City Planning Commission OKs Excess St. Vincent’s Parking
The City Planning Commission approved a Rudin family request to build 50 percent more parking than allowed at the site of the former St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village. The commission's unanimous approval came last Monday despite opposition to the parking garage from the local community board and evidence that Rudin hadn't met the city's own requirements for granting exemptions to parking maximums.
January 26, 2012
Starting Next Week, You Can Help Choose Bike-Share Station Locations
When bike-share launches this summer, 10,000 new public bicycles will be available at 600 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The stations will typically be located about 1,000 feet apart from each other, ensuring a quick walk to a public bike from anywhere below 79th Street and in northwest Brooklyn. The exact location of the stations -- this corner or that one, on the street or on the sidewalk -- is largely up to each neighborhood to decide. The hyper-local planning begins next week at a workshop for the Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen neighborhoods [PDF] and continues throughout the service area over the next two months.
January 26, 2012
What If Lafayette Avenue Had a Protected Bike Lane and Ped Refuges?
Hilda Cohen, Ali Loxton and 1,600 petition-signers are asking for a painted bike lane and a road diet on Brooklyn's Lafayette Avenue: They're hoping to calm traffic and improve the area's bike network by turning one traffic lane into a bike lane, and they helped persuade Brooklyn Community Board 2 to ask NYC DOT to revisit the idea.
January 24, 2012
Fourteen North Westchester Municipalities Join Tappan Zee Transit Coalition
Governor Cuomo, your neighbors have something to tell you.
January 24, 2012
Joe Lhota: The MTA Needs New Tax Revenue
The MTA needs new revenues, announced chairman Joe Lhota during a broad-ranging panel discussion at Fordham University this morning. "There's going to be the need for broad-based tax revenue somewhere within the system over the next couple of years," Lhota said, noting that he's generally the kind of conservative person loath to call for tax increases.
January 23, 2012
On Path to Brooklyn Bridge Park, DOT Plans Safer Way Across BQE On-Ramp
Just one of the many problems with running an interstate highway through the heart of an urban area is what to do with the on-ramps and off-ramps. Motorists accustomed to freeway speeds, or eager to reach them, can drive more aggressively than normal and without as much regard for pedestrians and cyclists. At one on-ramp to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, where increasing numbers of people are crossing to reach the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, DOT hopes to make things safer with a new intersection design and an end to right turns on red [PDF].
January 20, 2012
In Low-Income Neighborhoods, Children Face Extra Risk From Traffic
Children growing up in Manhattan's low-income communities are at significantly higher risk of being seriously injured or killed in traffic than their neighbors in wealthier districts, a new study from Transportation Alternatives finds [PDF]. Intersections near public housing appear to be particularly dangerous for children trying to cross the street.
January 19, 2012