Streetsblog New York City

Mark your calendars: The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is honoring Streetsblog and Streetfilms at its annual benefit next Thursday. We hope to see you there, so here's our pitch. In addition to watching Aaron Naparstek and Clarence Eckerson share the stage with the other honoree, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, you'll be contributing to an exceedingly deserving organization.

The hardworking folks at Tri-State somehow manage to be everywhere in our huge metro region: pushing for safe streets in New Jersey, smart growth in Nassau, and BRT in Connecticut -- I could go on. They also manage to write a top-notch advocacy blog and, in their downtime, take Cory Booker out to bike around Newark.

To support their excellent work, here's what you need to know:

Tri-State Transportation Campaign Annual Benefit
Thursday, October 29, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m.
The Gates, 290 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY
Tickets available from $150

Manhattan Community Board 8 issued a strong call for safer streets on the Upper East Side last night, voting 38 to 1 for a resolution supporting protected bike lanes. The reso asks DOT to come back to the CB with a neighborhood bike plan that includes physically protected lanes, though it refrains from mentioning specific routes.

For New Yorkers awaiting the day when it's safe for all ages to bike the East Side's wide avenues, last night's vote signals a big step forward. Especially when you consider that it comes from a board which has not always embraced the notion that the interests of cyclists and pedestrians are aligned. 

Thanks to groundwork laid by Transportation Alternatives' East Side committee, yesterday's proceedings offered further evidence that, as Charles Komanoff wrote a few weeks ago, cyclists are shedding their status as "the embattled minority." By and large, the discussion lacked duke-it-out drama. During the public comment period, eight speakers testified in favor of the resolution, including TA's bike advocacy director Caroline Samponaro, who delivered a few hundred signatures for good measure. None spoke against. And when it came time for the board to take up the matter, a few CB 8 members identified themselves as bike commuters.

People spoke movingly about their harrowing experiences trying to ride in their own neighborhood, and about the inadequacy of un-protected bike lanes. "Painted lines on the road are not safe," said Jack Russell, 62, a 29-year resident of Yorkville. Given the lack of protected space and the disconnected state of the East River greenway, several cyclists testified that they ride far out of their way -- over to the Hudson River path -- to get downtown. Anthony Romer, a recent transplant from Madison, Wisconsin, told the board that he just doesn't ride as much since he moved to New York: "If I ride here, I put my life on the line."

Continue...

A reader sent in this photo earlier in the month of what looks like an inlaid stone bike lane on Center Boulevard, in the Queens West development in Long Island City. Repeated queries to DOT yielded no additional info, but we thought this one was too nice to sit on any longer. Anyone know how long this has been in place?

It'd be nice to see this Euro design elsewhere -- though I wonder if it might be slippery when wet.

Checkmate.

In the unofficial battle for the most irresponsible, over-the-top media endorsement of motorist entitlement, the Daily News took the trophy this morning, declaring that drivers are within their rights to run down human beings who stand between their vehicles and on-street parking.

Under an arguably racist headline, News editors claim that sushi chef Ke Hai Du got what he deserved when motorist Paul Todd hit him with his car during a dispute over a Lower Manhattan parking spot on October 9. According to reports, as Du stood in a space to hold it for his boss, Todd nudged his Lincoln into Du's knees, then ran over his foot, breaking it.

To many people accustomed to the norms of civilized society, this would seem a clear case of assault, if not something more serious. But to the News it's a game, which the victim rightfully lost when he challenged the "finders keepers" rule -- or, as News editors put it, "a basic and inviolable tenet of the universe."

What Du did is right up there with stealing a taxi from the person who hailed it, or bringing 15 items to the "10 items or less" register, or stopping at the top of a subway stairway to read e-mail, or backing up in an E-ZPass lane.

The lesson is clear: Park your carcass in a parking space, and you may end up as road kill.

Discounting off-peak transit service could be a boon to New York City's transportation and quality of life, so long as revenues can be found to make up for the likely farebox shortfall.

MTA chief Jay Walder floated the idea of off-peak discounts in an interview in today's New York Times. While Walder didn't offer quantification, the Balanced Transportation Analyzer software model I've developed with Ted Kheel can estimate the effects of time-varied subway fares -- not just how ridership might shift from peak to off-peak periods, but indirect impacts such as the shift of auto trips to transit and the resulting changes to car travel speeds.

The results look promising for this prototype fare structure that I tested with the BTA:

• 1/3-off subway fare from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
• 1/6-off subway fare from 5:00 to 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and 7:00 to 11:00 p.m.
• 15 percent higher subway fare from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. (Although Walder referred only to off-peak discounts, the model suggests that forestalling an increase in ridership during the two peak hours, when the system is strained beyond capacity, could require raising fares at those times.)
• No fare change during the "shoulder" hours of 7:00 to 8:00 a.m., 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., and 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.
• 1/4-off subway fare at all hours on weekends and holidays.
• 1/4-off bus fare at all times (not mentioned by Walder but assumed here to preserve overall fare parity).

Here are the results:

• The average price of a subway ride drops by 23 percent, equivalent to a $210 annual savings for a typical straphanger who takes 12 trains a week.
  
• Notwithstanding the overall discount, however, peak-hour subway users who could not change their commute times would pay $100 a year more in fares.
  
• Annual savings of $230 for bus riders, due to the assumed 25 percent drop in bus fares.
• Subway usage increases 3 percent, even as morning and evening peak hour ridership drops by 1 percent and 3 percent, respectively, slightly easing crowding during those critical times.
  
• Bus usage increases 5 percent.
• 15,000 fewer cars enter the Manhattan CBD on weekdays, raising average speeds there by 2 percent.
Continue...

Chain stores. A lot of people hate them because they often muscle out local businesses that give a neighborhood character (the excellent film Twilight Becomes Night documents this painful loss in New York City).

But clearly a lot of people vote with their pocketbooks by spending money in chains. And the question of the effects of chains on a given neighborhood is complicated, especially when a recession is creating more vacant storefronts every day. Today, Streetsblog Network member Saint Louis Urban Workshop asks how -- and whether -- communities should limit chains:

Photo by ...-Wink-... via Flickr.

Should business districts limit the number of national chains that can open? Are local stores and restaurants at a disadvantage? Over the past several years a group named Our Town has successfully pushed for limits on new chain stores in San Francisco. As a result, today all chain store applications must be presented to the San Francisco Planning Commission and submitted for public review.

Now longtime Bloomington, Indiana, Mayor Mark Kruzan appears ready to limit chain stores from his idyllic southern Indiana college town...

Of course there's a flip side to this issue as well. Local retailers, boutiques and independent restaurants likely cannot serve all residents. It's wonderful to have $25 parmesan cheese available in the city, but what about those who want Provel? This is especially true with clothing. The recent rumor of an Old Navy opening in downtown St. Louis would be a welcome trend in this way.

The issue isn't simple. We enjoy our St. Louis Bread Company, but now it's a corporate behemoth. Once upon a time the California Pizza Kitchen was the model of a neighborhood start-up. Would you welcome a Peet's, but not a Starbucks? The Foot Locker and Blockbuster stores in the Delmar Loop just recently closed and their departure is being lamented by some who enjoyed their convenience and those who simply had become used to them.

So where do you stand on anti-chain store efforts?…Is it enough to limit signage or require a particular design? Is the issue aesthetic? And what about franchises owned by locals?

Good questions. Should municipalities try to regulate chains, or let the market have its way? It's a been a topic of debate since the 1920s. Your thoughts?

More from around the network: The Transport Politic asks how Los Angeles is going to manage its transit ambitions. Kaid Benfield on NRDC Switchboard looks at retrofitting suburban cul-de-sacs with trails for better connectivity. And Austin on Two Wheels notes the advent of the city's first sharrows.

After the roll call at tonight's full Community Board 8 meeting, the tally for a resolution supporting protected bike lanes on the East Side stood at 38 yeas, 1 nay. Lots of hard work went into this vote -- congrats to all who made it happen. More details tomorrow.

In its most recent installment, the City Room bike column cites the apparently burgeoning popularity of electric bicycles. According to the story, "e-bikes" are favored by delivery workers, the elderly, and at least one 38-year-old Manhattan screenwriter. Thing is, it's illegal to ride them in the city:

[F]or the moment, electric bicycles occupy a nebulous legal lane on the road. Not quite a scooter, not quite a bike, e-bikes are considered "motor-assisted bicycles" under New York State law and are banned from state roads and city streets.

Sellers and riders are hoping state law will be amended soon, but is that a good idea? At the recent Upper East Bike forum, Council Member Daniel Garodnick said he is authoring a bill to increase penalties for riding motorized bikes on sidewalks, which he believes is occurring more often.

Weighing the possible pros (increased mobility for those who can't ride regular bikes) and cons (potentially dangerous pedestrian conflicts), do motorized bikes capable of traveling 20 mph have a place in the city's transportation mix? If so, where do they belong?

Seven months after first trying to re-brand congressional climate change legislation as an "energy tax," Senate Republicans were back at it today with a new report and op-ed that attempts to expose the climate bill as a "$3.6 trillion gas tax."

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Kit Bond (R-MO) gathered outside the Capitol today, flanked by aides wearing black stickers imprinted with the slogan "CAP & TRADE = GAS TAX," to promote a new report [PDF] that presents their "gas tax" assertions.

How did Hutchison and Bond get to their $3.6 trillion total, which their report calls "relatively simple and straightforward to calculate"? They simply multiplied their estimate of how much fuel the U.S. would consume between now and 2050 by their estimate of the per-gallon gas price increase that would result from an economy-wide emissions cap.

Hutchison and Bond got their numbers from the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC), a business group that released projections on the cost of the House climate legislation at around the same time it joined the official astro-turf lobbying campaign against the bill. The NBCC's analysis, produced by consulting firm CRA International, is one of many competing cost estimates for the climate bill, each of them relying on different assumptions and models that claim to predict the future price of carbon under the pending legislation.

In fact, the NBCC analysis states (in Appendix C) that it has assumed higher CO2 allowance prices than the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) analysis of the same House climate bill, thus resulting in higher estimates for the plan's impact on real-world carbon prices.

What does the EPA say about the House climate bill's likely effect on fuel prices? Its analysis found a 25-cent per-gallon increase by 2030, or less than three pennies per gallon per year -- small potatoes compared to the oil price swings of recent years, as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change pointed out.

Continue...

We've received a few reports in the past week about construction work on the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. DOT's press office says six bike ramps are being installed, and we hear from observers on the ground that construction is largely complete as of this morning: The bridge approach at Delancey and Clinton Street has three new curb cuts, as does the raised median at Suffolk Street. Now cyclists can get on and off the bike path without having to dismount or hop the curb.

The volunteers at Adopt-a-Bike-Lane have been pushing for a safer ride to the Willy-B since last fall. Together with Allen Street's ongoing livable streets makeover, this new, smoother approach is bound to whet appetites for a protected connection to points west.

There are two opportunities tonight to get behind livable streets efforts in Manhattan.

Among the items on Community Board 8's October agenda is a resolution in support of protected bike lanes on the Upper East Side. As we heard from Transportation Alternatives yesterday, neighborhood involvement has propelled this once-unlikely measure to this point, and friendly voices will be needed to bring it home. The CB 8 meeting starts at 6:30 at the Ramaz School Auditorium, 125 E. 85th Street.

Tonight in Upper Manhattan, Inwood and Washington Heights Livable Streets will hold a regular meeting to discuss, along with other topics, the proposed Dyckman Street Greenway Connector. Thanks to the consistent work of its core members, this group is starting to get attention from local electeds. A good showing tonight can only help build momentum. Meeting details and other discussions can be found on the IWHLS Livable Streets Community page.

“In London, you carry nearly twice as many people in the bus system as you do on the Underground.” In New York, the opposite is true. “We must close the gap and make more of the bus system.”

-- Jay Walder, MTA chairman, as quoted in the New York Times

In the transit landscape inherited by Jay Walder, the MTA’s new chairman, buses are a rare potential bright spot amidst an otherwise dismal world of funding shortages, fare hikes, labor unrest, stalled mega-projects, and feckless politicians. Judging from recent remarks, Walder seems to recognize this and is poised to make better bus service a major focus.

While it may seem obvious that the chair of the MTA should devote considerable energy to buses, this is rarely the case. The head of the MTA is typically consumed by planning, funding, and managing mega-projects and the capital plan. Historically, the MTA has been heavily oriented toward subways and commuter rail. On the average weekday, the agency's subways carry 5.2 million trips and its buses 2.4 million.

But these are not normal times at the MTA. Walder has one year to make a big impression. After that he will almost certainly have a new boss as governor, who will have two options: fire Walder or rehire him. Bus improvements can be done relatively quickly and cheaply, and by reducing delays can actually save money while resulting in better service and higher ridership.

Buses are also attractive to Walder because the mayor and DOT are already aggressively pushing bus corridor improvements. DOT and the MTA have launched a successful Select Bus Service route on Fordham Road in the Bronx, with new routes planned and funded for First and Second Avenues in 2010. The mayor is a good friend to have. He controls streets, parking enforcement and seats on the MTA board.

But Select Bus Service only helps a handful of the MTA's 250 bus routes. Also needed are system-wide improvements. Walder has identified three of these as priorities.

Continue...

Next Tuesday's legal symposium on vehicular homicide, presented by Transportation Alternatives, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, will feature a prominent special guest: presumptive Manhattan DA-elect Cy Vance.

Vance will deliver opening remarks at the symposium, set to convene at 9 a.m. at the Cardozo School, 55 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan.

"I am pleased to be invited to next week's event," Vance said in a statement to Streetsblog. "This seminar will address very important public safety issues facing Manhattan and our entire city."

The presence of the candidate who in all likelihood will be Manhattan's next top prosecutor (Vance, a Democrat, faces no Republican opposition in the November 3 general election) again gives safe streets advocates reason to believe that long-awaited progress in the fight for traffic justice is at hand.

"Mr. Vance’s actions continue to indicate that, if elected, his office will give vehicular crimes the attention they deserve," said TA’s Peter Goldwasser.

The October 27 symposium is free and open to the public. Further details are on the TSTC web site.