Transportation Tidbits in This Year’s PlaNYC Check-In

To mark Earth Day on Monday, the de Blasio administration released its first PlaNYC progress report [PDF], the latest annual check-in on the citywide sustainability plan released in 2007.

The report includes a few facts about the city’s progress on its transportation goals:

• DOT’s PARK Smart program, which sets the price of on-street parking in response to demand, is set to roll out to two additional neighborhoods by the end of the year.
• Construction on Waterside Pier, which would connect the East River Greenway between 38th and 41st Streets, is expected to begin this summer and to be completed next year. EDC also expects to complete environmental review and secure permits for greenway construction between 41st and 60th Streets by the end of this year.
• As of last month, there are more than 4,300 Boro Taxis in service, including 250 wheelchair accessible vehicles.
• DOT and the Office of Emergency Management have developed a “transportation playbook” for disasters, including bike-pedestrian facilities, temporary transit services, and HOV restrictions. DOT is working with other agencies to run “tabletop exercises” to review scenarios where the playbook can be used.
• After hosting 23 Weekend Walks events in five boroughs last year, DOT anticipates holding more than 30 of these neighborhood car-free streets events this summer.
• Capital construction on three pedestrian plazas will wrap up in 2014, with 10 plazas beginning the capital construction process by the end of the year.
• The final version of EDC’s citywide ferry study, which came out in draft format last year, is expected to be released this spring.

PlaNYC annual progress reports are different than updates to the plan itself, which are scheduled every four years. PlaNYC launched in 2007 with congestion pricing as the marquee item. The most recent PlaNYC update in 2011 shifted focus away from transportation and included only minor goals for parking reform. The next update to the city’s sustainability plan, which will introduce a new set of goals, is anticipated next year.