Manhattan

After this fall's local elections, there's going to be a change at the top of the Manhattan District Attorney's office for the first time in a generation. The retirement of long-time DA Robert Morgenthau signals a welcome opportunity to get tougher on traffic crime and approach deadly driving as a serious threat to public safety. So tomorrow's debate on traffic justice is a big deal: In a first for New York City, the three Democratic candidates running to succeed Morgenthau will discuss "their views on vehicular crimes and the role of the District Attorney's office in protecting New Yorkers from reckless and dangerous drivers."

Mark your calendars for the morning of Wednesday, June 3. That's when the three declared candidates running for Manhattan District Attorney -- Richard Aborn, Leslie Crocker Snyder, and Cyrus Vance -- will sit down for a round table debate on traffic justice. Organized by Transportation Alternatives and the Criminal Justice Society of the Benjamin Cardozo Law School, the event will get each candidate on the record about vehicular crime and how the district attorney's office can protect New Yorkers from dangerous drivers.

Lower Manhattan City Council rep Alan Gerson held a "transportation town hall" Monday night, following up on his pledge last year to closely monitor creeping safety enhancements to New York streets. Fellow City Council member John Liu, a candidate for comptroller, also made an appearance at the forum.

Early this month Streetsblog regular ddartley tagged a series of shots for the Flickr feed showing the aftermath of a driver-cyclist collision on the edge of Stuyvesant Town. According to Dartley, the cyclist was a restaurant delivery man, on the job when he was hit.

Compared to downtown Manhattan, the bike network in Harlem is on the patchy side, with only a few on-street lanes. Safer streets are on the way, however. Last week, DOT presented plans for a buffered bike path on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard to a neighborhood forum put on by Community Board 10. The new lane would run from 153rd Street to 118th Street, connecting to an existing route that feeds into Central Park.

Reader Tim Koelle sends this report of a busted traffic signal gone terribly right at the intersection of West Broadway and Grand yesterday morning:

Taking advantage of the beautiful mid-week weather, the Streetfilms crew headed over to Madison Square to find scores of New Yorkers enjoying a newly transformed public space. They also managed to catch up with the city staffers and community folks who made it happen. Writes Clarence:

More grim news today: Gothamist and Fox 5 are reporting that a man was killed when he was struck by a big rig on Bowery and Grand. The truck driver continued over the Manhattan Bridge and was stopped by police on the BQE, according to Gothamist.

Redesigns of Chrystie and Forsyth Streets have started to materialize, giving cyclists and pedestrians a glimpse of changes to come. New bicycle lanes on Chrystie Street may be the most widely anticipated aspect of DOT's planned changes to the Manhattan Bridge access area, but they are only part of a broader effort to calm traffic and increase pedestrian safety on the Lower East Side.