"Streets Come Alive" by LEVON was one of three Designing the 21st Century Street Competition winners.

21st Century Streets

Humus=Human, a design by Degré Zéro Paysagistes, was the T.A. staff's top pick, but three other entries won the jury's favor, as well as the competition's prize.

The Designing the 21st Century Street Competition jury has chosen three winners out of over 100 submissions from 13 countries.

Rogers Marvel Architects from New York City, LEVON from Philadelphia and Steven Nutter from Somerville, Massachusetts will share the top honor, and each will receive a prize of $4,000. In addition, the jurors awarded Mark Anders of Brooklyn an honorable mention.

Fourth Avenue and 9th Street in Brooklyn, the focus of the competition, is one of the most dangerous intersections in its area. The current design, with its wide, multiple travel lanes and few pedestrian amenities, encourages speeding and reckless driving. Subway stations, bus stops, a truck route and a new bike lane add to the intersection's complexity. Each of the winning designs addressed these issues in elegant, simple and sustainable ways.

In addition to the jury's selection, T.A.'s staff held its own vote to choose the design that best exemplifies its vision of a 21st Century Street. The T.A. staff picked the design of Degré Zéro Paysagistes, a firm from Paris, France. Their entry was chosen for its ability to integrate natural systems with transportation and street space.

The winning designs will be showcased at an exhibition at Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO, Brooklyn. The exhibit will be on display for three weeks at Galapagos, after which time it will move to another space in the city.

Save a Life: Adopt-a-Bike Lane

"Bike Pools" use safety in numbers to transform a threatening bike commute along Delancey Street into a fun and social event.

On Friday, October 24th, T.A. and lots of amazing local advocates teamed up to Adopt-a-Bike Lane on Delancey Street.

From 6-7 pm Williamsburg Bridge-bound cyclists gathered on the Bowery, and every few minutes, took off towards the bridge in well-mannered teams large enough to provide safety in numbers. The result was a safer and more social bike commute for scores of the more than 4,000 bike commuters who use the Williamsburg Bridge each day.

In fact, the event was such a success that T.A. is making the Adopt-a-Bike Lane model a new tool in its advocacy toolbox, with the goal of empowering NYC cyclists to develop bike-lane campaigns on their own streets through commuter bike rides, coalition building and conversations with local Community Boards and other City agencies.

Often, the DOT, despite all of its commendable efforts to boost cycling, needs to know from everyday commuters what streets need work and where. Delancey Street, which is now a key bike connector, was not a priority in the 1997 Bicycle Master Plan, the blueprint from which the city draws many of its future cycling plans. As a result, it has not received the attention that many cyclists know it so dearly needs. Events like Adopt-a-Bike Lane cordially call attention to this need.

T.A. is also hosting monthly Bike Pools along Queens Boulevard. On the second Friday of every month, T.A.'s Queens Committee leads an escorted bike ride from the Queensboro Bridge to Elmhurst, providing riders with a safe group in which to get home. The rides are part of Zero on Queens Boulevard, a campaign to eliminate traffic fatalities on Queens Boulevard through pedestrian safety improvements and a protected bicycle lane along the service roadways.

Change You Can Believe In

Community Board's are one of the building blocks of New York City planning. Get involved and make more change!

The poetry of campaign season is over and now the prose of governing begins. For almost all of us, that means much less CNN, fewer get-out-the-vote parties, no obsessive clicking on the election map and, hopefully, a little more free time.

So what will you do with it? How about making your politics local, creating positive change in the neighborhood and helping improve the street right outside your door? All that and more is well within reach if you join your local Community Board.

Increasingly, New York City's Community Boards are a catalyst for change. They've been the driving force behind great projects like the 9th Avenue bike lane, the Gansevoort pedestrian plaza and even Bedford Avenue's new and improved bicycle parking. With City agencies working hard to fulfill the sustainability mandate of PlaNYC and the DOT ready to roll out new street designs across the city, there's simply never been a better time to make an impact.

To sweeten the deal, T.A. is making the Community Board application process fun and easy by hosting a Community Board Join-Up Jammy-Jam on November 24th. The party will be held from 6-9 pm, location TBA. E-mail elena@transalt.org to RSVP or for more information.

We'll have snacks, drinks, staff to answer questions, applications and even a handsome notary on hand.

Livable Streets Blueprint Launch with Jan Gehl

The Upper West Side Streets Renaissance Campaign, with special guest Jan Gehl, will unveil its Livable Streets Blueprint for the Upper West Side at P.S. 87 on Thursday, November 13th.

This community-created plan is a roadmap to a greener, healthier Upper West Side, and features designs for safer and more attractive streets, a world-class bicycle network, less noise and air pollution, and other keys to a more vibrant, healthy community. Please join us, meet your neighbors and be the first to see the future of the Upper West Side!

For more information and to RSVP, please visit uwssr.org.

Livable Streets Blueprint Launch
Thursday, November 13th
6:30-8:30 pm
P.S. 87
160 West 78th Street (Between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues)
Manhattan

T.A. Holiday Party

When the weather turns cold and the sun sets early, New Yorkers know it's time to party, T.A. style.

You are cordially invited to T.A.'s Ninth Annual Holiday Party, a celebration of biking, walking, public transit and all of our amazing volunteers, members and supporters.

Mark Thursday, December 4th on your calendar right now, and come out to Housing Works Bookstore Café that night! There will be music by The Jones Street Boys Band, great company, plenty of snacks and free drinks, as well as a raffle with awesome prizes. You can even do some last minute holiday shopping at our gift shop.

T.A. Holiday Party
Thursday, December 4th
8:30-10:30 pm
Housing Works Bookstore Café
126 Crosby Street (Between Prince and Houston)
Manhattan

FREE for T.A. Volunteers $10 for T.A. Members $30 for Future Members Valet Bike Parking available

Subway W/R to Prince Street B/D/F/V to Broadway-Lafayette 6 to Bleecker Street T.A. Holiday Party Sponsors: Brooklyn Brewery and Cycles Gladiator Wines

A Call to Service

Do you have the courage to point the way? Run for committee office. Image courtesy Emmanuel Fuentebella.

T.A. is seeking the next generation of leaders in Queens. After a year of shepherding T.A.'s efforts in the city's largest borough, the Executive Board of T.A.'s Queens Committee is stepping down this December. Mike Heffron, Eddie Hernandez, Emilia Crotty and Karen Overton oversaw the first annual Tour de Queens, the epic battle for congestion pricing and the doubling of T.A.'s Queens membership. Thank you!

T.A. members and volunteers are eligible to run for Chairperson, Vice Chair, Treasurer and Secretary. Nominations are open and will continue through November. To throw your hat in the ring, or to find out more about the rewards and tribulations of elected office, join the committee for its November meeting or email wiley@transalt.org for more details. Elections will be held at the December committee meeting.

Queens Committee November Meeting
Monday, November 10th
6:30–8 pm
Greater Astoria Historical Society
35-20 Broadway, 4th floor
Astoria, Queens

Brooklyn Greenway Bike Ride

The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative in collaboration with the Open Space Alliance, invite you to join them for a casual 5.5-mile bike ride on the newly striped bike lanes on Kent Avenue and West Street. Come out and support this great opportunity to ride safely on the future proposed greenway.

Brooklyn Greenway Bike Ride
Sunday, November 16
1 pm
Starts and ends at CitiStorage
North 11th Street between Kent Ave. and the East River
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

RSVP: info@brooklyngreenway.org

Teens, Get Ready to Ride

On Saturday, November 8th, 16 to 22 year olds are invited to join the NYC Cycle Club for their Youth Program Familiarization Ride, a precursor to their annual Youth Cycling Program.

The Youth Cycling Program's mission is to expose New York City youth to the sport of cycling and to the feelings of accomplishment and self-confidence cycling can offer.

November 8th's ride will provide participants with an opportunity to meet fellow cyclists and have a good time, as well as experience what the NYCC's Stan Oldak Youth Program is about. The ride will be between 20 and 25 miles.

Interested parties and others with questions can email youthprogram@nycc.org or call 917-613-5093

T.A. Giftshop: Shop Early, Shop Often

Why not kick-start your holiday shopping with a visit to the T.A. Gift Shop? Prices on our popular bike tour shirts start as low as $5, and as always, T.A. members get a discount.