Car-Free Streets

Planning to bike into Manhattan for Saturday's landmark Summer Streets event? Transportation Alternatives can help everything go smoothly. They're running feeder rides from three locations in Brooklyn and Queens (a Bronx ride is scheduled for the next Saturday). All the rides this week start at 9 a.m. To participate you should RSVP. Here's the details:

A tipster sends this shot, snapped at the bicycle shelter on Broadway and 17th Street. The first Summer Streets Saturday is 10 days away. Have you seen the promo?

Mark September 19 on your calendars. That's when Park(ing) Day returns to New York. Last year, neighborhood groups all over the city got into the street reclamation groove, converting 25 parking spots into temporary parks. Park(ing) Day 2008 figures to be even more visible. Fifty spots will be set aside to show how public street space can be put to better use than storing cars.

I'm planning on stopping by Williamsburg Walks this weekend. Next weekend I'll be rolling over the Brooklyn Bridge with the whole family (on my new bakfiets, the Cadillac Escalade of bicycles) to participate in the big Summer Streets event in Manhattan. Clarence over at Streetfilms put together this 30-second promo video that will be airing on WCBS. He writes:

Transportation Alternatives has been measuring the effect of Williamsburg Walks, the car-free street event on Bedford Avenue, and look what they found:

Streetfilms newcomer Robin Urban Smith brings us this romp through a new play street in Jackson Heights. Located in a neighborhood with little access to park space, the 78th Street Play Street effectively extends Travers Park out past the curb every Sunday for 20 weeks.

Here's a modest proposal for evaluating the success of a Summer Streets event: Measure the amount of time kids are able to run and play without their parents having to worry about them being hit by a car, the number of friends you bump into and new people you meet, the pounds of automobile exhaust and carbon that aren't being spewed into the hot summer air, the amount of horn-honking, engine-revving and boom stereos you're not hearing, and whether your local merchants are happy about the event and making more money than they usually do on a slow summer weekend.