Noah Kazis

Evidence continues to mount that New York City's mandatory parking minimums encourage people to drive.

There's a double standard in American transportation. Propose a transit project, or even some extremely cheap bicycle or pedestrian improvements, and you'll be met with a chorus of skepticism from politicians or local media about the high cost. Propose a highway project and few will even bat an eye at the price tag. Can you name the last highway expansion killed by a so-called budget hawk with great fanfare? They only seem to set their sights on rail and transit expansions, like New Jersey's ARC Tunnel or various high-speed rail projects.

Across the country, everyone's looking to San Francisco when it comes to parking policy. Big cities like Los Angeles and New York City are moving toward their own versions of the pioneering SF Park system, which sets meter rates based on the actual demand for parking spaces.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Governor Andrew Cuomo may have axed plans ten years in the making to build transit across the Tappan Zee Bridge, but hey, at least he promised to consider turning the old structure into a park, right?

One of the most dangerous streets in Queens is slated for a safety upgrade, with the Department of Transportation proposing five new pedestrian refuge islands along Hillside Avenue [PDF]. The intervention is a relatively modest one, however, with no narrowing of the roadway and fewer pedestrian refuges than a previous proposal for the corridor.

Staten Island Hit-And-Run Killer Still at Large, Just as Defense Attorneys Prefer (Advance, Gothamist) Tech Firms Compete to Offer Bike-Riding Employees Best Amenities (Marketplace) Fourteen Arrested For Forging NYCHA Parking Placards (News) Second Pedestrian Killed This Week in Traffic Crash in Downtown Flushing (Times-Ledger) Queens Officials Unveil Plaque For Pat Dolan, Killed By Driver in November … Continued

Via Bowery Boogie, two photos of bike-riding NYPD officers writing up two other cyclists for running red lights at the corner of Bowery and Delancey.

A discussion of the plans for the new Tappan Zee Bridge by the state cabinet today makes clear one thing -- that the Cuomo administration continues to race to construction as fast as possible -- while leaving other facets more confused and contradictory than ever.

Want to understand just how twisted the politics of parking are in New York City? Take a look at Nashville, Tennessee.