Today’s Headlines

We encountered an illegally parked Reliant school bus in Downtown Brooklyn on Wednesday and decided to run the plate through Streetsie Award winner Brian Howald's indispensable @howsmydrivingny account: It turns out, the public school bus had run red lights or been caught speeding nine times! Hello, anyone awake at the switch at the Department of Education?

And we're back! Andrew Cuomo's third term as governor officially began, so we at Streetsblog decided we'd return to our job, too (though, truth be told, we kinda worked all weekend). Let's start today's headlines with a few ICYMIs:

The theme for today is "It's the end of the year as we know it," which means lots of looks back at 2018. Streetsblog has already given you its Streetsie Award winners in the general category, plus our Vision Zero Hero of the Year, our placard abuse of the year, our biggest piece of unfinished business of the year, the best street redesign of the year (thank you, DOT), and the best transit project of the year — and today we continue with the worst thing Mayor de Blasio said all year and the pro-car NIMBY of the year.

Yes, everyone was freaked out about that weird blue light that turned Astoria into the set for "E.T. 2: The Return" (or not), but within a few minutes, we learned that it was just a small explosion that was not, in fact, set by Queens Community Board 2 to protest the Hoyt Avenue bike lane.

We know the big talker of the day was Artie Lange's cocaine-caved conker, but we livable streets activists don't head to Page Six for our news (at least not right away). Instead, we scour the Internets looking only to nerd out on the latest trends in crosswalk design, bus rapid transit and, of course, "protected" bike lanes.

To be honest, almost no one is working today, but we did want to give you more Streetsie Award winners (see above), plus give you the day's news (below).

OK, it's Christmas Eve day and, admit it, you don't expect much from us today. Well, surprise, because here we are.

It's a big day! The Streetsblog Carolers will be singing our anti-car, pro-transit Christmas classics (with the ever-so-slightly-tweaked lyrics) on the NY1 morning show with Pat Kiernan, Jamie Stelter and the rest of the "Mornings on 1" crew.

Tonight is the annual holiday party at Gracie Mansion — and somehow Streetsblog managed an invite, despite our aggressive coverage (which needs your support, by the way).