Special Reports

It's that time again. Just 18 months after the passage of the latest federal transportation bill, known as MAP-21, Congress has to get serious about the next one. The first hearing on the bill that will replace MAP-21 took place today in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Last night, Brooklyn Community Board 1's transportation committee unanimously recommended the board support a DOT project [PDF] to calm traffic on a deadly stretch of Kent Avenue between Clymer Street and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The project also upgrades a link in the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway to a two-way protected bike lane.

According to Harlem's Community Board 10, there is apparently no such thing as a street redesign worth pursuing. Over the course of two-and-a-half hours Tuesday night, members of the board's transportation committee declined to support a road diet for Morningside Avenue, attacked a community-based street safety plan installed on Mount Morris Park West, and asked DOT to reconsider Select Bus Service on 125th Street again -- this time on the pretense that it would harm the elderly and disabled.

Last September, local elected officials joined the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and students from Benjamin Banneker Academy on Brooklyn's Park Avenue to clock speeding drivers. The Partnership released a report offering suggestions to city agencies about how to improve pedestrian safety on the dangerous avenue, which has a crash rate higher than three-quarters of Brooklyn streets. More than a year later, the city has yet to advance any significant changes.

Tuesday's vote at Manhattan Community Board 7 is a reminder that the road to livable streets progress often goes through the local community board. With that in mind, Transportation Alternatives is kicking off a series of community board join-up meetings this week, where you can apply to serve on your local board.

Well, a few words from Andrew Cuomo made clear that fixing NYC's broken road pricing system won't be on the table before next year's statewide elections. But some opponents of congestion pricing -- notably, Eastern Queens City Council Member Mark Weprin -- are warming to Sam Schwartz's toll reform plan, which calls for a uniform price on entry points into the Manhattan core, including the East River bridges and 60th Street, paired with lower prices on less congested, outlying bridges.

The next phase of Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway construction on Flushing Avenue will build a raised two-way bikeway and planted buffers alongside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, creating a safer, more appealing environment on what has already become a much-used bike route. Here's a look at the recently unveiled design from NYC DOT, the Department of Design and Construction, and project consultant Parsons.

A reader sent in this photo of what looks to be several dozen minivans in Williamsburg parked all over the sidewalk and bike lane on Kent Avenue.

Construction continues on the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway along Van Brunt Street, with a two-way buffered bike lane extending the greenway south through Red Hook striped recently, but there's a conspicuous gap in the route that won't be filled until at least this fall.