City Council

"If we want to give meaning to multi-modal transportation ... and if we want a vibrant city, then we must encourage safety for people who walk and bicycle."

Three bills to open up information about traffic and street safety to the public cleared the City Council's transportation committee unanimously today. According to committee chair James Vacca, the bills are scheduled for a floor vote this Wednesday. Two of the bills, in particular, should provide New Yorkers with a much clearer picture of what's happening on their streets and empower them to fight for increased safety.

You know something's amiss when you hear Republicans calling for more red tape and government bureaucracy, as Staten Island Council Members James Oddo and Vincent Ignizio did earlier this week with their call to require environmental review for all new bike lanes. But let's indulge Oddo and Ignizio and take their proposal seriously for a moment. Does it have any merit?

Last week's release of "before" and "after" stats on the Prospect Park West bike lane tells an increasingly familiar story: A DOT redesign has increased cycling while making the street safer for pedestrians and drivers. Since safer streets make it easier for New Yorkers to get around without a car, and since biking and walking are emissions-free modes, it's safe to say that this is good news for the environment.

Think that mandatory license plates for bikes is a bad idea? That it'll drain city resources and put a barrier between New Yorkers and a popular, efficient, and green transportation mode? That bike licensing is trying to solve a problem that only exists in some lawmakers' imaginations? Now's your chance to let Queens Republican Eric Ulrich know.

Looks like Queens Council Member Eric Ulrich has come down with a nasty case of legislative diarrhea. The Post reports on Ulrich's belief that streets will be safer if cyclists are required to ride with ID tags:

Here comes Wal-Mart.

Speaker Christine Quinn's office just announced that the City Council has reached a budget deal with the Bloomberg administration, restoring some services slated for cuts and targeting others instead. There's also one case where the council successfully fought to prevent the city from raising revenue to fund more services. A proposal to increase parking meter rates by 25 cents per hour in Manhattan above 86th Street and in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island got negotiated out of the budget deal, thanks in no small part to vigorous opposition from Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca.