Eyes on the Street

Blinding headlights make cycling difficult on a mile-long uptown stretch of the Hudson River Greenway.

It looks like 5th Precinct Commanding Officer Gin Yee, the Sheriff of Chinatown, is laying down the law once again. A Streetsblog tipster spotted these tow trucks as they were removing government placard abusers from their illegal parking spots in Chinatown. While it's refreshing to see the police "towing their own," the tipster notes that as soon as the trucks pulled away a new group of placard abusing government employees swooped in to claim the empty parking spaces.

This scene was photographed by Flickr photographer BicyclesOnly on Saturday. Read his note below. Hopefully someone will ask members of Manhattan Community Board 8's transportation committee if this sort of car crash meets their rigorous aesthetic standards. Last January, CB8 rejected a proposal to physically protect Park Avenue's pedestrian refuge areas because they didn't think bollards, barriers or planters could be made to look pretty enough. Streetsblog readers will also remember CB8's transportation committee as the group that tried to kill DOT's crosstown bike route plan for the Upper East Side last summer. It looks like CB8 is still trying to kill it. The 91st Street bike lane is on the agenda of their December 10 meeting: 

Streetsblog reader Dave Goldberg sends along a camera phone photo of the freshly striped Bleecker Street bike lane, shot between LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street. Goldberg notes:

This photo comes to us from Bicyclesonly who is uploading photos (of, you guessed it, bicycles only) to Flickr and tagging them "streetsblog." By tagging your photos as such, they will automatically pop up on our newly revamped "Contribute to Streetsblog" page over there in the upper left corner of the screen. You can upload videos to YouTube and links to de.licio.us and tag them "streetsblog" also.

The marker to the south is where the speeding taxi passed the cyclist. The marker to the north is where the cyclist gave up trying to chase after him.

The MTA invites members of the public to a hearing on proposed fare changes.

A reliable Streetsblog tipster sends along this photo of a police cruiser parked in the Department of Transportation's new Ninth Avenue bike facility. The police officer seen getting into the car was returning from a nearby deli with what appeared to be lunch for him and his partner.

As seen outside Wednesday's 34th Precinct Community Council meeting. The driver of this livery cab stopped on Broadway, backed 90 degrees into the crosswalk, drove forward (about halfway across the crosswalk) to straighten out, then backed up again, taking up a good share of the disabled access curb ramp in the process. Then he and his passenger got out and walked into the station house without incident, despite the police presence outside -- which is no surprise given the position of the NYPD van to the right.