City Council

Requiring the construction of parking spaces drives up the cost of housing in New York City, which is why parking policy reform figures prominently in the de Blasio administration's rezoning plans. Now a coalition of advocates is highlighting how much those reforms matter to the campaign to make housing more affordable.

On Wednesday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer spoke in support of legislation that would create a "bicycle safety task force." The language of the bill, introduced by Council Member Rosie Mendez at Brewer's request, says the task force would make recommendations for improving bike infrastructure. But in testimony to the council transportation committee, Brewer suggested the panel would also provide a venue for people to gripe about cyclists.

The City Council transportation committee will take up a slate of bills tomorrow, including one that would create a "bicycle safety task force" that is opposed by Transportation Alternatives.

Momentum is building in the City Council for a bill to strengthen pedestrians' right-of-way. Introduced by Public Advocate Tish James last week, Intro 997 picked up the support of Transportation Committee chair Ydanis Rodriguez today.

At yesterday’s City Council transportation committee hearing, chair Ydanis Rodriguez hoped to engage the MTA and DOT concerning areas of the city that need more transit options. But despite being invited, according to Rodriguez, the MTA refused to send anyone.

No matter how well you lock up your bike in NYC, if you leave it outside for any significant amount of time, you never know what will be left when you get back. For secure storage, nothing beats a spot inside. But thanks to a bizarre aversion to bicycles shared by many landlords and property managers, a large percentage of NYC buildings are de facto bike-free zones.

Legislation introduced by City Council members this week would require NYPD to publish data on crashes and summonses along NYC truck routes. The bill is intended to improve safety on truck routes, but a better approach would be to have NYPD post all traffic summons data.

It's July, which means the city's new fiscal year 2016 budget is in effect. This spring, the de Blasio administration touted early funding for street repaving and reconstruction of four arterial streets under the "Vision Zero Great Streets" program. But the final budget the mayor's office negotiated with the City Council fails to beef up the city's efforts to quickly reduce deaths and injuries on its most dangerous streets.