Noah Kazis

The latest round of the knock-down drag-out fight over the Atlantic Yards project is underway, and it's all about parking. At issue is a potential 1,100-space surface parking lot that would be located between Pacific and Dean Streets, just west of Vanderbilt Avenue. That lot has been portrayed as temporary, "interim" parking by the Empire State Development Corporation and project developer Forest City Ratner, but could sit there generating traffic for up to 25 years. Last week several groups filed a motion to halt construction until the environmental impacts of the project are studied more fully.

Big news from today's Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance conference: a new city-subsidized ferry service will begin crossing the East River in May. City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden announced that the new service will run for at least two years, departing at least every fifteen minutes during rush hour.

Even as bike-sharing spreads across the United States, it remains dogged by one persistent doubt. Critics, and even some boosters, fear that the bikes will be routinely stolen and vandalized. It's time to stop worrying about crime, however. In America's new bike-sharing systems, there have been essentially no such problems.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

In just the first year after introducing Vélib, Parisian bike traffic jumped 70 percent. Montreal's Bixi system saw 1 million rides in its first four months. And New York City's Department of City Planning estimates that a bike-share program would be used by as many as 554,000 residents, 33,000 commuters and 4 million tourists annually, if built out sufficiently. Bike-sharing is a big deal, and the commitment signaled by the city today could make cycling a much more accessible and mainstream form of transportation for New Yorkers.

Manhattan CB 5, which is shaping up to be the "swing district" along the route of the 34th Street Transitway, is only at the earliest stages of formulating a stance on plans to build physically separated bus lanes and pedestrian improvements as part of a river-to-river redesign. Even so, two things were clear at a public input session last night: Curb access remains one of the thorniest issues for DOT street redesigns, and the Murray Hill anti-transit forces are organizing circles around bus lane supporters.

Camera enforcement of the First and Second Avenue bus lanes began today. To mark the occasion, State Senator Daniel Squadron and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh held a press conference gathering together community leaders and taxi drivers to get the message out to drivers: Block the lane and face the fine. As Squadron and Kavanagh explained, however, drivers may enter the bus lanes to turn right or to quickly drop off or pick up passengers.

Speed kills, even when traffic is moving at New York's citywide limit of 30 miles per hour. According to the UK Department for Transport, if a driver hits a pedestrian at 30 miles per hour, the victim only has a 55 percent chance of surviving. At 20 mph, the pedestrian has a 95 percent chance of survival.

Last Friday, Transportation Alternatives kicked off a new phase of its campaign for safer streets with the Stop Speeding Summit, bringing together doctors, elected officials, transportation advocates and engineers to outline the high costs of high vehicle speeds and plot a course toward slower traffic.