Noah Kazis

Last night's unanimous votes in support of a summer-long car-free Central Park by Manhattan Community Board 7's parks and transportation committees moved the ball forward for advocates of car-free parks. With no movement at the mayoral level on the issue, any successful push will have to come from the bottom up. Similar statements of community support will be needed from more than one neighborhood.

We often describe the importance of transit in numbers, like the fact that 54 percent of New York City households don't even own a car. But even the most convincing stats can get a little dry. To help capture what the subways and buses mean to a city where the transit system is the closest thing to a shared experience for eight million people, the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives are launching a photography contest. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all.

We missed these when they were first released in late March, but DOT has come out with its preliminary recommendations for improving bus service in downtown Jamaica [PDF]. The plan calls for adding roughly a mile and a half of new bus lanes and beefing up an equal amount of existing lanes. It would also redesign two intersections and create new pedestrian space.

DOT needs to accelerate the build-out of the city's bike network in working-class neighborhoods outside the center city, say graduate students in the Hunter College urban planning department. They argue that expanding the geographic focus of the bike program would not only improve access to safe cycling for underserved neighborhoods, it might just help overcome the current backlash as well.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Does the New York City region really rank only 13th in the nation in providing transit access to jobs? Has it truly been bested by a top five of Honolulu, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Tucson and Fresno? That's what a new report from the Brookings Institution claims, but don't worry New Yorkers, there are very good reasons to second-guess that conclusion.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

City Council Transportation Committee chair James Vacca has made headlines for his inquisitorial hearings on DOT's bike and plaza programs. And it looks like his office was batting around ideas with street safety opponents before the first of those hearings last December.

The speed limit will be reduced from 30 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour in the Claremont neighborhood of the Bronx, Mayor Bloomberg and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced today, fulfilling a promise laid out last year in the city's pedestrian safety action plan to pilot a 20 mph zone in one New York City neighborhood. Similar slow speed zones in London have been proven to save lives and prevent injuries.

Last July, the DOT announced plans to calm one of the most dangerous intersections in Queens, at the foot of the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. Greenpoint Avenue is only two lanes wide on either side of the bridge, but as the road crosses Newtown Creek, it widens to four lanes and the bike lane on the Brooklyn side disappears, allowing traffic to speed up. When that fast-moving bridge traffic hits the confusing intersection of Greenpoint Avenue, Van Dam Street and Review Avenue on the Queens side, it's a recipe for disaster.