Next Year, Peds and Cyclists Won’t Have to Fight for Scraps on Pulaski Bridge
By this time next year, people walking and biking across the Pulaski Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens won't have to share a single narrow path. With a new, two-way protected bike lane spanning the bridge, cyclists will have a safe route and pedestrians will have the existing 8.5-foot wide pathway exclusively for walking. No more fighting over scraps of street space.
December 19, 2013
DOT Plans Road Diet and Bikeway Upgrade on Deadly Section of Kent Avenue
Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 1's transportation committee unanimously recommended the board support a DOT project [PDF] to calm traffic on a deadly stretch of Kent Avenue between Clymer Street and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The project also upgrades a link in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to a two-way protected bike lane.
December 18, 2013
Pratt Center Suggests Eight Routes for Robust BRT — Is de Blasio Listening?
In 2008, a coalition led by the Pratt Center for Community Development laid out a vision for 12 Bus Rapid Transit lines across the city. Nearly six years later, NYC DOT and the MTA have installed six Select Bus Service routes in four boroughs, with plans for more. At a panel discussion this morning, the Pratt Center unveiled a new report [PDF] showing eight routes that are ripe for Bus Rapid Transit, featuring upgrades like separated busways and stations with fare gates and platform-level boarding.
December 17, 2013
DOT Launches Anti-Reckless Driving Campaign Featuring Families of Victims
DOT announced yesterday that it is launching an education campaign to combat reckless driving -- specifically speeding, distracted driving, and failure to yield to pedestrians. These three violations combined account for 40 percent of New Yorkers killed in car crashes, DOT says.
December 17, 2013
Tony Avella and David Weprin Launch Preemptive Attack on NYC Toll Reform
Remember these guys? This morning, State Senator Tony Avella and Assembly Member David Weprin stood at traffic-choked Queensboro Plaza to say they don't care if the Move NY toll reform plan reduces tolls on bridges near their eastern Queens districts -- they refuse to support any proposal that adds tolls to East River crossings. In a bid to preempt any forthcoming effort to fix the region's dysfunctional road pricing system, they're introducing legislation in Albany to prohibit charging drivers on city-owned bridges. The gesture is pure theatrics, since NYC already can't put a price on those bridges without approval from the state.
December 13, 2013
CB 5 Votes Unanimously for DOT Study of Fifth and Sixth Avenue Redesign
After a unanimous vote by its transportation committee last month, Manhattan Community Board 5 voted unanimously last night for DOT to study a complete streets redesign of Fifth and Sixth Avenues to better accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders on two of the busiest avenues in Midtown.
December 13, 2013