Aaron Naparstek

In the aftermath of last weekend's 5,000 rider Tour de Bronx, I thought it might be worth revisiting the the Department of City Planning's August 2006 Bronx Harlem River Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. The study identifies a number of specific ways to carve out space for cyclists and pedestrians and help neighborhoods of the South Bronx get better connected to the Harlem River waterfront. Though it doesn't recommend any ways to actually reduce motor vehicle traffic, there is some good stuff in here. More:

Streetsblog doesn't manage to get out to Queens all that often these days, so it's good to know that The Park Watchdog is keeping an eye on Flushing Meadows Park. Here is what he sees: Cars. Lots of them. Parked all over the grass. 

More public space for Grand Army Plaza: DOT says that it would give the street space highlighted in green to the Parks Department for use during public events and car-free hours in Prospect Park.

The MTA's response to the annual Pokey Awards ceremony is always worth looking out for. Rather than using the publicity generated by the event to build political capital for some bus service improvement or another, the Transit Authority's response falls somewhere between defensive and infuriated. This year's statement is a doozy and reminiscent of Mayor Bloomberg's famous remark, "We like traffic, it means economic activity, it means people coming here." Here's what the MTA had to say:

Where to begin??? The New York Times' special section, Cars...

Paul White of TransAlt and Gene Russianoff of Straphangers' Campaign deliver the Golden Snail.

The Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association is holding a rally tomorrow in response to two horrific car killings in Boerum Hill in recent weeks. AABA has been fighting for years for more neighborhood-friendly traffic policies along the Avenue. Here are the details:

Sketches from an internal BRT Study depicting the three general types of stations: A) Major Station: Includes extended canopy with windscreens and seating. Icon and full platform pavement treatment. B) Standard Station: Shelter with Icon and full platform pavement treatment. C) Minimum Station: For locations with narrow sidewalks: Icon and platform edge strip only. Bigger image here.

Five Bus Routes Picked for High-Speed Runs (NYT) Second Ave. subway plan picks up speed (News) Spitzer and Faso Back Major Transit Projects (NYT) NYC Subways and Population Density Map (Gothamist) City Seeks Designers for Park on Governors Island (Sun) Your eight-week carbon diet (Slate) Port Authority Chaos After Bomb Threat (Gothamist) Ford Posts Loss … Continued

One of the more troublesome aspects of Forest City Enterprise's "Atlantic Yards" proposal is the developer's plan to create two rather huge, suburban mall-style surface parking lots on the eastern side of the project footprint. If all goes as planned there will 3,600 new parking spaces will be in place by 2012.