The Streetsblog crew will be out of pocket most of today, attending Transportation Alternatives’ annual “Vision Zero Cities” conference up in the rarefied air of Columbia University. The show opens with an 8 a.m. session featuring Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg being questioned by none other than the New York Times’s pro-car transportation reporter, Winnie Hu. (We’re guessing the TA-friendly crowd will use the Q&A session to ask Hu more questions than Trottenberg!)

Panels include “The National Crisis: Understanding the New Rise in American Traffic Fatalities” (with Amy Cohen!), “Tear It Down! Transforming Urban Highways” (with Aaron W. Gordon!), “Who Pays? The Rise of Congestion Pricing in the U.S.” (with Charles Komanoff!), “Creating Inclusive and Equitable Streets and Transportation Options” (with Ydanis Rodriguez and Nily Rozic!), “Challenges, Opportunities and Best Practices for Motor Vehicle Fleets” (previewed in Streetsblog!) and “Fairness, Justice and Accountability: The Role and Limits of Law Enforcement in Vision Zero” (with Steve Vaccaro!).

It’s like the freakin’ Super Bowl, the World Series and your favorite happy hour all rolled into one for the livable streets crowd. So you can see, we’ll be busy, so here’s some news to tide you over for a few hours until we start posting like mad:

• We all knew that Sunset Park section of the Fourth Avenue protected bike lane would become a parking lot for cops from the 72nd Precinct — but we didn’t think it would happen so quickly. (Gothamist)
• In case you missed it, The City had a nice primer on how the MTA’s $51-billion capital plan will be spent.
• On a slow news day, Guse from the Newsuh covered the rash of heroic traffic message board hacking to remind drivers that their wheels kill, pollute and ruin our cities.
• We’ve said it before: Please don’t drink and scoot. (NY Post)
• Wow, the once-inspiring staff of amNY is really phoning it in at this point. Hmm. Wonder why that would be happening…