Noah Kazis

Two years after the City Council passed the Bicycle Access to Garages law, which set aside space for bike parking in commercial garages, legislators are turning their attention back to the issue. In response to low demand for the garage spaces, a bill sponsored by Queens rep Karen Koslowitz would loosen up some of the design requirements for the bike parking spaces while maintaining the total amount of bike parking required.

Walk out on any New York City street and you're likely to find rampant disregard for traffic laws. Pinpointing exactly who's speeding requires special equipment, but for many offenses, you can track the level of lawlessness with the naked eye.

Amended versions of two bills adding requirements to the Department of Transportation's public review process passed the City Council's transportation committee unanimously this afternoon. The bills, which mainly codify current practices, would require DOT to consult with other city agencies and compile data on safety and traffic patterns for all major projects. "It is crucial that all the stakeholders are not only fully involved but also fully informed about what is happening in their communities," said committee chair James Vacca.

Two months after winning support from Manhattan Community Board 12, a safer connection to the Hudson River Greenway is now in place at 181st Street.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

More than 70 people packed into the New Lots Triangle in East New York this morning for the official ribbon cutting of a new public space, but perhaps the most important sign of the plaza's popularity wasn't the big crowd but the senior citizens who had simply stopped there to sit down and drink a cup of coffee.

Here they are: the first set of reader-submitted "pedestrian burdens," courtesy of Michael Kodransky, co-author of ITDP's recent report on European parking policy innovations.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

The full board of Manhattan Community Board 2 voted unanimously last Thursday night to endorse a community-generated plan to convert the buffered bike lane on Hudson Street to a parking-protected lane.

The city's first "neighborhood slow zone" officially opened this morning, bringing a 20 mph speed limit and new traffic calming treatments to the residential Claremont neighborhood in the Bronx. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, joined by Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca and local District Manager John Dudley, announced that the 20 mph zones would soon be coming to neighborhoods across the city. Starting today, residents and community boards can apply for their own slow zone.