Ben Fried

Via Dana Rubinstein at Capital New York, the City Council Progressive Caucus has come out with a 13-point platform heading into the 2013 election season [PDF], and it includes some good planks on transit and street safety policy. All 51 council seats are up for a vote this year, with most of the important action coming on primary day, September 10.

Reader Mike Epstein sends in this photo of a "mixing zone" on L Street in downtown Washington, D.C., that looks a lot different than the ones here in NYC. Mixing zones are the areas where bike traffic merges with turning car traffic at the approach to intersections along protected bike lanes. New York's mixing zones don't have flexible posts, and the markings are supposed to emphasize that drivers should yield to passing cyclists, instead of directing cyclists to merge to the right of turning cars, as seems to be the intent in D.C.

City Council Speaker Chris Quinn and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca finally responded to the deaths of Amar Diarrassouba and Raizel and Nachman Glauber today, after devoting their energy earlier in the week to keeping municipal parking underpriced.

When is a budget hearing not really a budget hearing? When the committee chair uses it to air personal grievances instead of exploring major budget issues.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Melanie Canon, a doctor based in East Harlem, was the first person to aid 6-year-old Amar Diarrassouba after he has fatally struck by a tractor-trailer driver Thursday morning. The New York Times' City Room blog published her wrenching account today.

Streetsblog readers can start the weekend off with tonight's talk at REI SoHo by attorneys Adam White and Steve Vaccaro, who've provided legal perspective for many a Streetsblog story over the years:

In case you missed it, Crain's ran a good piece today wherein "Gridlock" Sam Schwartz explained one of the less-publicized effects of the MTA fare and toll hikes slated to take effect this weekend. NYC's already-dysfunctional road pricing system is about to make even less sense.

Last night, the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 voted unanimously in favor of a new PARK Smart zone for Atlantic Avenue, Smith Street, and Court Street, and for a Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway segment connecting Van Brunt Street to Valentino Pier in Red Hook.

Via the Kansas Cyclist, here's a campaign ad from St. Louis mayoral hopeful Lewis Reed that would seem strangely inconceivable in NYC's current political climate.