Jon Orcutt
Recent Posts
OPINION: Mayor Adams Has Leverage to Force a Reluctant State DOT to Budge on the BQE
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If Mayor Adams and his DOT really want a new end-to-end vision for the BQE, they should clearly say so — and compel the state back to the job using the legal tools at their disposal.
Op-Ed: DOT’s Growing Commitment to the Bike Network
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The U.N. General Assembly week detours showed that the city is taking steps to maintain vital bike routes during crunch periods. Let's entrench that maintenance in daily operations.
Op-Ed: Paint The Bike Lane, Dammit, Before Someone Dies!
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When is a parking-protected bike lane — a street design pioneered in this country by our own city Department of Transportation — no longer a parking-protected bike lane? When that same DOT removes all street markings for street resurfacing, leaving cyclists who have become attuned to the city’s best on-street bike routes to fend for […]
Vision Zero Year One: An Early Assessment
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New York’s transportation reform and traffic safety movement notched huge wins when mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio adopted Vision Zero as part of his platform in 2013, and again this year when the new mayor put the policy into action within days of taking office. Vision Zero created a policy rubric for the de Blasio […]
One City, By Bike: Getting It Done, or Why the Bikelash Is Behind Us
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This is the final piece in a five-part series by former NYC DOT policy director Jon Orcutt about the de Blasio administration’s opportunities to expand and improve cycling in New York. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four. New bike lanes geared to Citi Bike expansion, bringing safer and more appealing cycling conditions to more neighborhoods, […]
One City, By Bike: Unlocking Uptown Cycling With the Harlem River Bridges
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This is part four of a five-part series by former NYC DOT policy director Jon Orcutt about the de Blasio administration’s opportunities to expand and improve cycling in New York. Read part one, part two, and part three. Forging good cycling routes across the Harlem River represents a strong organizing principle for a multi-year program to deliver better cycling […]
One City, By Bike: Bill de Blasio’s Bike Network
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This is part three of a five-part series by former NYC DOT policy director Jon Orcutt about the de Blasio administration’s opportunities to expand and improve cycling in New York. Read part one and part two. Applied to cycling, Mayor de Blasio’s “two cities” campaign theme would argue that the safety and accessibility benefits conveyed by bike lanes in […]
One City, By Bike: Citi Bike Beyond the Central Business District
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This is part two of a five-part series by former NYC DOT policy director Jon Orcutt about the de Blasio administration’s opportunities to expand and improve cycling in New York. Read part one here. The pending expansion of Citi Bike to at least 12,000 bikes is an obvious reference point for further bike network development (if the […]
One City, By Bike: Huge Opportunities for NYC Cycling in the de Blasio Era
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Jon Orcutt was NYC DOT’s policy director from 2007 to 2014. He developed DOT’s post-PlaNYC strategic plan, Sustainable Streets, oversaw creation of the Citi Bike program, and produced the de Blasio administration’s Vision Zero Action Plan. In this five-part series, he looks at today’s opportunities to build on the breakthroughs in NYC cycling made during the […]