Eyes on the Street

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.

Here are snapshots of the scoreboard at Yankee Stadium last Sunday. (The Yanks beat Toronto, 7-5.) Despite the perceived parking hardship, average attendance at the stadium has been 52,739 this season, an all-time record.

The Department of Transportation announced the installation of a buffered bike lane on Fifth Avenue in this month's NYCycles, a monthly e-newsletter produced by DOT on cycling issues.

Some new Class 2 bike lanes have been striped in some out-of-the way places. The brand new Gerard Avenue bike lane, shown here at 149th Street, leads past a gas station to Yankee Stadium. This is listed as "planned" on the 2007 bike map (pdf), so it is nice to see the plan being filled out.  It looks like another one is about to be striped on parallel Walton Avenue as well.

As previewed in today's New York Times, the MTA this morning held a ceremony commemorating the 75th birthday of the A line, originally known as the IND 8 Ave, which made its first run on September 10, 1932.

From a Streetsblog tipster:

Enjoy the long weekend and recharge your batteries. If you're working to make New York a more livable city, it's going to be a busy Fall. May these photos from Utrecht, Holland inspire you...

Carrie McLaren and Steve Lambert are working on a public service photo project called "People's 311." They want New Yorkers to submit shots of things like potholes, bike lane hazards, dying trees and broken traffic signs.