Studies & Reports

Today Transportation Alternatives released "Streets to Live By" [PDF], the report previewed last week in the Observer. It seeks to define what makes a street livable and to synthesize a broad range of data, culled from numerous cities, on the effects of policies that put pedestrians first.

Ever wonder how much New York stands to gain by making its streets more livable? Transportation Alternatives has been gathering evidence measuring the economic and social benefits that accrue when cities put pedestrians first. Their report is coming out next week, but the Observer published a sneak preview (headline: "The Woonerf Deficit") this Tuesday:

After calling attention last month to the traffic-reducing power of parking reform, Transportation Alternatives has released a follow-up report with a parking prescription for New York. "Pricing the Curb" [PDF] looks to innovative programs underway in Washington D.C., San Francisco, and Chicago for inspiration. With DOT taking steps toward setting variable-rate prices for curbside parking -- which it calls "peak rate parking" -- the report urges the Bloomberg administration to go further. A full-featured parking policy is one way the city can take on traffic without Albany's approval.

When DOT installed a leading pedestrian interval, or LPI, by a Lincoln Tunnel exit on 34th Street last month, nearby residents were thrilled. Cars turning onto 34th from Dyer Avenue -- a tunnel off-ramp -- had long posed a hazard to people in the crosswalk, leading Community Board 4 to request signal timing exclusively for pedestrians. At first DOT declined to take action, but after 300 people signed a petition in favor of the LPI, it was installed in a matter of days. Now pedestrians crossing 34th enjoy a luxurious 17 seconds during which they have the all-clear.

Matthew Yglesias over at The Atlantic points us to this eye-popping chart from A Better Way to Go, a USPIRG Education Fund report published in March 2008. Download the report here. It's a good one to have on-hand. A few factoids to accompany the chart:

Three days after the debut of Bx12 Select Bus Service, Bronx resident and Tri-State Transportation Campaign Associate Director Veronica Vanterpool rode the route from Co-op City to Inwood. On Mobilizing the Region, she reports that riders are becoming accustomed to the pre-payment system and rear-door boarding, with the help of bus drivers and New York City Transit personnel.

A short item in yesterday's Crain's Insider notes that the hiring of 100 additional traffic agents is on hold due to belt-tightening in the city budget:

A study released today by Transportation Alternatives puts the congestion and waste caused by cheap metered parking in stark terms. The report, "Driven to Excess" [PDF], quantifies just how far Upper West Side drivers go in search of open spots: 366,000 miles a year, or about the distance from Earth to the moon.

A study released this week by Transportation Alternatives undercuts the claim that closing Central Park's loop drive to cars would increase traffic on the streets of Harlem. To the contrary, findings indicate that loop entrances on 110th street at Malcolm X and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards "act as traffic magnets," drawing vehicles onto neighborhood streets from more appropriate routes like the FDR, Harlem River Drive and the West Side Highway.