State Legislature
Streetsblog Basics
Post-Leandra’s Law, New York Needs to Protect All Reckless Driving Victims
While it took a lot of very public arm-twisting, last week brought a rare bit of good news from Albany: Lawmakers actually passed and adopted legislation to increase penalties for drunk drivers. And they did so, by their standards, with lightning speed. Reacting to the death of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who was thrown from a car driven by an intoxicated Carmen Huertas on the Henry Hudson Parkway on October 11, Governor David Paterson last Wednesday signed a bill making it a felony to drive drunk with children as passengers.
November 24, 2009
City Takes Small Step Toward Traffic Justice as Silver Continues to Obstruct
City district attorneys and NYPD have reached an agreement that could speed the process of collecting blood evidence from drunk driving suspects who refuse to take breath tests.
November 16, 2009
Pennies for Pedestrians: NY State Spends Small on Street Safety
It's not news that a half-century of transportation spending to accommodate the automobile has made the typical American city hazardous and hostile to people on foot. But it's shocking how we still devote so few resources to correcting those mistakes. A new report released today by a coalition of advocacy groups, including Transportation for America and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, quantifies current funding disparities and the cost in human lives. From T4A:
November 9, 2009
Jay Walder and NYC Buses, Part 2: What Can the MTA Do for Bus Riders?
"If I put train tracks down the street, you wouldn’t
park your car on them. If I said this is a bus lane, somehow it becomes fair
game. One person’s use of a road impacts upon another person’s use
of the road. My point is, if we have to make a choice, make the choice for the
bus, not for the car.”
October 26, 2009
The Jay Walder Compensation Confirmation Circus Gets Underway
Jimmy Vielkind at the Politicker files a dispatch from the first State Senate hearing about MTA chair nominee Jay Walder's severance package (yes, there will be more than one).
September 3, 2009
Q Poll: Car-Free Times Square a Smash Hit; MTA Skepticism Still High
If you're a livable streets optimist, you probably suspected that car-free Times Square critics like Andrea Peyser, Susan Dominus, and John Liu were out of touch. After all, most New Yorkers don't own cars, and many of those who do spend more time as pedestrians than drivers. And really, how many people were driving their own private vehicles right through the middle of Times Square, anyway?
July 29, 2009
Second Avenue Subway Keeps on Slipping Into the Future
Following another revision to the Second Avenue Subway construction timetable, the first phase of the mega-project remains, as ever, about seven or eight years away from completion. Pete Donohue reports in the Daily News:
July 21, 2009
Fare Hike Four to Paterson: Not So Fast
In case you've forgotten who's in charge these days, Governor Paterson's nomination of Jay Walder to succeed Lee Sander as MTA chief was quickly met with a joint statement from Malcolm Smith, John Sampson, and Fare Hike Four members Pedro Espada and Carl Kruger. In the interest of "transparency and accountability," the senators say they plan to put Walder in front of their committees before any decision is made. Kruger, for his part, tells The Daily Politics that he doesn't consider the backbone of the region's economy to be a particularly urgent agenda item.
July 14, 2009
Transpo Bills Gummed Up By State Senate Dysfunction
After spending the last five weeks affirming Albany's status as the nation's most dysfunctional state capital, the State Senate will have one last extraordinary session this Wednesday before calling it a year. The chamber is not expected to pass much in the way of transportation bills. (The Assembly wrapped up its session last month.) Here's a short summary of unfinished livable streets business which the Senate and Assembly will leave behind until the 2010 legislative session.
July 13, 2009
Ruben Diaz, Sr. Still Bending Over Backwards for Suburban Drivers
Last night, shortly after Pedro Espada secured his $41,000 majority leader perk, the State Senate returned to the business of legislating. Liz Benjamin has several posts today explaining what that looked like. In less than 24 hours, the chamber passed 135 bills. It could have passed 136, but Bronx Democrat Ruben Diaz, Sr. sided against his party and killed a measure to stiffen penalties for traffic violations on Long Island:
July 10, 2009