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Quinn Says She Would Aim to Cut Traffic Fatalities in Half by 2021
Mayoral candidate Christine Quinn said today that if elected, she would appoint an interagency “Safe Streets Working Group” tasked with cutting traffic fatalities in half by 2021. The working group, featuring “high level staff” from DOT, NYPD, City Planning, and the Department of Health, would coordinate automated enforcement, police enforcement, street design, and traffic calming interventions.
Leroy Comrie Bill Would Force NYPD to Report to Council on Hit-and-Runs
Queens City Council Member Leroy Comrie is set to introduce a bill that may have an impact on how NYPD approaches hit-and-run crashes, which kill dozens of NYC pedestrians and cyclists a year.
City Council Members Joining Citi Bike: The Tally Grows
DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced bike-share’s Memorial Day launch date at last week’s budget hearing, but Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer had some news of his own: He had joined thousands of New Yorkers in becoming a Citi Bike member.
“I want to say proudly I am one of the 8,000 people who have signed up for bike-share,” Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said, joining Brooklyn Council Members Steve Levin and Brad Lander in becoming a bike-share member. Like Lander, Van Bramer’s district isn’t even located in Citi Bike’s initial service area. “We really want bike-share in western Queens,” Van Bramer said.
In the week since Van Bramer’s announcement, the program’s membership rolls have grown from 8,000 to more than 10,000. Are any other council members awaiting key fobs in the mail?
Public Plaza to Open Alongside Holland Tunnel Traffic
HUDSON SQUARE — The newest park in lower Manhattan will offer the shade of leafy old trees, tables and chairs with matching lime green umbrellas — and a whiff of car exhaust.
Bronx Officials Want Additional Metro-North Stations In Borough
Bronx lawmakers want to see Metro-North roll through neighborhoods in the borough that have little access to rail transportation, and they are planning about a year ahead of the budget season to ensure the project gets started. NY1's Erin Clarke filed the following report.
StreetsPAC is a political action committee dedicated to improving the safety, mobility and livability of one of New York City’s greatest assets: its streets. The space between buildings, including sidewalks, roads and plazas, account for the majority of all public space in the five boroughs, and are a precious resource to be used and enjoyed by all.
NYC’s new safe streets political action committee is set to send out its first candidate questionnaire.
StreetsPAC has put together a 7-page doc that summarizes the committee’s agenda and solicits candidate responses to questions on traffic enforcement, transit, the use of street space, and more. It’s incredibly thorough, and should go a long way toward separating candidates who are serious about transportation reform from those who aren’t.
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The StreetsPAC 2013 Candidate Questionnaire
For New York City to compete in the global economy and provide the safety and quality of life New Yorkers deserve, our leaders must embrace a 21st Century vision for our streets that puts well-being of people first. StreetsPAC supports candidates for public office who will champion safe, complete and livable streets.
Safe Streets are safe enough for children, seniors, and people of all abilities to travel without fear of death or injury. Despite recent gains, our streets remain unsafe:
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of preventable death in New York City; crash fatalities increased 12% in 2012 compared to 2011, and hit-and-run fatalities increased by 31% from 2010 to 2012.
Although speeding is the top factor in NYC traffic deaths, police rarely enforce speeding laws on neighborhood streets, and prosecutors rarely pursue charges against sober drivers who kill.
To foster safe streets, StreetsPAC supports speed cameras and other enforcement strategies as well as changes in roadway design, which are proven to calm traffic.
Complete Streets encourage mobility and health by allocating space for walking, public transportation, bicycling and wheelchair access, and by prioritizing curbside access for taxis, delivery trucks and passenger loading over the underpriced curbside parking that now makes such uses difficult or impossible. For example:
•Select Bus Service using dedicated bus lanes has been an unqualified success, reducing travel times by 20% and increasing ridership.
•Increased bicycle lanes have made cycling for everyday transportation a viable option for thousands of New Yorkers. Protected lanes have been proven to reduce crash injuries among bicyclists, walkers and drivers by approximately 40%.
•Countdown clocks, sidewalk extensions and landscaped pedestrian safety islands make walking more pleasant and efficient.
StreetsPAC supports improving the quality and variety of transportation choices to improve personal mobility and build a more sustainable transportation system of complete streets.
Livable Streets are comfortable and welcoming to local residents and visitors and attract patrons to shops, restaurants, hotels and other local businesses. New Yorkers want to live, work and shop on livable, economically vital streets. Research shows:
Pedestrian plazas, bike lanes, play streets and other amenities dramatically increase retail property values, and significantly raise other commercial and residential property values.
The reduction and elimination of motor vehicle traffic on Broadway from Columbus Circle to Union Square has created a mecca for tourists as well as internet-based and other new-economy businesses.
StreetsPAC supports repurposing street space for the use of people to promote livable streets where commerce and community life can thrive.
StreetsPAC is a political action committee registered with the New York State and New York City Board of Elections. This questionnaire seeks to elicit your views on the important issues facing New York City’s streets. Your answers will help inform StreetsPAC endorsement and donation policy in the 2013 election.
All responses should be considered public, although StreetsPAC may at its discretion choose to disclose some, all or none of your responses. Responses may be shortened for publication. StreetsPAC may also disclose which candidates do not respond to this questionnaire. If you refer in your response to a position paper or your Web site, please specify the exact text you are referencing. By responding to this questionnaire, you give your agreement to the foregoing uses of your responses.
The StreetsPAC Advisory Board may ask to interview candidates submitting questionnaire responses.
Please feel free to post material regarding liveable streets:
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Neighborhoods Across NYC Prepping Applications for 20 MPH Slow Zones
The end of May is an important time for livable streets in New York — and not just because of bike-share’s Memorial Day launch. On May 31, Slow Zone applications are due to DOT. Grassroots groups have been working to build support for their applications among neighbors, businesses, elected officials, and community boards — all with the goal of reducing dangerous speeding on local streets.
Speeding was the leading cause of traffic deaths in New York City last year, and the fatal crash rate increases four times faster than the corresponding increase in speed, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Under the DOT program, Slow Zones are in primarily residential areas bounded by major barriers or streets, and cannot contain fire stations, hospitals or truck routes. In addition to the 20 mph speed limit, a Slow Zone area receives speed humps and new striping and signage to slow drivers.
A similar 20 mph zone program in London has prevented 27 traffic injuries or deaths each year, and Slow Zones have been shown to exert a spillover effect on driver speeds in adjacent neighborhoods there, as well.
A sign has also gone up on eastbound Park Avenue between Washington Avenue and Hall Street in Clinton Hill, where drivers have been clocked speeding as fast as 53 mph. The Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Partnership has been working with community groups and elected officials on a pedestrian safety plan. One of the early results is that DOT will be installing more street lights on Park Avenue, according to News 12 Brooklyn. The plan also includes a number of physical infrastructure recommendations — no word on those yet.
Fourth Avenue to get Herald Square-esque pedestrian barriers near 86th Street
The Department of Transportation unveiled a tweaked version of the proposed overhaul of the corridor that it first showed off at a March 21 public forum to Community Board 10 on May 13— and among the alterations to the plan is a metal barrier similar to the once-controversial pedestrian blockades along Broadway and Sixth Avenue near Herald Square. The fence would stretch from 86th Street halfway down the block to 87th Street, on the side nearest Third Avenue, ensuring no jaywalking takes place in that area.
City representatives said the department of transportation is reluctant to install the corral, but said that the agency had decided it was necessary to prevent pedestrians from crossing mid-block.
“This is not one of our favorite things to do, but we believe it would improve safety,” said spokesman Jesse Mintz-Roth.
A State Supreme Court judge on Wednesday blocked the Bloomberg administration’s plan for a near-uniform fleet of yellow cabs, ruling that it violated a New York City provision requiring a hybrid option for taxi operators.
Can you believe there exists a State Senator who thinks NYC DOT moves too quickly in implementing Select Bus Service improvements? Can you believe there is yet another Manhattan community intent on suffering through crippling crosstown traffic rather than enjoy a realignment of street lanes that would better prioritize transit? In the public farce of New York City, you better believe it.
After dabbling at the edges for political discourse for several years, the American Institute of Architect's New York chapter has jumped in with both feet by releasing this week its first-ever mayoral platform.
Sunset Park's New Green Space Takes Shape In Bush Terminal
The waterfront in Sunset Park is dominated by underused shipping piers and industrial warehouses, most of which are being redeveloped and modernized, a la the Brooklyn Navy Yard. As part of this makeover, the Brooklyn neighborhood is getting its first new green space in at least a decade, Bush Terminal Pier Park. Located on a former brownfield site, the park is slated to open this October, and Will Ellis of AbandonedNYC stopped by to check out the progress. "After 40 years as a toxic brownfield," writes Ellis, "it looks like it's shaping up to be a beautiful park."
Mayor Details Climate Plan, Including New Neighborhood
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is recommending that the city look into creating a new neighborhood along the East River shoreline as part of his wide-ranging plan to get the city to prepare for climate change.
With Fresh Direct Headed to the South Bronx, City and State Must Mitigate Impacts, Invest in Neighborhood
Fresh Direct will relocate to the Bronx from its current headquarters in Queens. The question that remains is how the City and State will mitigate the impacts of increased truck traffic in the community.
Luxury Rental Developer Creates Own Bike Share for Residents
MANHATTAN — As the city's big bike share program kicks into gear, at least one real estate developer is pedaling its own version for residents of 10 of its luxury rental buildings.
Anchors away! Business group pushing ferry from Manhattan to Coney
Coney Island could get a new kind of water ride if a business group gets its way.
The group, which calls itself the Small Business Coalition, wants the city to create a ferry service to bring cityfolk and tourists from Lower Manhattan to the People’s Playground on a regular basis in hopes of making a shore front excursion more palatable to the masses.
Under new regulations passed by Albany last month, curbside bus companies must now go before community boards before receiving a permit from DOT. Greyhound and Peter Pan, jointly launching service to Philadelphia from Chinatown, are among the first to navigate the new process. The bus companies are facing stiff opposition from neighbors before a community board committee vote next week.
There are 6,000 bikes imprinted with Citibank logos in downtown Manhattan and a few neighborhoods in Brooklyn. There are zero in Queens. The Wall Street Journal reports that the program is concentrated in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city, although a DOT spokesman counters that those are also some of the most densely populated areas as well. And the program won’t be expanding until more funds are raised.
Last edited by nykiddo718718; 06-11-2013 at 09:34 PM..
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