Today’s Headlines

We felt like we were reading a Steve Cuozzo piece when we saw Rachel Premack's story in Business Insider about how tough it is to be a delivery truck driver in New York City because all of the bike lanes have ruined everything! Here's another way of looking at it: if you want to show sympathy for hard-working delivery truck drivers, advocate for more loading zones so they can safely do their work and other road users can safely get to theirs. Road safety is not a zero sum game pitting cyclists against truck drivers in a war for limited space. In fact, the real villains are illegal parkers and a city that allows drivers to store their cars in the public right of way when that space would be much more useful for buses, bikes and, yes, delivery trucks.

Thursday is like Super Bowl Sunday for Streetsblog, as DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg and elusive NYPD Transportation Chief Thomas Chan will made a big not so big announcement this morning in Times Square urging drivers to drive better (press release here). And Mayor de Blasio will have a rare press avail at 11 a.m. So we'll be on hand at both events to grill the officials about such things as Wild West private carters, FedEx trucks in bike lanes, why the final phase of the Queens Boulevard bike lane appears to be stalled and, yes, why cops insist on parking illegally. In short, a great morning.

Streetsblog did its own coverage of how the NYPD's bollard-buying spree has made the Brooklyn Bridge even worse, but here's a hat tip to transportation reporter Aaron Gordon for choosing the right words in his Tuesday article for Gothamist for the big cement blocks: "expensive, clumsy, and sometimes nonsensical."

There was lots of coverage yesterday of the NYPD's supposed crackdown on the private sanitation industry, which police say is responsible for 20 deaths since 2016. The Daily News brought out the big gun — police bureau chief Rocco Parascandola — but amNY, Patch and Streetsblog also provided coverage. Of course, not all the stories were perfect. WPIX11 identified Streetsblog Editor Gersh Kuntzman as "Gershman Kuntz" in its segment, but Kuntz's — er, Kuntzman's — brother was still impressed.

There's still time to tell the Department of Transportation what you want done to improve safety on the "new Boulevard of Death," Northern Boulevard. The agency has set up a handy website so you can log your comments and place them on the map of the strip where more than a half-dozen people have been killed since 2017. And tonight, the agency will host the third of its three community workshops in Long Island City at 6:30 p.m. Streetsblog covered the first one here.

I was pleased to see that the bus driver who killed Citi Bike rider Dan Hanegby got the maximum prison sentence on Thursday, though I still remain horrified that killing a cyclist can carry as little as 30 days in jail. Streetsblog's coverage included the basic news from Judge Heidi Cesare's courtroom, plus the full text of Hanegby's widow's tearful victim's impact statement. Both are worth reading. The New York Post and the Daily News were also on hand for the sentencing.

Happy to report that no one sent us a package bomb yesterday, so we're still here, delivering all your biking, walking and transit news! Check back later for our coverage of the sentencing of the bus driver who killed Citi Bike rider Dan Hanegby, yet is only facing 30 days max.

Tuesday was a momentous day in Prospect Heights because the NYPD finally removed the lighting tower that it had parked in the Vanderbilt Avenue bike lane for five days. Hat tip to @D00RZ0NE for bringing this to my attention last week — but sure enough, when I biked past on Monday night, the damn thing was still there. Like @D00RZ0NE, I reported it to 311, but I also asked the NYPD why it was there at all. A police spokesman declined to answer that, but said the problem had been taken care of. Well, you know what they say in journalism — if your mother says she loves NYPD street obstructions, you check it out. So I immediately biked over. Sure enough, it was gone. No explanation was provided for why it took five days.

If you've ever been injured in a crash, you should head to a support session for victims of traffic injuries hosted by Families for Safe Streets on Wednesday night at New York Presbyterian Hospital in upper Manhattan. The goal is to share techniques for relieving psychological stress that is connected to post-traumatic memories — no matter when the injury occurred. If you're interested, RSVP here.