Bicycle Infrastructure
Streetsblog Basics
NYC Stim Projects Help Fund Big Bike-Ped Improvements
Yesterday Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the list of city transportation projects set to receive an injection of federal stimulus cash. Budget-wise, the big ticket items are mostly bridge repair projects, but channeling those stim bucks toward necessary maintenance also frees up a lot of money for other things, including a sizable slate of pedestrian and bicycle improvements. In New York, at least, there are plenty of "shovel-ready" projects to get excited about.
March 31, 2009
How Would MTA Control Affect Bridge Bike-Ped Access?
Biking the Triborough. Photo: E-BAD/Flickr.
March 3, 2009
Tonight: Support Major Ped and Bike Improvements at CB3 Meeting
Apologies for the last-minute heads up, but livable streets supporters in Chinatown and the Lower East Side won't want to miss this action at Community Board 3 tonight. A DOT project to expand pedestrian space and add center median protected bike paths to the Allen and Pike Street malls will be on the table at a meeting of the transportation committee. The plan also calls for new pedestrian plazas connecting the malls at six intersections, per DOT:
February 11, 2009
Stim Bill About to Enter Final Negotiations
Negotiators from the House and Senate are set to begin talks finalizing the stimulus bill at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, Reuters reports. While a topline figure of $789 billion has apparently been agreed to in principle, the devil is in the details, and there's still time to speak up for investment in green transportation and livable streets.
February 11, 2009
Senate Approves Stimulus Bill — On to Conference Committee
The Senate approved its version of the stimulus bill this afternoon by a 61-37 vote. Attention now turns to conference committee negotiations, where differences between the House and Senate bills will get ironed out. Politico has the scoop on who will be negotiating on the Senate side, and they're not exactly an urban bunch:
February 10, 2009
Senator Jim DeMint Wants to Eliminate Bike Stim Funds: Take Action!
Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who said that directing stim funds toward bicycle and hiking infrastructure
will not help the economy or create jobs, has gone too far. He and
Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma have just proposed an
amendment that would kill all stimulus funds for bike and hiking
trails.
February 6, 2009
$2 Billion for Bicycling in Stimulus Package?
The most tantalizing tidbit in today's Times profile of Earl Blumenauer comes from fellow cycling Congressman James Oberstar:
January 13, 2009
Dispute Over Kent Avenue Bike Lanes Keeps Rolling
The controversy over the new bike lanes on Kent Avenue in Williamsburg (which recently resulted in the ouster of livable streets activist Teresa Toro as chair of the CB1 transportation committee) was chronicled in the New York Times over the weekend:
January 5, 2009
The Livable Streets Backlash Claims a Victim at Brooklyn’s CB1
Teresa Toro, one of New York City's most productive livable streets activists in recent years, has been deposed as chair of Brooklyn Community Board 1's Transportation Committee. CB1 covers the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn and has recently been embroiled in bitter fighting over the new bike lanes on Kent Avenue. CB1's executive committee voted unanimously to remove her.
December 24, 2008
Council Members Surprised to Hear CBs Approved Bike Lanes
With news swirling about possible cuts to New York's bike network build-out and City Council oversight of street re-designs, we'd be remiss not to pass along this anecdote from the Bikes in Buildings hearing earlier this week. After DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan wrapped up her testimony to council members, she was peppered with questions about how her department goes about installing bike lanes, TA's Wiley Norvell told us:
December 11, 2008