New Yorkers Call on Cuomo to Back Complete Streets Law With State Funds

A coalition of advocacy groups and government representatives called on Governor Cuomo today to dedicate state funds toward improving infrastructure for walking and biking.

New Yorkers for Active Transportation (NY4AT), which consists of over 50 organizations, delivered a bike loaded with 1,300 postcards to the capitol. The postcards ask Cuomo to allocate $20 million in the next state budget to pedestrian and cycling projects, and to continue or exceed that commitment for the next five years.

“While Governor Cuomo’s State of the State address tackled issues related to dangerous driving, including tougher new laws for DWI and driving while texting, stiffer penalties alone will not turn around the state’s troubling safety statistics,” reads a NY4AT press release.

When it urged Cuomo to invest in street safety in 2012, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign noted that statewide pedestrian and cyclist injuries and fatalities were on the rise. New York has a new complete streets law, signed by Cuomo in 2011, but NY4AT notes that the state “will be investing less money on pedestrian and bicycling safety over the next four years than before passage of the law.”

“AARP commends the Governor for signing the Complete Streets bill, but it won’t improve or maintain safety for pedestrians and bicyclists if New York doesn’t initially invest in safe passageways,” said New York AARP State Director Beth Finkel in the release. “Walkability is critical to keeping New Yorkers — and their money — here as they age.”

Older pedestrians represent 18.7 percent of the NYC region’s population, but they account for 33.3 percent of all pedestrian fatalities, according to a 2013 report from TSTC.

While today’s announcement had a decidedly upstate bent, NYC could benefit from the new funds, and not just for projects on certain streets. TSTC’s Nadine Lemmon told Streetsblog the funds should not be restricted to improvements on state roads.

“Funds could be used for trails, but also county or local roads if a community determines that those roads are in need of bike/pedestrian infrastructure improvements,” Lemmon said via email. “At the moment, there are no state dollars specifically dedicated to bike and pedestrian infrastructure.”