The Dynamic Duo vs. the Empire State
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T.A. Members will soon receive the newest issue of Reclaim. This quarter, the magazine takes a close look at the future of public transit. Become a T.A. Member to start your subscription today.
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Batman often erred without Robin's timing. Without Oscar's ribbing Felix was depressing. The best pairs recognize effectiveness is often the product of having a partner in crime, and that has certainly been an unexpected result of Albany's pillage of transit funding. Straphangers have found a friend in MTA workers, and now this dynamic duo has united to let the Legislature know what their ineptitude is doing to NYC.
On July 13th, transit workers joined transit riders outside an MTA hearing at Cooper Union's Great Hall to say 'enough' to the closures and cuts that the MTA has undertaken in response to Albany's budget bungle. Transportation Alternatives and the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign passed the proverbial megaphone; united workers and customers sent a message to Albany.
"Another hearing, another song and dance," T.A.'s Executive Director Paul Steely White told the gathered advocates, riders and transit workers. "The riding public takes a back seat while the same politicians who pillage transit funds in the State Capitol get on a soapbox here in New York City to proclaim their outrage at transit cuts. It's time to break the vicious cycle and start putting riders first."
Stay tuned for more updates. This fall our transit organizing will kick into high gear with online actions, exciting events and good old grassroots boots on the ground. You will hear us fighting for a fair fare in the coming months, from your shuttered bus stop all the way to Albany.
Breaking: Sun Shines in Albany
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It's easy to point a finger at Albany; convenient to complain about the Governor, the Senate, the Assembly, and the corruption, bureaucracy and inefficiency of our state government, but sometimes the sun shines in the North. Despite our State Capitol's legendary dysfunction, Transportation Alternatives and a few key legislators managed to pass two bills last season that will make your commute safer and speedier.
The bus lane enforcement camera provision included in the State Budget and pending legislation that will establish penalties for reckless and careless drivers who claim the lives of vulnerable street users are huge breakthroughs in their issue areas. They each represent real progress, demonstrate the prowess of Transportation Alternatives' Albany operations and punctuate the growing strength of our organization.
State legislators can see upwards of 18,000 proposed bills each year. Roughly nine percent of those pass. Only a fraction of those bills are "issue oriented" and the majority of that small sliver are controlled by election-swaying constituencies like teachers and hospital workers or well-funded national advocacy groups.
That we managed to fight for, and pass, two bills in this notoriously nasty and crowded session is truly remarkable. So, thank you. We wouldn't have been able to do it without your support, nor without the commitment of some key players in New York City's Albany delegation who listened to your calls for action, including Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, Senator Dan Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Senator John L. Sampson, Senator Martin Malavé Dilan and Assemblymember Jonathan Bing.
A Man of Letters on the East Side Bikeway
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T.A. super-volunteer Steve Vaccaro collects yet another letter. Over 1,000 New Yorkers have called for a safer East Side Bikeway by joining T.A. volunteers to write a letter to Mayor Bloomberg.
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You may have seen Steve Vaccaro. He has been standing on street corners up and down Manhattan's First and Second Avenues, yelling at cyclists. But he is hardly another vocal velophobe, passing time between Community Board meetings and reprimanding neighborhood teens. Steve's one of T.A.'s top-notch volunteers and he is yelling for you to help him expand the DOT's plan for better biking on First and Second Avenue in 2011.
T.A.'s East Side Volunteer Committee has been out in force, collecting letters from investment bankers and fruit vendors, commuters and messengers, from children and parents, cyclists and pedestrians. The letters are written in English and Spanish, Croatian, Portuguese and Italian. When a passerby can't write, volunteers take dictation. There are more than 1,100 letters already, but they share one message: Complete the East Side Bikeway.
It was early in 2010 when the DOT agreed to T.A.'s proposal for the 12-mile East Side Bikeway; innovative, seamless and extraordinarily safe travel on physically separated bike paths from Houston to 125th. But by June, the DOT had leapfrogged the perimeter of the plan backwards from 125th Street to 34th and swapped physical barriers for painted lanes. They added gaps and blanks that would abandon cyclists on the zippiest parts of the corridor. With the DOT's current plan leaving a critical pipeline severed at its most essential points, T.A.'s East Side Volunteer Committee understands every letter they collect is one block closer to a complete corridor for the East Side Bikeway of the future.
Take Action: If you haven't spotted Steve or any of T.A.'s volunteers hauling in letters on the East Side, you can do your part to make the East Side complete by signing T.A.'s petition.
Does Your Bike Lane Make the Grade?
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How does your commute measure up?
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The luckiest New Yorkers can ride from their front door to their office without ever leaving a bike lane. They can bring their steed upstairs or leave it safely in a bike room. They're fortunate enough to have easy cycle-access to parks, shopping districts, museums and a thousand other amenities. How does your routine measure up to theirs?
Fill out T.A.'s annual Bike Report Card and help us rate the City's bike infrastructure. We want to know about your commute, your recreational ride, your bike parking situation and how you're treated here and there and on every road in between.
Completing the Bike Report Card is the easiest way for you to shape the future of NYC's cycling network. It'll help us thank elected officials like Councilmember Brad Lander, who stood tall and supported the Prospect Park West bike lane, and send informed guidance to city officials and local leaders.
The report card only takes a few minutes to complete and your submission will be a huge help. Why not fill one out now?
Parking Spots are for Play, at least on Park(ing) Day
On NYC's Park(ing) Day, Transportation Alternatives gives you everything you need to reclaim and redesign your own personal piece of the street. Park(ing) Day lets communities transform parking spots into people-friendly public space -- be it a book nook of armchairs and ottomans outside a Public Library branch or a wall-free yoga studio on a street that could use a little more zen.
This September 17th, join thousands of people all over the world by celebrating Park(ing) Day. Take over a space in your neighborhood with T.A.
To be a part of Park(ing) Day NYC and create your own Park(ing) Spot visit the How-To Guide online and Register to Host a Spot. And to find out more about Park(ing) Day NYC please visit: parkingdaynyc.org.
Park(ing) Day NYC
Friday, September 17th
Wherever you want to park yourself in the five boroughs!
Bicycles as Transport: From Alternative to Mainstream
T.A.'s Bicycle Advocacy Director Caroline Samponaro will be talking mode shifts and the bicycle's move from alternative to mainstream at the American Institute of Architects on August 12th. At the panel, organized by AIA New York's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the NYC DOT and the director of the NYC Department of City Planning will join Caroline in a discussion of the bicycle's impact on New York City's transportation. While you're visiting the AIA, be sure to check out the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy's exhibit, Our Cities Ourselves, on view until September 11th.
Bicycles as Transport: From Alternative to Mainstream
Thursday, August 12th
6-8 pm
Center for Architecture
536 Laguardia Place
Manhattan
$10 for anyone not a member of the AIA
We're Hiring, Still and More
We've told you were looking for a Design Coordinator, a few good Transit Advocates and a Communications Manager -- Now we've got another gig for the list. T.A. is looking for an IT Consultant to join the team. See if you're the right woman or man for the job: transalt.org/about/jobs.
