The ‘Burbs: Extremely Safe or Especially Dangerous?
Long Island is safe. So safe that police recruits are flocking to the island's two counties, according to an article in last Tuesday's New York Times:
May 30, 2007
When Traffic Enforcement Doesn’t Include Moving Violations
The streets of Soho, where trucks roam free
March 21, 2007
The Times Applauds Cycling… The Times of London, That Is.
Here's an editorial one wouldn't expect to see in The Times: An unabashedly pro-bicycle manifesto anointing cycling as "the cheap, green answer to so many contemporary troubles" and urging city authorities to use congestion-charging revenues to create a first-class cycling infrastructure.
February 23, 2007
Crack Down on Drivers, Not iPods
Two pedestrians were killed in New York City last December by private sanitation trucks, one on Park Avenue South in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn Heights. Both deaths followed the most common pattern of pedestrian death in New York -- the peds were crossing the street, in the crosswalk, with the light, and a turning vehicle ran over them.
February 12, 2007
Public Health and Livable Streets: Making the Connection
Thirty years ago the health arguments against car-dependence were 90 percent about air pollution and 10 percent about physical inactivity. Now, with tailpipe pollution down and obesity and diabetes up, those percentages are reversed. The latest evidence is a valuable new report, Steps to Get New Yorkers Moving (PDF file), from the Public Health Association of New York City.
January 11, 2007
In Defense of Ghost Bikes
Aaron's piece questioning the memorialization of bike fatalities reminds us that cycle advocacy is rife with paradoxes. Drawing attention to cycling deaths and injuries can be powerful politically and symbolically but may also scare off would-be riders. Moreover, cycling is safer for all when there are more cyclists.
January 9, 2007
Fresh Direct Builds a Grocery Empire on Free Street Space
Today's Times marked the onset of Gridlock Alert season with a paean to Fresh Direct -- the dot-com that brings New Yorkers expensive, home-delivered groceries along with idling engines, double-parking and gridlock galore.
November 22, 2006