Transportation Alternatives

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law Intro 199, a bill requiring New York City's Department of Transportation to collect and monitor data specifically aimed at helping the city "to reduce automobile traffic and encourage more sustainable means of transportation vital to combating congestion, pollution and improving the City’s long term economic health." The new law could signal a significant change for a city agency that has typically measured its own performance based on how many potholes it fills, street lamps it fixes and how well it keeps motor vehicle traffic flowing through the city's over-burdened street grid. 

You've read about it. You've analyzed it. Now see what the fuss is about. 

To the surprise of no one -- with the possible exception of Bike Snob NYC -- bike commuter and social worker Jamie Favaro won Transportation Alternatives' 7th Annual Great NYC Commuter Race this morning, completing the 4.5-mile route between Fort Greene and Union Square in 16.5 minutes. Driver Emmanuel Fuentebella came in second at 22 minutes, and transit rider April Greene made the trip in 29 minutes. Writes T.A.:

The Ninth Avenue cycle track will be extended 10 blocks north to 33rd St.

Tomorrow Transportation Alternatives will hold the 7th Annual Great NYC Commuter Race. Three contestants -- traveling by bike, transit and car -- will see who has the quickest commute from Fort Greene in Brooklyn to Manhattan's Union Square.

Chinatown, December 2007: As good as it gets?

City Council Members John Liu and David Yassky bike to City Hall at a press event yesterday (the other 49 took a pass), as Paul Steely White brings up the rear in style.

From Transportation Alternatives' Spring 2008 magazine:

From Transportation Alternatives: