Streetsblog

Transportation Alternatives is hosting two City Council candidate forums focused on the L train shutdown -- in Manhattan on Wednesday and Brooklyn on Thursday.

Word is that committee co-chair Bernard Haber wants to revisit his suggestion to implement the Northern Boulevard bike lane using land currently occupied by Alley Pond Golf Course, which was already rejected by DOT as too time-consuming and expensive without providing the safety benefit of narrowing all the asphalt currently devoted to motorized traffic.

This week DOT continues its series of public workshops on the plan to add protected bike lanes to Brooklyn’s Fourth Avenue, which connects Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, and Park Slope.

Earlier this month Manhattan Community Board 7, on the Upper West Side, passed a resolution calling on DOT to install a protected bike lane in Columbus Circle, filling a critical void in the bike network. Tonight the CB 5 transportation committee, whose district borders Columbus Circle to the southeast, will consider its own resolution.

In just a few months, Transportation Alternatives volunteers have collected more than 5,000 signatures from residents outside Manhattan calling for bike-share in their neighborhoods. On Wednesday, they'll rally with council members on the steps of City Hall for a system that can meet New York City's huge demand for bike-share.

The city has much more to do to improve the walking and biking environment above Brooklyn's central transit hub, and it's important to show up on Wednesday to let CB 2 and DOT know it.

After a motorist killed 78-year-old cyclist Michael Schenkman, DOT proposed six miles of protected bike lanes on Northern Boulevard and connecting streets. The plan will be the subject of a Queens CB 11 hearing Monday night.

Later today, NYU’s Furman Center, the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy, and Transportation Alternatives host “The High Cost of Off-Street Parking,” a panel discussion on off-street parking policy. In most of New York City, new development is required to include a minimum number of parking spaces, each of which costs tens of thousands of dollars to build. These parking requirements increase traffic, drive up the cost of construction, and make housing less affordable.

This evening DOT will present a plan to make more room for people walking on Seventh Avenue by widening the sidewalk on the west side of the street from Times Square to Penn Station. Also on the agenda -- a summer trial for making five blocks of Broadway car-free south of Times Square.