Banning Bikes From Roosevelt Island Bridge Ramp Won’t Make Biking Safer
With little car traffic and tree-lined waterfront streets, Roosevelt Island is a low-stress environment for bicycling. The bridge that connects the island to Queens, however, is much less bike-friendly. Claiming that the ramp from the bridge to the island is too dangerous, a residents' association is weighing whether to call for a total bike ban on the ramp.
August 31, 2015
Eyes on the Street: A Smorgasburg of Traffic in Prospect Park [Updated]
Yesterday, popular food market Smorgasburg launched its first outpost in Prospect Park -- and brought a traffic mess into what's ostensibly a car-free park.
August 31, 2015
How About a Transit System Where No One Has “No Good Options”?
A lengthy FiveThirtyEight article today by Nate Silver and Reuben Fischer-Baum crunches some data to arrive at two major insights: First, New Yorkers use Uber much like they use taxis, and second, for-hire cars are used primarily by well-off New Yorkers to supplement transit in close-in neighborhoods, not to replace car ownership in the outer boroughs.
August 28, 2015
Turn Times Square Back Into Traffic Hell? Tell Bratton and de Blasio: No Way
Since Mayor Bill de Blasio won't rule out the threat of removing the Times Square plazas, first raised by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, it's time to take action. Two petitions are circulating to urge the mayor not to give Times Square back to cars.
August 28, 2015
Bratton Won’t Stop Talking About Removing Times Square Plazas
It wasn't just an offhand remark. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has reiterated his desire to eliminate the public plazas at Times Square and go back to the days when people were spilling off the sidewalk into the path of traffic. This time, he's insisting that taking away space for people won't just cure Times Square of topless women and costumed characters -- it'll actually improve traffic safety.
August 27, 2015
No Charges for Driver Who Killed Jadann Williams, 8, on Flatbush Cul-de-Sac
Eight year-old Jadann Williams, who neighbors say loved sports and wanted to become a basketball star, was playing on a dead-end street just steps from her Flatbush home yesterday afternoon when a driver struck and killed her.
August 27, 2015
Uber Should Pay an MTA Fee Like Yellow Cabs, But the Fee Should Be Smarter
One of the points of debate over Uber's operations in New York is whether its trips should contribute the same 50-cent surcharge to the MTA that yellow and green taxis do. It's an easy question to answer in some ways: It doesn't matter whether a car is yellow, green, or black -- if some for-hire vehicles have to pay an MTA fee, they all should. But as long as this taxi surcharge is in the public eye, there's also an opportunity to rethink the fee itself and make it smarter.
August 26, 2015