We — and by "we," we mean Corey Johnson — talk a lot about breaking the car culture. But government is the single biggest enabler of said culture. The latest example came on Wednesday when Friend of Streetsblog Shmuli Evers tweeted about how Board of Elections workers were being ferried around to polling places in a fleet of city-hired cabs.
A whole block full of cabs idling on their cellphone, waiting to transport the Board of Elections from one location to another. It's not like there is no subways around here... #carculturepic.twitter.com/5QSAAYMMAm
That's not a good look for a local panel whose constituents mostly use transit to get everywhere — and their feet, bikes or wheelchairs to get to the polls.
Government needs to do more — and not just something that looks good on paper, like Chuck Schumer's recent push for electric vehicles. He sees EV as the solution to all our problems (except, senator, the problem of car carnage, congestion, rubber pollution and, of course, the need to generate billions of new kilowatts of electricity), but thankfully Henry Grabar had a much more relevant take on the "future" of transportation in Slate that the senator should read.
In another related story, the Democratic Socialists of America, the little outfit that helped Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez go from tending bar to, eventually, running the country, has decided to dive into the car problem, first creating a "Transit Justice Committee," which will meet for the first time on Nov. 3. (Details from the DSA, via Twitter)
A cyclist was hit and seriously injured on Ocean Parkway — and Guse of the Newsuh's story is a reminder that too many crash reports are based entirely on the driver's testimony as the only witness still on the scene when cops roll up (the cyclist or pedestrian is either dead or in the hospital). But this time, witnesses told cops that the cabbie ran a red light (though he wasn't arrested, alas).
Meanwhile, a Bronx woman is clinging to life after being hit by the driver of a Westchester bus. (NY Post)
Oy vey, is NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill really going to defend the cops who pummeled kids in the Jay Street subway station last week? (Hint: yes) (NYDN). The teen who was punched for, apparently, no reason is suing the city for $5 million (NY Post).
Like Streetsblog, the Post also covered the city's plans to give pedestrians more space near Rockefeller Center this holiday season, though the Tabloid of Record again depicted the safety and streetscape improvements as a war on cars.
Streetfilms auteur Clarence Eckerson rode a bus in Queens — and all we got was this damn amazing rant about delivery trucks that block bus lanes with complete impunity.
In case you missed it, the Times editorial board is fully behind the Council's effort to reform the rogue private carting business.
A community board in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, found a new NIMBY argument against a proposed development: the plan doesn't include enough parking spaces for residents, meaning car-owning locals will have more competition for the neighborhood's limited on-street car storage (public curbside space that doesn't belong to car drivers in the first place!). (Brooklyn Eagle)
Today is Halloween, when kids dress up in costumes, ask for candy, and get run over and killed at something like twice the normal rate. Please be safe out there.
And, finally, it's a great chance to rerun that picture of how our editor dressed for Halloween a decade ago — you remember, when the Prospect Park West bike lane scared the bejeezus out of all those fancy Park Slopers:
Gersh Kuntzman and friend, Halloween 2011.Gersh Kuntzman and friend, Halloween 2011.
The governor, the head of the MTA and the city's leading transit thinkers all celebrated congestion pricing on Tuesday as an historic moment while Mayor Adams spent Tuesday failing to live up to it.
City environmental protection officials are now refusing to punish owners of commercial vehicles for idling if the trucks don't have license plates — a move that has enraged citizen enforcers.