Transportation Policy
Streetsblog Basics
City’s Parking Expansion Sustains Nothing but Motoring
From the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's latest newsletter, three examples of how City Hall contradicts its stated Long-Term Planning and Sustainability goals with policies that foster more automobile dependence:
April 12, 2007
CB2 Committee Approves “Additional” Prince/Bleecker Routes
The CB2 Traffic & Transportation Committee met at the LGBT Center on Tuesday.
April 12, 2007
We Must Imagine a Future Without Cars
From Alternet, the following is an excerpted version of James Howard Kunstler's recent speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, well worth reading in its entirety. An audio stream of the speech is also available:
April 11, 2007
Co-op City Group Wants Bus Rapid Transit to Keep Its Distance
Even though Bus Rapid Transit may have the support of the city's DOT, more roadblocks may await its implementation -- in the form of community groups set on protecting the status quo in their neighborhoods. A dispute over one route is brewing in the Bronx, as reported in a recent Daily News story:
April 10, 2007
City Pitches in for Yankee Stadium Parking
What could be worse than replacing neighborhood parks with private parking decks, built with the specific intent of increasing car trips by the tens of thousands through a community already suffering from so much disease-causing pollution that its nickname is "Asthma Alley"?
April 9, 2007
Park Slope Passes on Traffic-Calming, Ped Safety & Bike Lanes
Gowanus Lounge reports on the debate over DOT's 9th Street redesign plan at last night's Park Slope Civic Council meeting. The Civic Council voted overwhelmingly to "table" a plan that would provide the neighborhood with improved pedestrian safety on one of the most hazardous streets in the area, enhanced cyclist safety along a key access route to Prospect Park and Red Hook, and traffic-calming along an overly broad street with low vehicle counts and a serious speeding problem.
April 6, 2007
Primeggia’s One-Way Safety Claims Are Based on 1970s Studies
DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia on March 15: "I know that two-way streets are less safe."
April 6, 2007
Resolved: More Traffic Congestion & Automobile Dependence
Brooklyn City Councilmember Lew Fidler and a small group of his outer borough colleagues have put forward Resolution 774 "calling upon the Mayor of New York City to oppose the institution of any form of congestion pricing." The resolution is based on a March 2006 report commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce that was, to put it mildly, filled with misinformation and gaping holes about the City of London's congestion charging experience.
April 6, 2007
Mexico City 2030?
As New York City government employees rabidly defend the carte blanche parking privileges that enable their daily driving habit, the mayor of Mexico City has decreed that officials there bike or take transit to work once a month.
April 3, 2007
Friday Ride Yields Mass Police, Media Coverage
Up to 200 cyclists gathered Friday evening for the first Critical Mass since the city law took effect limiting unpermitted bike rides and other public events to fewer than 50 people. With all the professional and citizen journalists on-hand to witness the "showdown" between cyclists and the NYPD, one wonders if the restriction might be extended to the media.
April 2, 2007