Today’s Headlines

Ahead of Tonight’s TA Ride (DNA), Matthew von Ohlen Family Urges de Blasio to Fund Street Fixes (News)
Motorist Kills 63-Year-Old Man Walking in Harlem; NYPD, DNA Blame Victim
Borough Park Driver Hit Child Hard Enough to Shatter Bike Helmet; NYPD: “Accident” (Post, News)
Shocker: DOT Vision Zero Curriculum Prompts the Post to Blame Children for Traffic Crashes
Advocates, Lower East Siders Have Lobbied for Delancey Street Bikeway for Years (DNA, Gothamist)
DOT Calls for All-Door Boarding “Across the Bus System” (Crain’s)
Chaos Ensues When Unhinged Off-Duty Cop Assaults Subway Conductor, Stalling J Trains (NYT, News)
You Can’t Access the Internet From Sidewalk Wi-Fi Kiosks Anymore, Because Porn (NYT)
Cabs Were Harder to Come by During Eid al-Adha, and the Times Is On It
Obvious Solution to Citi Bikes Begriming Prospect Park Sculpture: Site Dock in Place of Parked Cars (NYT)
… Because You Can’t Appease Crazy (@psneighbors)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

Vooch

maybe Bratton’s mistress killed Mat van Ohlen ?
HamTech87

Ah. I see it now. Totally missed those points. Thanks.
SSkate

Not that I was harping at Streetblog about this, as it was DNA that made the error in the first place.

BTW: I’m now recalling that one of the adjoining CBs really had a snit a year or two ago about DOT’s effort to apply some traffic calming along MSAve. So to read that someone just got run down here makes me feel a bit sick.
Joe R.

Anything is possible at this point. My conspiracy theory on what happened and will happen runs something like this:

1) A deal is quietly made to bury this provided the NYPD official involved resigns.

2) The NYPD frames a nobody, perhaps someone with prior DWI arrests, for both car theft and vehicular homicide. It announces they have the alleged killer in custody.

3) After the framed person is taken into custody, he/she is soon killed “attempting to escape”. This wraps everything up nicely with a bow tie.

Sorry if this sounds like something straight out of an episode of Castle but I wouldn’t put any of it past our corrupt police force.
Brad Aaron

The video is more than two years old, and Streetsblog reviewed it when it was released:

http://www.streetsblog.org/2014/05/13/how-do-you-educate-kids-on-street-safety-when-drivers-are-dangerous/

I looked through the teachers’ guide and the student workbook. I found it to be less victim-blamey than the old “Safety City” model, which is good. But to paraphrase Doug Gordon, when you aim your “education” at victims, victims are going to get blamed. See today’s Post link.

One week of targeted NYPD enforcement only draws attention to the fact that drivers are usually free to drive recklessly in school zones with impunity. The big news, as far as I can tell, is DOE is on board with having teachers do this stuff.

Well-intentioned as it may be, it smacks of DOT and NYPD abdicating responsibility for protecting children from reckless adults. Shortchanging street improvements while lecturing kids on how to walk is not Vision Zero.

More here:

https://twitter.com/BradAaron/status/776096635529093120
Vooch

“You will have a fair trial after which you will be shot”
Larry Littlefield

We’re already paying for 2.8 times as many of them as the U.S. average, but they don’t seem to be available for more work. Which is why the 1,000 more added over DeBlasio and Bratton’s objections were required to “put the cop back on the beat.”
BKBedStuy

Why would enforcement be a city responsibility? The MTA already has enforcement teams. They’re the ones on SBS.
Avi

CitiBike can’t be inside the parks because they require 24×7 access and the parks technically close at night. But if it’s on the peripheral so that the bikes can still be accessed that’s OK.
Daphna

Regarding the DNA article about the 63 year old man killed by a driver at West 124th Street and Morningside Avenue — that article was terribly under-researched by the reporter. There is NO CROSSWALK at 124th Street and Morningside Avenue.

A couple years ago, after a HUGE amount of advocacy by many neighborhood groups and safe street advocates, the resistant CB9 leadership and the extraordinarily resistant CB10 leadership, were finally convinced to support the safer re-design of Morningside Avenue. Thus from 116th to 126th Streets, Morningside Avenue was converted from 4 lanes to 3, with a wider median, left turn bays, and wide curbside parking. However, despite many residents mentioning a need for a crosswalk at 124th Street to the DOT, the needed crosswalk was not added at 124th St in the re-design.

To the east of Morningside Avenue 124th Street is a street, to the west of Morningside Avenue it becomes a foot path that goes through Grand Houses (projects – public housing) to Amsterdam Ave. Pedestrians use this foot path in large volumes. It is a popular route for anyone heading to the A,B,C,D train station from destinations to the west of the subway stop. A crosswalk ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO BE ADDED at this heavily used cross street / foot path at 124th St.

Instead the nearest crosswalk is a block north. It is unreasonable to expect pedestrians to detour from a natural pedestrian desire line that significantly. Good reporting by Emily Frost could have focused on the missing crosswalk and the need for it at this intersection that is so heavily used as an east-west route by pedestrians. The man could not help but be outside of a crosswalk where none exists.
Daphna

Regarding the DNA article about the 63 yr old man killed by a driver at West 124th Street and Morningside Avenue — that article failed to mention that is is NO CROSSWALK at 124th Street and Morningside Avenue where one is badly needed. The man had no choice but to be outside of a crosswalk where none exists.

A couple years ago, after a HUGE amount of advocacy by many neighborhood groups and safe street advocates, the resistant CB9 leadership and the even more resistant CB10 leadership, were finally convinced to support the safer re-design of Morningside Avenue. Thus from 116th-126th St, Morningside Avenue was converted from 4 lanes to 3, with a wide median, left turn bays, and wide curbside parking. However, despite residents mentioning a need for a crosswalk at 124th Street to the DOT, the needed crosswalk was not added at 124th St in the re-design.

To the east of Morningside Avenue, 124th Street is a street, to the west of Morningside Avenue it is a foot path through Grand Houses (NYCHA) to Amsterdam Ave. Pedestrians walk this foot path in large volumes. It is a popular route for anyone heading to the A,B,C,D train station from destinations to the west of the subway stop. A crosswalk ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO BE ADDED at this heavily used cross street / foot path.

The nearest crosswalk is a block north. It is unreasonable to ask pedestrians to detour from a natural pedestrian desire line that significantly. Good reporting by Emily Frost could have focused on the missing crosswalk and the need for it at this intersection that is so heavily used as an east-west route by pedestrians.
bolwerk

Hmm, thought Bratton and the Council wanted them, de Blasio said no, and then de Blasio capitulated at the last second. Oh well, doesn’t make much difference. I’m all for putting them to different, more productive work. This would certainly be it.

But even TA inspectors could be revenue-neutral. The fines need to cover the cost of the losses in fare revenue and the cost of the inspections. If you say that could and maybe even would be bungled, I can agree, but certainly going all-door doesn’t have to cost revenue.
neroden

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