SF MTA Chief Nat Ford and Mayor Gavin Newsom work the green rollers. Photo: Matthew Roth.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, three people were killed in New York City by drivers with suspended licenses. These deaths are entirely preventable. If not for a legal system that cavalierly lets reckless drivers get back behind the wheel, Sonya Powell and Lillian and Peter Sabados might still be [...]
Collings Avenue: A street that could use a bike lane. Photo: Joe Bonaparte. Back in May, Stella Bonaparte launched a group called Collingswood Streets and began studying bike lane options for downtown Collingswood, NJ, a borough outside Camden. Now she's [...]
Outside of China, only two cities of more than a million people are known to have a bicycling mode-share over 30 percent: Amsterdam and Copenhagen. As Rutgers urban expert John Pucher has documented, cycling's vibrantly high percentage of urban trips throughout Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany was not the product of amorphous cultural factors. Rather, it came [...]
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 (21 Killed Since [...]
Yesterday the City Council held a hearing on street safety for older New Yorkers. The hearing came while the deaths of Lillian and Peter Sabados, an elderly Staten Island couple run down by Allmir Lekperic on Thanksgiving eve, are still fresh in people's minds. But when it comes to keeping [...]
Earlier this year, Lorain County, Ohio, purchased 13 new buses for its transit service using federal stimulus money. Come January 1, those buses are going to be sitting idle.
Ride it while you can: bus service in Lorain County, Ohio (Photo: [...]
We got a tip yesterday about an errant driver hogging a curbside spot in a residential area:
So, outside my house is a street with two hour parking. Today a Jaguar with dealer plates was parked there all day. [...]
Graphic: NYC Department of HealthThe NYC Department of Health announced the results of a citywide survey today [PDF] assessing the health benefits of regular walking and biking. Based on telephone interviews with more than 10,000 New Yorkers, the health department reveals that [...]
We've seen lots of new, innovative bikeway designs appear on New York City streets over the past few years. But there’s one very promising concept we haven't seen -- bicycle boulevards. Bicycle boulevard design uses a variety of techniques to create low-traffic, low-speed streets where cyclists mix comfortably with cars. They’re very popular in [...]
Despite dozens of prior suspensions, unlicensed Allmir Lekperic was not charged for the deaths of two pedestrians. Photo: NYTWe heard the question more than once. When it was reported that Allmir Lekperic, the unlicensed driver who killed Peter and Lillian Sabados as they walked [...]
On the issue of clean transportation, from transit to bike paths to clean water, few members of Congress are as knowledgeable or active as Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Chief of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus and founder of the new Livable Communities Task Force, the Portland lawmaker is on the [...]
In yesterday's post about the Streetsblog Network's first birthday, I should have mentioned the crucial role that Transportation for America played in the network's conception and inception. We couldn't have done it without them.
T4A's vision of a national coalition of groups and individuals who' [...]
Here's a shot of the Park Avenue pedestrian mall at 88th Street, taken by reader BicyclesOnly last night. Thanks to sheer luck, it appears as though no one was caught between the car and the light pole.
A few well-placed bollards could reduce [...]
AASHTO's chart of projects deemed "ready to go" by its members.
As Democrats in both chambers of Congress work on drafting new economic recovery legislation, they now have a preliminary list of how much spending can be set in motion on short notice: $15 billion for [...]
Via our friends at Yanko Design, which last year brought us the virtual crosswalk wall, here's a horrible idea that's getting a lot of online exposure: the red light countdown. In case there might be a few drivers out there who don't' [...]
The view of Grand Army Plaza from Union Street. DOT has proposed converting parking on Union to another moving lane.We posted the link in today's headlines, but you really need the visuals that go with this story of bike-lane blocking, curb-mounting Sunday motorists, and the police who sanction them. Via Gothamist, the video comes courtesy of Ink Lake blogger Peter Kaufman, a Brooklyn Heights resident who [...]
One year ago today, we announced the launch of the Streetsblog Network -- a national and international network of blogs covering transportation policy, sustainable planning, smart growth and active transportation. We conceived of the network as a way to get people who are passionate about these issues literally [...]
The removal of the Bedford Avenue bike lane in South Williamsburg this morning proceeded without any public input. Although the thermoplast has already been stripped away, the cause of safer streets will be better off if New Yorkers who ride this bike lane speak out strongly in response. It's' [...]
Two-thirds of America's population, and more than three-quarters of its economic productivity, come from major cities. So why did the Obama administration's economic stimulus law end up giving metropolitan areas the short end of the stick?
Daniel Malloy, mayor of Stamford, [...]
Workers blast away at the Bedford Avenue bike lane. Photo: Elizabeth Press.As reported by Gothamist, DOT is removing a 14-block stretch of the Bedford Avenue bike lane between Flushing Avenue and Division Street in Hasidic Williamsburg. Workers were seen sandblasting this morning, taking [...]
The question of how to get more women on bikes has received quite a lot of attention recently, in part because of a recent article in Scientific American that suggested women are an "indicator species" for bike-friendly communities.
A group of people in Darlington, United Kingdom, decided to [...]
As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers are going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (Photo: Getty Images)
Elizabeth Press sends these shots of the northeast corner of Hoyt and Schermerhorn in downtown Brooklyn. In what may be a first for New York City, this nifty little DOT reclamation includes bike racks installed on the roadbed, not the sidewalk. (Update: DOT confirms [...]
In handing down a prison term of 20-to-life for Auvryn Scarlett, the garbage hauler who had stopped taking his epilepsy medication before suffering a seizure behind the wheel and killing two pedestrians last year, Justice Richard Carruthers described the convicted as "a time bomb ready [...]
At October's Walk21 Conference, I got the chance to tour the High Bridge, a viaduct connecting Manhattan and the Bronx which has been closed to the public for nearly 40 years.
Opening the High Bridge to pedestrians and cyclists has been a long-held goal for many New [...]
Lots of catching up to do after the holiday weekend. Here's a sampling of what's been coming in over the network:
Austin on Two Wheels threw a link up on Twitter to a very intriguing article published last week in the influential medical journal The Lancet [...]
There are several chances to get dressed up this week, beginning with Tuesday's mega-project discussion at City College (business attire only, please) and continuing with an MAS awards ceremony on Thursday. Loosen up afterward at TA's holiday shindig before capping off the week with a City Hall [...]
Here's something to be thankful for over this holiday break: Kids on bicycles. A beautiful thing. We got so many submissions for this one, it was truly inspiring.
Many thanks to all who contributed, including Sarah Gilbert at cafemama, rbairdpccam, baudman, Julian Davies [...]
Gus Gonzalez and his Ford Excursion were caught on camera after knocking cyclist Ray Bengen to the pavement back in May.
We've got a quick update on the legal aftermath of the Ninth Avenue road rage case, in which the Manhattan DA's office' [...]
Confirmed: Hyped-Up Operator Woes a Ploy for Bigger Slice of the Vélib Pie (Bike-Sharing Blog) Daily News Touts Herald Square Ped Plaza as Prime Parade-Watching Territory On Eve of National Livable Streets Event, Times Readers Debate Merits of Car-Free [...]
This just in: The State DOT will not widen exit ramps from the Major Deegan Expressway, the Mott Haven Herald reports. NYSDOT Region 11 spokesperson Adam Levine confirmed to Streetsblog that the agency will also refrain from adding "auxiliary lanes" as part of its plan to fix a segment [...]
The Department of City Planning proposed new rules last week that should keep sidewalks safer and reduce conflicts between pedestrians and cars. The zoning regs, if approved, would also cut down on the proliferation of "parking pads" -- off-street spaces paved over front yards -- in some parts of [...]
Image: Subsidyscope
The myth that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject that's likely familiar to many Streetsblog readers -- but just how much of the nation's highway funding is provided by charging drivers?
The answer may surprise [...]
It's past time for lawmakers, judges, prosecutors and police to step up for kids like Christian Acteopan, Diego Martinez, Hayley Ng and Axel Pablo, whose sober killers went unpunished.
Miles and miles of bike-friendly Westchester County roads may soon be scarred by a "safety enhancement" that could make cycling treacherous.
A rumble strip threw NYPD Sergeant Richard Wilt off his bike and into the pavement. Photo: Joe Larese/Journal NewsThe New York [...]
To assist in the ongoing effort to better articulate a set of social norms for the endless variety of circumstances one encounters on city streets, we're passing on this request from a reader. "Midtown Biker" asks for advice on the best way to handle these situations:
Another' [...]
Today on the Streetsblog Network, news of a car-free week coming to Jackson, Mississippi. We heard about it from one of our newer network members, Jackson Bike Advocates:
Cars are king in Jackson, but some are working to change that. [...]
Clarence Eckerson sends these shots of DOT street safety improvements taken on a recent ride near the Brooklyn and Queens waterfront. Above is the newly traffic-calmed intersection of Joralemon and Hicks -- part of the Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project -- which now sports two [...]
During his re-re-election campaign, Mayor Bloomberg said he planned to make room for new blood in his administration should he win a third term. It's no surprise that City Hall News named Janette Sadik-Khan as one department head some have targeted for replacement, but while City Council members are [...]
Contrary to popular belief, the mayor isn't the only elected official with a say in New York City transportation policy. So in this installment of Streetsblog's series on Michael Bloomberg's third term, we're switching things up a bit. We asked New York's most experienced transit advocate, Gene Russianoff of [...]
Charles Alexander Diez, the former North Carolina firefighter who shot cyclist Alan Simons in the head, has been sentenced to four months in jail.
DiezIn an Asheville courtroom last week, Diez pled guilty to shooting Simons during a July 26 roadside confrontation. [...]
Sometimes you just can't stop human beings from acting like animals. And I mean that in the best possible way.
Take, for example, the walking paths of Brasilia, the Brazilian capital city that was planned down to the smallest detail in the 1950s and ’60s -- planned for' [...]
It's quality over quantity during this holiday-shortened week. Don't miss your chance to comment on the state's proposed widening of the Major Deegan, and if you RSVP'd for tonight's community board app fest, don't forget to go. Tuesday and Wednesday are all about street' [...]
As you may know, Transportation Alternatives put on a red carpet premiere Tuesday night for the "Biking Rules" PSA competition at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The contest pitted video entries against each other in two main categories: "Why Biking Rules" and "Street Code."
Videos in [...]
Don't miss back-to-back opportunities to get involved in changing your city over the next few days.
On Sunday, compete to find' [...]
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.
The teen driver of this Saturn rear-ended another car, which lurched into 17-year-old [...]
A protected bike path will soon wrap around the circumference of Park Circle. Some segments are bi-directional.
City parking meters are a gold mine, and in Chicago, Morgan Stanley is rolling in parking riches. Secret company documents leaked to reporters show the company will rake in a 70 percent profit margin this year from its $1.15 billion, 75-year lease of Chicago's parking meters. This profit is on top of' [...]
A very interesting article in USA Today on the future viability of suburbs came up in our Twitter feed this morning, via Community Research Partners of Columbus, Ohio.
The piece, by Haya el Nasser, starts out talking about how population is falling in many of the suburbs [...]
Here's a fun time-waster. Since Monday, @FakeMTA has been posting faux transit updates on Twitter. Examples: "Sneak peek at completed Second Ave. Subway released!" and "If passengers don't move all the way into the car, the C train is going to turn [...]
More lanes, or more housing and parks? Image of proposed Deegan Expressway widening: NYSDOT. Image of the community plan for a de-commissioned Sheridan Expressway: SBRWA.
Last week we reported on the state DOT's expensive plan to widen part of the Major Deegan Expressway' [...]
(Photo: Richard Masoner of Cyclelicious)Hey, we need your help again for our next slide show. This one is going to make you feel good. We're looking for pictures of kids on bikes -- on their own, with their parents, on trailers and seats' [...]
America's transportation and infrastructure policies affect literally everyone who moves from place to place in the country, but often they are under-discussed and over-simplified by the mainstream media. To help broaden the debate, Streetsblog Capitol Hill is kicking off a new Q&A series called "The Four Questions."
[...]
We continue our series on the next four years of New York City transportation and planning policy with today's essay by Ron Shiffman. Co-founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development and a professor at the Pratt Institute's Graduate Center for Planning, Shiffman served on the City Planning Commission from [...]
New Yorkers could spend a third of a million more hours a year stuck in traffic if the “grace period” for parking violations voted by the City Council this week becomes law.
Photo: @10/FlickrThat’s what the Balanced Transportation Analyzer traffic-pricing model [...]
Despite the growing national attention to the dangers posed by distracted driving, full accountability for drivers who kill or maim pedestrians while fiddling with electronic devices is likely a long way off. As today's post from Streetsblog Network member Sustainable Savannah notes, law enforcement officials too often seem [...]
To mark its 50th anniversary, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently pitted a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air against its contemporary counterpart, a 2009 Malibu, in a 40 mph crash test. As you can see in the video, the Malibu destroys its predecessor.
The results were intended [...]
Streetsblog has gotten word that, due to Port Authority construction and maintenance work, the north and south sidewalks of the George Washington Bridge will be closing intermittently until further notice.
According to a spokesperson, the authority plans to have the paths open on an alternating basis. Updates are [...]
BRT + bike: East Side avenues have enough space for physically separated busways and protected bike lanes. The biggest sustainable transportation story in New York right now is how DOT and the MTA plan to design Bus Rapid Transit corridors for the East Side [...]
The senior Republicans on three of the Senate's four infrastructure-centric committees signed a bipartisan letter on Tuesday asking the leaders of Congress' upper chamber to call up a six-month extension of the 2005 transportation law.
Senate environment chairman Barbara Boxer. Photo:
We've got a fine sampling of content from the Streetsblog Network today.
First, Steve Davis at Transportation for America reports on the meeting T4A and several of its partners had with U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood on Monday. The meeting was to deliver a petition with more' [...]
A crash shut down the southbound West Side Highway for about two hours during the morning rush yesterday. The Times reported that a northbound driver catapulted into the southbound lanes, colliding with a southbound vehicle near 125th Street shortly before 7:00 a.m. Three people were injured and taken to St. [...]
She's back! Veronica Moss, D.C. lobbyist for the Automobile User Trade Organization (A.U.T.O.), recently returned to New York to get her first look at the new, pedestrian-friendly Times Square. Her views may rankle some in the livable streets camp, but we think it's important to note that some [...]
Try as they might, City Council members haven't cornered the market on ridiculous, counterproductive on-street parking "solutions." Now making its way to your neighborhood: "Parking Around Me," a new service that facilitates parking alerts between drivers via text message. ' [...]
Our series on the next four years of NYC transportation policy continues with today's essay from Joan Byron, Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development's Sustainability and Environmental Justice Initiative. The Rudin Center for Transportation Policy recognized Byron's work at the Pratt Center with the 2009 Civic Leadership' [...]
Nighttime visibility on the Hudson River Greenway north of W. 102nd Street has not improved since Jacob-uptown took this photo a year ago.In the fall of 2007, 2008, and again this year, Streetsblog readers have alerted us to hazardous conditions on the "Cherry Walk" [...]
Today on the Streetsblog Network, member blog UrbanCincy notes with deserved pride that Cincinnati was ranked the seventh-safest large city for pedestrians in the nation in Transportation for America's "Dangerous by Design" study.
But they aren't resting on their laurels. In today's post, they call on' [...]
So, I hope you'll forgive me for posting these Halloween pictures halfway through November. I took them on Fifth Avenue at the south end of Park Slope, and I've been meaning to share them since election week.
Usually on Halloween I'm cooped up in' [...]
City district attorneys and NYPD have reached an agreement that could speed the process of collecting blood evidence from drunk driving suspects who refuse to take breath tests.
Leandra Rosado, 11, was killed last month when a car driven by Carmen Huertas [...]
When it comes to infrastructure improvements that encourage more people to walk or bicycle to transit stations, how long will commuters be willing to travel? The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has officially answered that question, proposing a significant expansion of the rules governing how close bike-ped projects should be to [...]
Looks like the City Council is ready to assert itself in the wake of Michael Bloomberg's underwhelming re-election to a third term. They've chosen to draw a line in the sand, apparently, by creating more congestion on New York City's streets.
To' [...]
Over the weekend, we came across an article from the Isthmus of Madison, Wisconsin, reporting on a conservative scaremongering campaign against a commuter rail proposal.
It quotes a leader in the Wisconsin Republican Party painting transit-oriented development as a red menace: "This has been done before," Dane [...]
If you're into bikes-in-buildings and community boards -- and really, who isn't -- there are two deadlines coming up for events to be held next Monday. A cycling PSA film fest, bike rack siting and a couple of pedestrian events round out the week.
Want to channel your anger over pedestrian and cyclist crashes into productive action? Livable Streets member BicyclesOnly has a plan for you.
The police report revealed that the driver who killed cyclist Rasha [...]
Let's get one thing straight right off the bat: We love transit. Love love love.
But that's why we hate it so much when transit infrastructure and transit riders are neglected. And they are. The nation's buses and trains and light rail are too often underfunded, dismissed, vandalized [...]
A quick update on the status of bike infrastructure in the city's plans for the East Side. We asked DOT whether the agency is considering protected bike facilities as part of the Bus Rapid Transit corridor planned for First and Second avenues. The press office says:
Impromptu bike parking on Dyckman Street after the de-installation of a bike shelter, which for a year stood on the fresh patch of concrete in the background. Photo: Brad AaronA brief follow-up to our earlier story on Inwood's disappearing Dyckman Street bike shelter. [...]
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.
Photo: Star-Ledger
Earlier this week DOT and the MTA showed plans for Bus Rapid Transit on the east side of Manhattan to the Seaport/Civic Center committee of Community Board 1. With implementation scheduled for next September, the question of how to allot space on First and Second Avenues is increasingly urgent. [...]
Today on the Streetsblog Network, we've got a powerful demand for safer streets in Florida. Transit Miami has posted an open letter to Florida Governor Charlie Crist and the state's DOT, calling them to account for the lamentable showing the Sunshine State makes in Transportation' [...]
Photo: GothamistHere's another case of dangerously uncivil servitude, via Gothamist's John Del Signore, who came upon an Access-A-Ride driver parked in the elevated Sands Street bike lane. It's no surprise that Del Signore's complaint to the driver was answered with a shrug [...]
At last month's Rail-Volution conference in Boston, Streetfilms was able to grab a few moments with William Lind, a politically conservative transit advocate. Lind aims to provide "liberal transit advocates" the language to build support for public transportation (okay, just rail) in terms that conservatives can relate to. Some' [...]
The killing of Seth Kahn by MTA bus driver Jeremy Philhower was the fourth instance in a recent spate of pedestrian deaths at the hands of public employees, either on or [...]
In the wake of the 2007 collapse of Minnesota's I-35 bridge, Washington policymakers vowed a renewed focus on repairing the nation's aging infrastructure. But weeks after the fatal collapse, Congress approved a transportation spending bill with 704 earmarked projects, at a total cost topping $570 million -- and [...]
Elizabeth Press, Brad Aaron, Elana Schor, Sarah Goodyear, Ben Fried, Clarence Eckerson Jr., Streetsblog, Gene Russianoff, Charles Komanoff, Lily Bernheimer, John Kaehny, Ron Shiffman, Paul Steely White, Kate Slevin, Joan Byron
