T.A. StreetBeat


	October 28th, 2010

Last week on Prospect Park West, a celebration of a bike lane and a street made safer for everyone.
Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker

Articles and Actions

The Complainers
Rally with the Reverend
Death of a Cyclist

Events and Alerts

Members Only: Free Money
Take a Letter, Mayor Bloomberg
T.A. ISO

T.A. in the News

"Advocates like Transportation Alternatives have been on the phone and on e-mail with the MTA all week and the MTA has listened. I just got an e-mail from their press office right before I came over here and they said that the local buses will now take the receipts for SBS."

- T.A.'s Deputy Director Noah Budnick breaks the story live on air with Fox5 NY. 10/18

The Complainers

The difference between Santa Claus, the tooth fairy
and a polite New York City cyclist?
Two are imaginary; one can be you.
Image courtesy Ben McRoberts

Install a new traffic safety innovation and watch the Complainers swarm. Standing at the curb of New York's most freshly calmed streets, the Complainers stare at their shoes and mumble to themselves that this or that isn't Amsterdam.

With all the ways New York's been getting better for biking and walking lately, the Complainers have been kvetching up a storm. Two weeks ago, they were carping about New York's first complete street. Last week, despite a community board's request for traffic calming measures, local elected officials' endorsement of the lane, a notable reduction in incidents of speeding and widespread community support, they protested the bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements on Prospect Park West.

Every time the Complainers gather, T.A. is there. We show up to defend a safer, more civil New York, but also because it is the ideal time to take stock. Every time they host a bike lane bashing, we illustrate the strength of the movement for a safer New York: every time, so many more of us show up than them.

But no matter how incorrect their gripes or innocuous their sway, it's notable that these kvetch-fests have been happening more than usual. At Transportation Alternatives, we have to admit we're concerned with the rising level of bile. Our worst fear is that the biking backlash is a product of how the cycling community has behaved. Maybe we have not looked our best on two wheels: occasionally salmoning a block for convenience sake or startling a jaywalker and not stopping to say, "Sorry!"

Cyclists of New York City: Let's prove the Complainers wrong. Pledge tomorrow to befriend a car driver with eye-contact and a wave of thanks for a safe lane change. Smile at a pedestrian while you yield to let them pass.

Our most powerful word, the one that can plug the dam before the biking backlash floods in? Polite. Bikers, go be it.

Rally with the Reverend

Last night in pinstripes, Reverend Al Sharpton laid it on the line for Albany.
Image courtesy Mike Infranco

Transportation Alternatives, the Reverend Al Sharpton and a transit rider walk into a subway car. The punch line? Albany!

Kidding aside, yesterday on the south side of Union Square Park, a rally rolled deep to make sure candidates heard that transit riders aren't joking anymore.

"The question is who in Albany is going to vote for the people? Everyone has got slick commercials," Reverend Sharpton preached last night to scores of transit riders, "not one commercial explains how we have a state that can find money to build stadiums and developments, but can’t find money for people to ride to work and to school every day on mass transit."

Political parties from across the spectrum were invited to divulge their plans to save transit. The ARC Gospel Choir elevated the crowd. The Reverend Al Sharpton decried the inequity of a transit system for which we pay so much to receive so little. More than a hundred bus and subways riders came to declare, between the service cuts and the fare hikes, it's time to rebel.

But despite all its exclamations and red-letter talk of revolt, T.A.'s Rider Rebellion is hardly superlative without substance. The Rider Rebellion is a campaign to insist State politicians represent the riders, stop shifting the blame and take up their role in making New York City transit work better. The Rider Rebellion is the amplification of the transit rider's voice.

Take Action

There was enough MTA bashing spewed at last week's gubernatorial debate to flood the subways. Help T.A.'s Rider Rebellion ensure that the leading candidates for governor know we won't let them shirk their duty. Our future governor has the power to make transit sustainable, but the candidates need to know we're watching. Before Election Day, call the campaign offices of Carl Paladino and Andrew Cuomo and ask how they plan to put the public back in NYC public transit.

On the Rider Rebellion agenda, we have a ballot to cast November 2nd and hope you'll be voting transit too. Next up: from now until public transit gets fixed, elected officials will have the voice of New York City transit riders ringing in their ears.

Death of a Cyclist

Jasmine Herron was killed on Washington and Atlantic avenues, a five-way intersection inhospitable to cyclists and pedestrians.
Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker

A cyclist is struck, a cyclist is killed, a driver isn't charged, everyone is complacent and the city rolls along.

It's a narrative we hear so often it has become rote. Then last month, Jasmine Herron was killed on her bicycle on Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue, and Community Council President James Caldwell stood up. NYPD Captain Elvio Cappoci stood up. The 77th Precinct stood up. It stopped us all in our tracks.

After a blindly opened car door threw Jasmine Herron into the path of the B45 bus, the 77th Precinct Community Council and Community Clergy joined with Community Board 8 and Council Member Letitia James to host a streetside prayer vigil. Captain Cappoci of the 77th Precinct began a Committee for Bicycle Safety, a pilot program to improve how police can make cyclists safe. Senator Eric Adams introduced legislation to mandate cyclist awareness in motorist education.

These community leaders drew a line in the asphalt and set a precedent: This is what can happen when a cyclist is killed. At T.A., we're waiting to see how word becomes bond.

To bring cyclist safety to the forefront, Senator Adams and the 77th Precinct have pledged to host a bike ride through Brooklyn's 20th Senate district. You can stay tuned to T.A. for details, or if you don't live in or travel through their strip of Brooklyn, consider what has happened in honor of Jasmine Herron a model for your community.

The best place to spread the 77th's good example is at your precinct Community Council meeting, which happens every month. Your precinct could take care of cyclists too. Find out the where and when of talking about it here.

Tune-ups and tires and truing, oh my! Biking is cheaper than the MTA but that doesn't mean keeping your bike in shape is always affordable. If you aren't a T.A. member, repairs and replacements can ratchet costs up quick. But T.A. members get a discount at more than 100 NYC-area bike shops. No member card to show at the shop? Join T.A. as a member today and get hooked up.

Take a Letter, Mayor Bloomberg

Pedestrians and cyclists are on the same page as they write Mayor Mike to complete 1st and
2nd avenues' safety improvements.
Image courtesy William Laviano

New York's first complete street is finally finished. But despite new Select Bus Service extending all the way from WhiteHall to Harlem, 1st and 2nd avenues are only complete streets as far as 34th, where the protected bike lanes and pedestrian islands cease as the traffic is at its worst. Commuters and East Side residents from midtown to 125th are without equitably safe streets.

Since the decision was made to trim these integral traffic safety improvements, T.A.'s been advocating for their completion from the grassroots to the top dogs of City Hall. Besides the support of every elected official and community board on the East Side, we've collected more than 2,500 letters from local residents, cyclists and pedestrians who've been enjoying the infrastructure that’s been laid down so far.

Join T.A. as we gather East Side elected officials, community boards and neighborhood organizations at City Hall. We'll skirt the postal service and hand deliver to Mayor Bloomberg a load of letters calling for the completion of East Side traffic safety improvements by 2011.

Rally to Complete 1st and 2nd Avenues
Wednesday, November 10th
High Noon
City Hall
Arrive early to account for security

T.A. ISO

T.A. is desperately seeking two stellar, studied advocates to help manage two populations of the T.A. family: our amazing, populous volunteer committees and the growing base of City and elected officials who support our cause. We're seeking a new volunteer coordinator to guide our many volunteers as they advocate locally for safer streets and a policy analyst to help politicians and policymakers stay on our page. Qualified, passionate advocates are encouraged to apply.