Transportation Policy

Among the three cyclist fatality clusters identified by the joint report by the City Departments of Health, Police, Parks and Transportation, the Queensboro Bridge is by far the worst. The entrance intersection at 60th and Second also claimed the award for the most unticketed incidents of block the box in the Borough President's study of lax enforcement of basic traffic rules.

As someone who lives in Brooklyn and pedals a two-year-old to daycare three days a week, I find the scenes depicted in this video to be completely incredible. There is no question in my mind that the future of New York City has to look something like this. --Editor

Upon re-reading this morning's Times article on the new pedestrian countdown timers, I think it's worth taking a closer look at this statement DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall made at yesterday's pedestrian countdown press conference. As reported:

Word has come down that DOT is now aiming to install its new Class III Shared Lane bicycle stencils on Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue before the end of November. The markings are an interesting innovation for New York City in that they direct motorists and cyclists to share the middle of the road as equals. Drivers aren't supposed to blast their horns at cyclists riding in the travel lane and cyclists aren't supposed to try to slip in and out of the door-zone between moving traffic and parked cars. The City, in other words, is telling cyclists: Go ahead and take the travel lane on this street. It is yours. What do you think?

London officials closed the northern side of Trafalgar Square to traffic creating a vibrant new public space.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (pictured right) emphasized quality of life issues in his annual State of the City address last week. Most significant, Newsom put forward an ambitious transportation agenda and laid out specific targets for increasing bicycling and reducing automobile use:

Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson has been spending a lot of time in Portland learning about the politics, planning, engineering and culture behind that city's phenomenal bike network. Working closely with Greg Raisman from Portland's Dept. of Transportation Clarence produced a half hour documentary called "A Celebration of Portland Transportation." On Saturday, the film was shown on the big screen at Portland's Bagdad Theater.

Sketches from an internal BRT Study depicting the three general types of stations: A) Major Station: Includes extended canopy with windscreens and seating. Icon and full platform pavement treatment. B) Standard Station: Shelter with Icon and full platform pavement treatment. C) Minimum Station: For locations with narrow sidewalks: Icon and platform edge strip only. Bigger image here.

One of the more troublesome aspects of Forest City Enterprise's "Atlantic Yards" proposal is the developer's plan to create two rather huge, suburban mall-style surface parking lots on the eastern side of the project footprint. If all goes as planned there will 3,600 new parking spaces will be in place by 2012.