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Ride With Clarence on the Tour de Staten Island
Close to 2,000 people turned out Sunday for Transportation Alternatives' 2015 Tour de Staten Island. For the event's fifth year, riders were treated to areas of the new Fresh Kills Park that aren't yet open to the public. Other highlights included oceanside riding and views of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, where the Harbor Ring Committee continues to advocate for bike and pedestrian access.
April 13, 2015
Joan McDonald: New York State DOT’s Top Safety Priority Is Fixing Bridges
Pedestrians and cyclists account for a higher share of traffic deaths in New York than in any other state, according to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, making up 29 percent of all traffic fatalities.
March 26, 2015
TA: De Blasio Must Undo Construction Budget Cuts to Fix Dangerous Streets
Arterial streets -- the city's big, busy, highway-like roadways -- cover just 15 percent of the New York City street network but account for nearly 60 percent of all pedestrian fatalities. The city will have to overhaul these streets to achieve Mayor de Blasio's Vision Zero goals. And to make those changes, the city must reverse cuts to its roadway reconstruction budget, according to a new report from Transportation Alternatives [PDF].
March 19, 2015
Working Families Party: Let’s Allow Bus Drivers to Run Over Working Families
The Working Families Party says it supports the City Council bill to exempt MTA bus drivers from the Right of Way Law, but its position is based on a misreading of the law and the premise that bus drivers, in the course of doing their jobs, should be allowed to strike people who have the right of way.
March 19, 2015
The New Plan to Connect Downtown Brooklyn to Its Waterfront
Starting in the 1930s, entire city blocks in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, and DUMBO were razed for expressways and parks. Today, this jumble of on-ramps and disconnected green space separates Brooklyn's waterfront from its downtown core. A new public-private initiative, called "The Brooklyn Strand," seeks to knit these disjointed areas back together.
March 18, 2015
TSTC Dangerous Roads Report: NYC Must Fund Vision Zero Street Redesigns
The latest pedestrian fatality report from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign finds that New York City’s widest and most heavily-traveled streets continue to be the most dangerous for walking.
March 4, 2015
TA: Inconsistency Between Precincts Undermines NYPD Traffic Enforcement
In the year since Mayor Bill de Blasio promised stepped-up traffic enforcement under Vision Zero, NYPD has moved in the right direction, according to a new report from Transportation Alternatives [PDF]. At the same time, enforcement varies dramatically from precinct to precinct, weakening overall deterrence.
February 27, 2015
Albany Has Already Saddled the MTA With More Debt Than 30 Nations
As Albany contemplates paying for the MTA capital program by borrowing as much as $15 billion, it's worth pausing to examine the debt load straphangers are already shouldering. To put it in perspective, the MTA carries more debt than Bolivia, Tanzania, and Luxembourg combined, according to numbers compiled by the Straphangers Campaign. The MTA owes more than at least 30 nations, including several with populations much larger than New York City.
February 12, 2015
RPA: Growing Outer Boroughs Need New Generation of Transit Investment
With the boroughs outside Manhattan adding people and jobs faster than the city core, New York needs to reorient its transit priorities, argues the Regional Plan Association in a new report. The authors warn that increasing travel in the other boroughs will strain the local bus system and lead more people to drive, causing more traffic congestion and imposing the burden of car ownership on more low- and middle-income New Yorkers.
February 11, 2015
Sunday: Families For Safe Streets to Train Spotlight on Feckless NYC DAs
Since January 2012, Streetsblog has maintained a database of all known pedestrians and cyclists killed by drivers in New York City. We collect as much information on each crash as possible, including any charges filed against the motorists who took the victims' lives.
January 8, 2015