle to getting around by bike? We're especially interested in hearing from cyclists who have, or will be, "registering" with RIOC.

This image of Fifth Avenue unearthed by the Times' Jennifer 8. Lee (nice headline!) is a fascinating relic from the dawn of the motoring age. The new geometry pictured here nicked 15 feet of sidewalk from pedestrians to make room for two traffic lanes. In one fell swoop, the balance of space shifted dramatically: Two 30-foot sidewalks and a 40-foot roadway became 22½-foot sidewalks and a 55-foot roadway. The insets show the sort of "imperfections" slated for elimination on the auto-friendly Fifth Avenue: terraces, stoops, gardens -- the type of amenities that make streets more than simply thoroughfares to pass through.

Which got me wondering: A hundred years from now, how will we interpret images like this?

We hear the arguments again and again from DOTs: they need to widen highways and expand interchanges to improve safety on the nation's roads.

Streetsblog Network member The Political Environment, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sees it differently: 

Photo of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee by TracyJ_Brown via Flickr.

[M]ost fatalities on the road are caused by speed, alcohol or other factors tied to driver inattentiveness or indifference, and spiffy new lanes and perfect pavement only makes these menaces more dangerous.

Twice in the last two weeks -- once on Madison's beltline heading west and once in the gaudy new Marquette Interchange -- I was nearly sideswiped by motorists on my right who changed lanes without looking... I find the new Marquette more hazardous for motorists who want to exit westbound at 26th or 35 St. as they have to move quickly to the right into traffic coming from behind coming downhill from high ramps feeding in from the Hoan Bridge or I-43 south. The new Marquette induces speeding -- smooth pavement, gravity, the perception that the whole machine's alleged efficiencies are there to make your trip faster have created a Death Valley in the interchange just past the Marquette University campus.

It's the stupidity factor that kills people on the highways, and I am convinced that WisDOT's rebuilding and redesigning schemes only make idiots more dangerous.

A recent article in Popular Mechanics came to a similar conclusion.

More from around the network: WashCycle writes about the advantages of lefty bike lanes; Cap'n Transit wonders what to do about transit labor costs; and the National Journal wonders whether reducing vehicle miles traveled should be a national transportation goal.

It looks like we have a pretty quiet week coming up. For those who have reserved their seats (registration is closed), tonight's "Hacking the City" session, featuring Aaron Naparstek and others from The Open Planning Project, starts at 6:30. Otherwise, most of the noteworthy events come toward the tail end of the week. 

• Friday: Free Bike Friday on Governors Island. Every Friday between June 5 and October 9, visitors to Governors Island can borrow a bike for free, for up to one hour. Governors Island has more than five miles of car-free biking available to visitors. This year, for the first time, visitors can bike around the entire 2.2 mile promenade that circles the island. Also for the first time, they can bike to Picnic Point, a new eight acre picnic area on the island's southwestern corner that has never before been open to the public. More than 200 bikes will be available for the program this year. Free Bike Fridays is sponsored by Bike and Roll. 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturday (Independence Day): Know Your Rights Ride. Time's Up! will celebrate freedom of speech by chanting the First Amendment at the Union Square site where Reverend Billy was arrested in 2007. Reverend Billy and civil rights attorney Norman Siegel will be in attendance. Bike ride ending at the fireworks display to follow. 4:30 p.m.
• Sunday: The Future Beneath Us: Eight Great Projects Under New York. Today is the last chance to see a great exhibition for fans of city infrastructure, including six mass transit and two water-related mega-projects: the Second Avenue Subway, East Side Access, the extension of the 7 train, NJ Transit's new tunnel under the Hudson to an expanded Penn Station, the World Trade Center transit hub, the Fulton Street Transit Center, the Third Water Tunnel and the Van Cortlandt Water Filtration Plant. New York Transit Museum Annex and the New York Public Library. See the full listing for times.

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