Today’s Headlines

  • Bratton Retires Today (DNA, AP, Post, Politico); Valedictory NYT Column Doesn’t Mention Street Safety
  • Polly Trottenberg Stores Her Car on the Street Just Like Everyone Else (Politico, Post, DNA)
  • Hundreds Join TA to Demand de Blasio Do More to Prevent Traffic Deaths (PIX, AMNY)
  • Paul White Calls on James O’Neill to Take Vision Zero Seriously (News)
  • The Daily News Did a Decent Story on Bike Safety; Tony Avella, Bike Lane Truther (News)
  • Wall Street Journal Examines Citi Bike’s Rebalancing Problem
  • Komanoff Takes Down Uber’s Wacky L Closure Proposal (Newsweek)
  • Man Trying to Remove Boot From Car Attacks Cops, Is Shot in Midtown (NYT, Post)
  • Crank Who Bullied Brooklyn CB 6 Over Bike-Share Also Upset by Absence of Flag (DNA, Gothamist)
  • NYPD: Recidivist Reckless Driver “Had the Light” When He Ran Over Child (Bklyn Paper, @bikesnobnyc)
  • Motorist Drives Through Front Window of Bank in Flatlands; No Charges (News, Post)
  • The New Jersey Transit Board Has Stopped Holding Meetings (MTR)

More headlines at Streetsblog USA

  • That article about Trottenberg’s car really explains so much about DOT’s approach to safe streets (half-assed) and any attempts at parking reform (won’t happen). A good job by Dana capturing safe streets’ advocates key complaints in such a succinct piece.

  • ItsEasyBeingGreen

    If the only people who cycle are people who self-identify as “cyclists”, we have a problem. If we need the NYPD to keep people safe, we have a problem.

    Park Slope is also the home of our Mayor, and is fairly close to lower Manhattan, yet there is no low-stress cycling route from there to even Downtown Brooklyn, nor is there any sign of one on the horizon.

  • walknseason

    Bye bye Bratton!! Good riddance. Have fun in your quasi public quasi private lobbying technology firm, getting paid big $$ to surveil people.

  • sbauman

    Here’s the correct link to the article about Tony Avella’s rant against bike lanes.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/cyclists-safe-adding-traffic-lights-not-bike-lanes-article-1.2794305

  • Jeff

    Igneri said Thursday he was angered by the board’s refusal to listen to his frustrations, the absence of an American flag in the room, and Lonial’s use of a gavel and block to maintain order in the room.

    If there ever was an application of the “Old Man Yells At Cloud” meme…

  • Joe R.

    His rant made for a good laugh. He must be living in an alternate universe when he says stuff like this:

    People are getting killed and seriously hurt at numerous intersections throughout the city — yet the city is more focused on bike lanes rather than installing traffic lights because that stops traffic.

    It’s almost like you need an act of God to get an all-way stop or a traffic light.

    Last I checked NYC has well over 12,000 signalized intersections and stop signs virtually every else. Doing more of the same is not the answer. If it hasn’t worked already it’s never going to. Instead let’s do street redesigns to slow traffic to ~20 mph, daylight intersections, and start removing traffic signals and stop signs. That’s worked better in the places where it’s been tried.

    I wonder if Avella owns stock in companies which make traffic signals?

  • Brad Aaron

    Link fixed.

  • Reader

    It reads as if it was written by someone with barely a 5th grade education.

  • Mike

    That Billions shoot has taken over a couple blocks of 5th Ave. in Park Slope, and the dozens of oversized vehicles (Verizon trucks, ConEd trucks, school bus drivers ed busses, etc…) that are parked along that stretch in the morning so that their drivers can get breakfast at the 5th Ave. Deli were all double parked next to the cones blocking off spaces for Billions. It was a nightmare getting up 5th this morning on a bike — those oversized vehicles usually bleed into the sharrow zone, but today it was ridiculous.

  • JudenChino

    A good job by Dana capturing safe streets’ advocates key complaints in such a succinct piece. Was that sarcasm? I didn’t see that in her piece. Just whining about having our cars moved — Who can’t relate!

  • bolwerk

    The magnitude of Bratton’s incompetence, tone-deafness, and denialism is staggering.

    “There were many good cops in Boston in those days, but there was also an
    insular culture that had some racist, brutal, corrupt and lazy
    elements.” – unlike Bratton’s NYPD, which would never see an officer strangle a black man to death in broad daylight.

  • JudenChino

    It really is the parking. Look at 7th ave. That street is sooo wide, it could easily fit a protected (real protected) 2 way bike lane. Easily. But you may have to give up some parking spots, which would enhance mobility for everyone significantly.

    But the saddest thing for me, is the bus riders. At last, we have live GPS for the buses and to see them get all jammed up in downtown Brooklyn as they’re blocked by placard abuse and unnecessary street parking and illegal double-parking. I’m on a bike usually (I’d never take a car during the rush periods), so I can squeeze through. But those poor bus riders. It’s practically abusive.

  • Mike

    I wouldn’t mind seeing 5th or 6th turned into a one-way one-lane street with the removed lane turned into a two-way protected bike lane.

  • You have to do some interpretation and reading between the lines but it’s illustrative of certain key issues many of us have with both DOT and street space allocation.

  • There is Prospect Park West and then no other protected bike lane until the greenway in Red Hook. That’s really crazy in what is supposed to be such a bike-friendly neighborhood.

    There’s plenty of space on 3rd Ave for a protected lane, even while maintaining the street as a truck route. In addition, there needs to be a safe east/west bike route that connects Prospect Park with the waterfront. Making 9th Street between 3rd Ave and PPW protected would be a start, but there are also opportunities on 3rd Street, Union Street, etc.

  • Boeings+Bikes

    Hey Streetsblog, hey Transalt… today is Park(ing) Day and it’s like it doesn’t exist in NYC this year. Have we given up? Too soon for the “Mission Accomplished” banner methinks…

  • ahwr

    http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/queens/residents-demand-traffic-light-dangerous-street-corner-article-1.325849

    http://www.qchron.com/editions/queenswide/new-bill-focuses-on-traffic-controls/article_a3fcd5ed-9d33-59bf-93a2-bcd0d760c7d8.html

    He’s’ been asking for one there for years. Nearest signals are ~650 one way or ~1350 the other. After 21st the next light is ~1800 feet away. People speed like crazy on Utopia. The bike lane probably helps somewhat, but they way I’ve seen people drive I don’t think it would be an easy street to cross for a lot of people. Think elderly, parents with little kids etc…

  • Joe R.

    It sounds like speed bumps might work better. I hate it when people use either traffic signals or stop signs as speed control devices. That’s a blatant misuse of them.

  • Vooch

    speed bumps or surface texture is always better than enforcement

  • ahwr

    Speed bumps slow cars down to 30, they aren’t great for getting drivers to stop for crossing pedestrians.

  • qrt145

    Only down to 30? Maybe one can drive over them at 30 mph, but my anecdotal impression is that people usually go much slower than that (although it surely depends on the bump). I always seem to be passing cars on my bike on streets with bumps, and I’m only going 15-20 mph.

    Agreed that they aren’t great for getting drivers to stop for crossing pedestrians, though. They only slow down drivers enough so that assertive pedestrians who don’t mind playing chicken have some time to get in front of the moving vehicle and the vehicle has time to stop.