Bill de Blasio

The redesign of Queens Boulevard, long one of New York's most notorious death traps, is underway.

It's July, which means the city's new fiscal year 2016 budget is in effect. This spring, the de Blasio administration touted early funding for street repaving and reconstruction of four arterial streets under the "Vision Zero Great Streets" program. But the final budget the mayor's office negotiated with the City Council fails to beef up the city's efforts to quickly reduce deaths and injuries on its most dangerous streets.

Starting in a few weeks, people will be able to enjoy the Central Park loop north of 72nd Street and the west side of Prospect Park year-round without having to worry about motor vehicle traffic, Mayor de Blasio and Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg announced this morning. The changes will significantly reduce motor vehicle traffic in both parks while stopping short of making either completely car-free.

The City Council wants Mayor de Blasio to double funding for DOT capital projects to overhaul the city's most dangerous streets and save more lives, faster.

Looks like the Right of Way Law isn't going anywhere.

Mayor Bill de Blasio made a visit yesterday to one of the city's more car-dependent areas, on Staten Island's south shore, to tout an additional $242 million in his budget for street repaving. The additional money will bring the city's repaving plan to a total 1,200 lane-miles through June 2016, a 20 percent boost over previous projections.

Mayor de Blasio's plan to stabilize the finances of the New York City Housing Authority includes higher, but still subsidized, parking fees and a promise to develop a mix of market-rate and affordable housing on under-utilized property, including parking lots.

At the press event today announcing the de Blasio administration update to NYC's citywide sustainability plan (now called "OneNYC" -- more on that soon!), the mayor fielded a question about bus design and whether bus drivers can be expected to spot and avoid striking pedestrians in crosswalks. The unspoken subtext was the Transport Workers Union campaign to carve out an exemption for MTA bus drivers in the city's Right of Way Law, which makes it a misdemeanor for drivers to injure people walking or biking with the right of way.

City Hall will have to double its commitment to street redesigns that prioritize safety in order to dramatically reduce traffic deaths on NYC's most dangerous streets in our lifetimes, advocates say. That level of spending could be accomplished with a relatively small shift in resources in the city's total capital budget.