Noah Kazis

Drunk off-duty New York City police officers have crashed their vehicles each of the last two nights.

In response to some high-profile abuses of state-issued parking placards and a report by the state's Inspector General, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced yesterday that he will be reforming the way placards are issued and releasing ten percent fewer total placards. The new state placard regime will be only modestly more strict than before, but creates a framework for regulating what have become coveted perks and magnets for petty corruption.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

With each passing month, the MTA comes closer to the day of reckoning on its unfunded capital plan -- the maintenance work that keeps trains and buses running and the expansion projects that provide more access to the system. While the first two years of the 2010-2014 capital budget were funded, there is a $10 billion deficit in the remaining three. So far, there doesn't seem to be any plan from the city, state, or federal government to find this funding. In fact, between the State Senate's goal of repealing the MTA payroll tax and the House GOP's budget-slashing, there may be more obvious paths to the MTA losing revenue than gaining it.

At the foot of the Roosevelt Island Bridge, DOT is showing off how a few simple improvements can turn a dangerous intersection into a safer one. It's not a flashy redesign -- just a pair of pedestrian refuges and improved crosswalks -- but it's a good example of the street safety improvements that are becoming increasingly common.

With the release of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal yesterday, right wing calls for massive cuts to transportation spending are now enshrined in the GOP leadership’s fiscal plan. Ryan singled out transportation as an area particularly ripe for cuts, criticized the use of gas tax revenues for projects that aren’t highways, and called for transportation spending levels to barely cover half of what President Obama requested in February.

Car-free households broken down by Assembly district. Red areas indicate where car ownership has gone up, blue areas where it has decreased. Click on each district for more information.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Last night's Municipal Arts Society panel, "Shared Streets: Making It Work," mainly covered familiar ground for those who have been following the city's efforts to repurpose its streets over the last four years. Participants touted the improved bus speeds along Select Bus Service routes, the safety gains where protected bike lanes have been installed, and the economic boost of pedestrian plazas in Times and Herald Square. Two things jumped out at as noteworthy, though.

A driver struck and injured a pedestrian crossing Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue near President Street yesterday evening around 6:35 p.m., according to the FDNY.