Commuting
Streetsblog Basics
City Building Opens New Indoor Bike Parking Facility
The city bureaucracy got it a little bit backwards, cracking down on bike commuting employees before actually offering them a new place to park their wheels. But this e-mail sent this morning to Dept. of Health employees working at 280 Broadway seems like a step in the right direction.
August 7, 2007
Mayor Bloomberg’s Morning Commute
The New York Times metro desk has been staking out "MetroCard" Mayor Michael Bloomberg's morning commute for the past five weeks. At first, reporter Michael Grynbaum and his colleagues Cassi Feldman and Cristina Maldonado thought they had a big scoop, according to a reporter's diary on City Room:
August 1, 2007
City Backpedals, Says it is Now Making Space for Employee Bikes
Outdoor bike parking at 100 Gold Street
August 1, 2007
Dying to Get to Work
As New York State sets up a commission to study the costs and benefits of New York City's congestion pricing proposal, a new study by the Clean Air Task Force finds that, for many New Yorkers, the greatest exposure to dangerous and unhealthy air pollution comes during the daily commute. "Although we spend only about six percent of our day commuting to and
from work, it is during that time when we receive over half of our
exposure" to diesel exhaust, researchers found.
July 27, 2007
“Green” Transport Consultant Bans Employees from Biking
Jacobs Babtie, one of the UK's leading consultants in sustainable transport, is banning its own employees from commuting on bicycles or motorbikes after declaring them too dangerous. On the company website, where there is actually a picure of a young boy signaling a right turn on his bicycle, Jacobs boasts that it has an "impressive track record in the rapidly growing field of sustainable transport." This is surely a weak point in that track record. The Times of London reports (via TreeHugger):
July 11, 2007
Brodsky Represents NYC’s Wealthiest Car Commuters
Here is a complete copy of Assembly Member Richard Brodsky's "Interim Report and Inquiry" into New York City's long-term planning and congestion pricing proposals. Brodsky, you may recall, is the powerful state lawmaker with the moneybag full of parking industry contributions.
July 10, 2007
Mayor Speaks at Times Square Pricing Rally
Supporters of congestion pricing rallied yesterday in Times Square, urging state lawmakers to act by July 16 on Mayor Bloomberg's initiative or risk losing $500 million in federal funds. "The time is now," said the mayor, according to the New York Post. "We cannot walk away from this opportunity."
July 6, 2007
A Rising Bicycle Tide in Mexico City
Back in April, Marcelo Ebrad, the mayor of Mexico City, announced he wanted those who worked in his administration to ride bicycles to work one day a month (at right, Ebrard, center, kicks off the program). Many were shocked at the idea, or simply laughed it off. But this excellent article in the San Diego Union details how the mayor's decree to his employees has meshed with several other initiatives to raise the profile of bicycling as a legitimate form of transportation in the traffic-clogged city:
July 5, 2007
‘Triboro RX’ Could Provide More Transit Opportunities
For the Regional Plan Association, Michael Frumin visualized their plan for a rapid transit line in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx that could be built almost entirely on pre-existing rail and would connect with at least twenty existing subway lines. The "Triboro RX", which originated in the 1996 Third Regional Plan, could provide effective transit between these boroughs at a fraction of the cost of most transit projects.
June 29, 2007
