Scenes of Mindless Bike Enforcement From “Operation Safe Cycle”
NYPD's bike ticket blitz, a.k.a. Operation Safe Cycle, is halfway through its two-week run. The department has promised to target "hazardous violations that create a danger for pedestrians and cyclists," but the accounts pouring in from readers suggest that police haven't raised their game since the last flurry of bike enforcement. While it's tough to get a comprehensive picture of NYPD bike citations, readers report a lot of fish-in-a-barrel ticketing activity and flat-out bogus summonses. No one has written in to tell us about NYPD nabbing a wrong-way cyclist who just went through a crowded crosswalk.
August 20, 2014
A Proposal for Incremental Parking Reform in NYC
In most of New York City, zoning requirements compel new development to include a certain amount of parking. These mandates make housing more expensive while causing more traffic and pollution, but the Department of City Planning took only the most timid steps to reform them during the Bloomberg administration, and the de Blasio administration isn't shaping up much differently. Now a small team of architects and urban designers has a strategy to make progress on parking reform, and while it's not exactly bold, it may appeal to the conflict-averse DCP.
August 19, 2014
Chin Urges Council Colleagues to Turn Parking Into Affordable Housing
Last month, Manhattan City Council Member Margaret Chin asked the de Blasio administration to prioritize affordable housing over car storage by replacing a city-owned parking garage in her district with new apartments. Acknowledging that the decision might be politically difficult, last week Chin urged her City Council colleagues to follow her lead if they want to tackle the city's affordability problem.
August 4, 2014
DOT Proposes Road Diet But Only 4 Ped Islands for 35 Blocks of West End Ave
After two people were killed by motorists along one stretch of West End Avenue this year, DOT promised to calm traffic on this dangerous Upper West Side street. Before a packed house of about 200 residents last night, the agency said changes will be made in two phases, finishing by next spring. The plan: A standard road diet, taking the avenue from two lanes in each direction to one, while adding a center turn lane and widening parking lanes [PDF]. The project is an improvement over the status quo, but many residents last night wanted more.
August 1, 2014
Local Speeding Tickets (Barely) Outnumber Sidewalk Biking Summonses
We've got a new installment in Streetsblog's hotly-anticipated Sidewalk Biking Ticket Index, which compares the number of sidewalk biking summonses issued by NYPD to the number of speeding tickets issued by local precincts. In a reversal from 2012, NYPD last year issued more tickets for speeding on local streets than criminal charges for riding a bicycle on the sidewalk -- but just barely. The ratio is still far out of proportion to the damage caused by each offense.
July 31, 2014
Map Out Which Streets Need Safety Fixes — It’s Now or Never
This is it -- the last day to mark dangerous street conditions on the city's official Vision Zero map. After today, agencies will start using the information from the map to make plans for safety improvements, so spend a few minutes this afternoon and tell the city where you want safer streets for walking and biking.
July 31, 2014