Bridges

From the Streetsblog tipwire:

Before the four "New York City Waterfalls" began gushing along the East River this June, DOT marked a bike route passing by each installation and released a guide to go with it. In this Streetfilm Elizabeth Press shows us a recent bike tour of the falls, led by DOT commish Janette Sadik-Khan. Special bonus feature: commentary from "Waterfalls" artist Olafur Eliasson about his work.

Next Thursday, artist Olaf Eliasson's much-anticipated "New York City Waterfalls" installation will debut along the East River. The project, as elegantly described in this week's New Yorker, "features four tall, widely separated, openwork steel towers housing powerful pumps that will pull river water up to a high basin and send it cascading down again, continuously, from seven in the morning until ten at night, through mid-October."

Looks like there's a new preferred bike route from the Brooklyn Bridge to the west side of Manhattan, and DOT's signs and markings division wants you to know about it. The sign in this shot, snapped by Streetfilms' Clarence Eckerson at the foot of the bridge, looks more like what you'd see from behind a windshield than from beneath a bike helmet.

On Tuesday, Community Board 3 unanimously approved a resolution in support of DOT's plans for improved Manhattan Bridge access, including bike lanes on Chrystie Street.

Historically, East River bridges have carried more transit -- and more people -- than they do today. View a larger version of this image.

Transportation Alternatives Queens Committee Chair Mike Heffron sends along this report from last night's traffic commission hearing at York College in Jamaica, Queens.

On Sunday, January 6, over 200 people gathered to remember those killed by motor vehicles while biking and walking the streets of New York City in 2007. StreetFilms was there for the Street Memorial Project's 3rd Annual Memorial Ride & Pedestrian Walk. So were the parents of 27-year-old Sam Hindy, who was killed trying to navigate the Manhattan Bridge by bike in November. During the event, Sam's father, Brooklyn Brewery founder Steve Hindy, placed his son's death in the larger culture of an American car culture gone out of control:

The "Fixie Flasher" strikes again.