DOT Proposes Road Diet But Only 4 Ped Islands for 35 Blocks of West End Ave
After two people were killed by motorists along one stretch of West End Avenue this year, DOT promised to calm traffic on this dangerous Upper West Side street. Before a packed house of about 200 residents last night, the agency said changes will be made in two phases, finishing by next spring. The plan: A standard road diet, taking the avenue from two lanes in each direction to one, while adding a center turn lane and widening parking lanes [PDF]. The project is an improvement over the status quo, but many residents last night wanted more.
August 1, 2014
Local Speeding Tickets (Barely) Outnumber Sidewalk Biking Summonses
We've got a new installment in Streetsblog's hotly-anticipated Sidewalk Biking Ticket Index, which compares the number of sidewalk biking summonses issued by NYPD to the number of speeding tickets issued by local precincts. In a reversal from 2012, NYPD last year issued more tickets for speeding on local streets than criminal charges for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk -- but just barely. The ratio is still far out of proportion to the damage caused by each offense.
July 31, 2014
Map Out Which Streets Need Safety Fixes — It’s Now or Never
This is it -- the last day to mark dangerous street conditions on the city's official Vision Zero map. After today, agencies will start using the information from the map to make plans for safety improvements, so spend a few minutes this afternoon and tell the city where you want safer streets for walking and biking.
July 31, 2014
Don’t Hate the Parking App Profiteers, Hate the Free Parking Game
Haystack, the latest app allowing drivers to sell access to a parking space, blazed across the Internet this month after Boston Mayor Martin Walsh threatened to ban it. Valleywag called it a "scourge." The Awl compared it to profiteering off access to clean water. The haters have it wrong though: The apps aren't screwing over the public -- local governments are.
July 30, 2014
Reinvent This: Cuomo Cuts Future Investment to Pay for MTA Labor Deals
When Governor Cuomo smiled for the cameras to announce labor deals with the Transport Workers Union and Long Island Rail Road unions, he promised they wouldn't push already-planned fare hikes any higher. The unanswered question was: How much will this cost, and how is he going to pay for it? Now we know: The governor's MTA is moving money away from investments in the system's long-term upkeep, widening a $12 billion hole even as a panel of experts studies ways to pay for needed improvements.
July 29, 2014
Unlike Toll Reform, a Sales Tax Really Is a Regressive Way to Fund Transit
The MTA capital program is facing a $12 billion shortfall, according to Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, and unless that gap is closed, transit riders will end up paying even more to cover the agency's ballooning debt load. There's one clear way to address that problem while cleaning up the traffic mess that ensnares motorists, bus riders, pedestrians, and cyclists alike -- raising revenue by reforming NYC's broken toll system. But a leader of Governor Cuomo's MTA Reinvention Commission appears to favor a regressive option that won't fix the dysfunction on city streets.
July 29, 2014