Community Organizations
Streetsblog Basics
The Most Important Bus Routes in NYC Tend to Perform the Worst for Riders
The slowest bus in New York City is the M79, and the least reliable is the local M15, according to the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives, which today awarded these two routes the "uncoveted" Pokey and Schleppie awards, respectively.
December 11, 2014
Long Island Pols Backtrack on Speed Cams, Play Politics With People’s Lives
With a presumed re-election bid coming in 2015, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has determined his political career is more important than people's safety.
December 9, 2014
Families for Safe Streets to Call on DAs to Prosecute Reckless Drivers
Update: Sunday's event has been postponed, according to a TA press release, "in solidarity with those protesting the grand jury decision not to indict in the Eric Garner case."
December 4, 2014
TransAlt’s Noah Budnick Named New Executive Director of SF Bike Coalition
Transportation Alternatives Policy Director Noah Budnick has been named the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's new executive director, the SFBC announced today. Budnick will succeed Leah Shahum, who will step down after 12 years leading the organization.
December 3, 2014
Envisioning a Safer Queens Boulevard Where People Want to Walk
While safety improvements have saved lives on Queens Boulevard since the late 1990s, when it was routine for more than a dozen people to be killed in a single year, the "Boulevard of Death" remains one of New York City's most dangerous streets. As DOT prepares to launch a comprehensive safety overhaul in the coming months, advocates have published some ideas about how to redesign Queens Boulevard for the Vision Zero era.
November 25, 2014
What Would a National Vision Zero Movement Look Like?
Earlier this week, New York-based Transportation Alternatives released a statement of 10 principles that emerged from the Vision Zero symposium the group sponsored last Friday. It was the first-ever national gathering of thought leaders and advocates committed to spreading Vision Zero’s ethic of eliminating all traffic deaths through better design, enforcement, and education.
November 21, 2014
Reimagining Jay Street With Shared Space and Protected Bike Lanes
Jay Street is one of the major north-south spines of Downtown Brooklyn. The street is full of pedestrians near MetroTech, cyclists going to and from the Manhattan Bridge, and buses connecting to nearby subways, but it's not designed to serve anyone particularly well -- except, perhaps, people with parking placards. Double-parked cars constantly obstruct bike lanes and buses. Pedestrians deal with dangerous intersections. Everyone is frustrated.
November 21, 2014
Will de Blasio’s Bike Lane Network Keep Pace With Citi Bike Expansion?
A City Council hearing on bike infrastructure is about to get underway this afternoon, where council members will "focus on ways to improve" NYC bike infrastructure, according to a press release from Ydanis Rodriguez, the transportation chair.
November 20, 2014
Citizens Budget Commission: MTA Capital Program Must Change Course
The fight over how to fund the MTA's next capital plan is just starting to heat up, with worries over disappearing federal dollars, ever-expanding debt, and proposals for new revenue sources. Before the funding discussion gets going in earnest, a new report from the Citizens Budget Commission [PDF] begs the region's transportation policymakers to take a step back and consider a more fundamental question: Does this plan prioritize the right things?
October 24, 2014
TransAlt Volunteers Keep Momentum Going for Midtown Complete Streets
Despite being flat, Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue have long been an uphill battle -- for safe biking and walking that is. In 1980, in a decision well ahead of the times, Mayor Ed Koch had protected bike lanes installed on these heavily trafficked corridors, only to wipe away that groundbreaking work by removing the concrete barriers one month later. A few remnants of the original bike lanes still exist, but a lasting redesign of these two key Midtown avenues has seemed out of reach -- until now.
October 20, 2014