Car Culture

From the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's latest newsletter, three examples of how City Hall contradicts its stated Long-Term Planning and Sustainability goals with policies that foster more automobile dependence:

The CB2 Traffic & Transportation Committee met at the LGBT Center on Tuesday. 

From Alternet, the following is an excerpted version of James Howard Kunstler's recent speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, well worth reading in its entirety. An audio stream of the speech is also available:

Gowanus Lounge reports on the debate over DOT's 9th Street redesign plan at last night's Park Slope Civic Council meeting. The Civic Council voted overwhelmingly to "table" a plan that would provide the neighborhood with improved pedestrian safety on one of the most hazardous streets in the area, enhanced cyclist safety along a key access route to Prospect Park and Red Hook, and traffic-calming along an overly broad street with low vehicle counts and a serious speeding problem.

Brooklyn City Councilmember Lew Fidler and a small group of his outer borough colleagues have put forward Resolution 774 "calling upon the Mayor of New York City to oppose the institution of any form of congestion pricing." The resolution is based on a March 2006 report commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce that was, to put it mildly, filled with misinformation and gaping holes about the City of London's congestion charging experience.

General Motors would like you to like them. No, really.

 When the Supreme Court held this week that the Environmental Protection Agency does, in fact, possess the latitude to protect the environment, the New York Times called it "a victory for a world whose environment seems increasingly threatened by climate change."

There are 255,794 vehicles registered in Staten Island, and as the borough's population has taken off in the last few years, some of the local parking customs have become increasingly strained. A story published Monday in the Staten Island Advance illuminates just how entitled the people of that borough still feel to free parking -- not just on their own blocks, but directly in front of their homes. It tells the story of an anonymous Great Kills resident who, when a neighbor parked in front of his house, left the following note on the windshield:

Inspired by a poster produced by Portland's Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) in the mid-1990s, this weekend Transportation Alternatives gathered a gaggle of cyclists on 42nd Street in Manhattan to stage New York's own dramatic illustration of how much street space would be saved if everyone riding an automobile were traveling on a bicycle or bus.