T.A. StreetBeat

T.A. StreetBeat

March 19th, 2010

Spring has sprung, so saddle up and ride. Image courtesy Kat Cheng.

Articles and Actions

The Data Deficit
Inside the Beltway
East Side Workshops Underway

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Events and Alerts

Bus Lane Busters
He Rides with TEAM T.A.
A Quick Question for the Urban Planners
Spring into Volunteering

T.A. in the News

"St. Patrick's Day always makes us appreciate a city with biking, walking and transit options (also water and aspirin)."

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The Data Deficit

Armed with hard data and informed by real-life experience, community members can fight for, and win, safer streets.

Though neighborhood residents often know best, they rarely know the most. That's one of the unfortunate imbalances that allow engineers and axe-grinders to reshape communities as they see fit, instead of asking the people who live there what would make things better.

Too often, critical statistics and survey results remain in the realm of pencil-pushers and powerbrokers to be wielded when convenient and holstered in a bind. For years, T.A. has been working to address this data deficit. We built CrashStat.org with that in mind, fought for passage of the Traffic and Information Bill back in 2006 and have been pushing the NYPD to publicly release their Traffic Stat data since the publication of Executive Order (PDF).

Council Member Jessica Lappin has joined us in this noble quest. She recently introduced Intro. 1094, a piece of City legislation that would require the NYPD to make crucial traffic-related statistics available on its website. Communities armed with this hard data about moving violations, traffic crashes, contributing factors and fatalities could better argue their intuited cases and call for improvements using more than just anecdotal evidence.

Right now Intro. 1094 is awaiting a hearing in the Council's Committee on Public Safety, which is chaired by Peter Vallone Jr. He has indicated that he supports the bill. The next step is to hold a hearing on it. Council Member Vallone Jr. needs to hear from you that New Yorkers want to fix the data deficit and want a hearing for Intro. 1094 as soon as possible.

Take Action

Click here to send an email to Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. that expresses your support for Intro. 1094.

Inside the Beltway

Streetfilms captured some of the magic in the air at last week's Bike Summit.

When U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood climbed atop a table at the closing event of last week's National Bike Summit in Washington D.C., the crowd knew something different was afoot. When he announced, "This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized," they felt it, too.

Indeed, this year's Bike Summit was something special. In addition to the first-ever appearance of a sitting Transportation Secretary, representatives from the Federal Transit Authority were on hand to solidify the link between bikes and mass transit, and the long sought after holy grail of urban transportation advocates -- direct funding for municipalities -- was the talk of the town.

T.A. staff presented on the link between police enforcement and safer cycling, spoke with congressional representatives from around the five boroughs, and was impressed by all of the panels, particularly the breakout session that focused on expanding the bike advocacy movement into traditionally under-served communities.

Increasingly, the kind of national efforts addressed at the Bike Summit will have impacts around the country and on your streets. Cities for Cycling is a campaign led by NYC DOT Commissioner Sadik-Khan to standardize bike-lane designs in major municipalities, and grassroots efforts, like the League of American Bicyclists' People for Bikes campaign, are demonstrating that there is a nationwide interest in cycling that needs to be heard.

East Side Workshops Underway

More than 50 community-minded New Yorkers assembled in the cafeteria of Wagner Middle School on East 72nd Street last Tuesday night to re-imagine the future of their streets. They made lists, drew on maps and talked to their neighbors and urban planners to identify what is wrong with the way things are, and how they could be better.

The gathering was the first of six East Side Streets Coalition community workshops designed to allow local shareholders to discuss problems with their streets and propose solutions.

Some of the hot topics were curb extensions, protected bike lanes, day-lighting at intersections and more space for pedestrians. The event brought together students, seniors, cyclists and many more strange bedfellows for an airing of issues and a comprehensive look at the neighborhood's streets.

The conversations had at each of the workshops will inform a document that will be published in the fall of 2010, and which is aimed at improving pedestrian and cyclist safety as well as transit access on the East Side.

For more information on the East Side Streets Coalition and for a list of their upcoming workshops click here.

Bus Lane Busters

Broadway's bus lane, like others around the city, could do with some camera enforcement.

Empire State transit advocates are pounding the pavement in Albany this week, asking legislators to support the automated camera enforcement language that made its way into the Governor's Executive Budget. Lend them a hand: send an e-fax to the New York State Assembly. We've got all the information you need queued up. Just click, fill in an a few blanks, and help make New York City better for millions of straphangers.

A Quick Question for the Urban Planners

T.A.'s Planning Corps is looking for a few good folks. What do you say? Image courtesy urbancursor.com.

Are you the kind of planner who's interested in volunteering your skills to help win change on NYC streets? If so, T.A's first ever "Planning Corps" meeting is going down on March 24th, so if you're an urban planner interested in volunteering your skills to help win change on NYC streets, we'd love you to see you!

T.A. Planning Corp
Wednesday, March 24
6:30 pm
The Open Planning Project
148 Lafayette St
Manhattan

For more information or to RSVP, contact shin-pei@transalt.org.

Spring into Volunteering

April piled Clif Bars. What have you done lately? Image courtesy Lois Bielefeld.

There are lots of great opportunities for T.A. supporters hoping to start off this spring with some good bike karma.

First up, a photo shoot this weekend: the Department of Transportation and T.A. are looking for cyclists of all shapes and sizes to model in this year's Bike Month ad campaign. If you're interested, email john.midgley@me.com. For more information click here.

And then there's a call for coaches: If you're an avid cyclist who enjoys teaching people about the joy of cycling, then consider becoming a coach for TEAM T.A. Write to molly@transalt.org to find out more.

And last but not least, T.A.'s events staff is looking for a paid, part-time intern to help produce our summer bike tours. If you're as comfortable riding in NYC traffic as you are in production meetings, please apply. You can check out the complete listing here.