Opinion: DOT’s Traffic Engineering Division is Hostile to Street Safety
Why do engineers at the city Department of Transportation design bad roads? Because their only metric is car throughput. That has to change.
October 25, 2021
Opinion: Congestion Pricing Does Not Begin to Compensate Society for the Harm and Violence Caused by Cars
Much of the coverage of congestion pricing focuses on the need for a toll to reduce congestion or pollution. And that's important. But drivers need to know that they do far more harm than merely causing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Put simply: Cars destroy the human living environment in the city.
October 5, 2021
OPINION: CityRise Will Step Up for Streets When the Mayor Won’t
A civic group seeks quick, practical solutions to the post-COVID "carmegeddon" — and support for struggling retail businesses at the same time.
September 24, 2020
Op-ed: DOT Rebuffs Community on Riverside Park Rotunda Traffic Safety
Last October, the Department of Transportation presented to Community Board 7 a $150- to 200-million plan to renovate the Rotunda at West 79th Street in Riverside Park. The Rotunda is topped by a traffic circle that cyclists use to get to the Hudson River Greenway, the busiest bike route in the country.
May 17, 2019
Op-Ed: Here’s a Better, Cheaper and Safer 79th Street Rotunda Plan
In this opinion piece, the publisher of Streetsblog — and a daily Upper West Side cyclist — weighs in and offers an alternative proposal.
January 2, 2019
An Open Letter to CB 7 Transportation Chairs Dan Zweig and Andrew Albert
Mark Gorton is the publisher of Streetsblog and lives on the Upper West Side with his wife and four children. This is an edited version of a message he sent to Dan Zweig and Andrew Albert, the co-chairs of the Community Board 7 transportation committee, after neither of them voted in favor of extending the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane this Tuesday. (The project did clear the committee and will be going to the full board later this month.)
January 11, 2013
Smart Para-Transit + Car Sharing = No Reason to Own a Car
Here is part four of Mark Gorton's essay, "Smart Para-Transit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation."
August 28, 2008
Eliminating Congestion Through Smart Para-Transit
Here is part three of Mark Gorton's essay, "Smart Para-Transit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation."
August 27, 2008
Peer-to-Peer Mass Transit: How to Make it Work
Here is the second installment of Streetsblog publisher and LimeWire founder Mark Gorton's essay, "Smart Para-Transit: A New Vision for Urban Transportation." Part 1 is here and you can also download the complete pamphlet.
August 26, 2008