T.A.  News

Come to Volunteer Night, Wednesday, May 8th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207). Free snacks, beer and scintillating conversation!

Sign-up to volunteer for T.A. events during NYC Bike Week!

Time on your hands? Eager to make a difference? T.A. needs folks who are retired, work part-time or between jobs to help our top-notch advocacy staff make the city a better place for bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders.
Call 212-629-8080 or e-mail info@transalt.org.

T.A. still has two open internships: 

- Advocacy (work with T.A. program staff)
- Bicycle Research and Policy

Please visit transalt.org/intern for more information.

T.A. In the News

transalt.org/media

Latest

5/3 A Day for Sunday Drivers on Two Wheels, New York Times

4/27 Car Accidents? Juries Tend to Think So, New York Times

4/22 Segway May Face Obstacles Too High in NYC Politics, New York Sun

4/19 Midtown Car-Pool Rules Lifted, Daily News

4/16 They Peddle Verrazano Bicycle Path, Daily News

4/15 New Bike/Pedestrian Path Over the Verrazano?, Park Slope Courier

4/15 5M for East River Ferry Routes Eyed, Daily News

4/15 Bridge tolls a boon to borough, The Park Slope Paper

4/4 Bridge Getting New 30M Walkway, Daily News

4/1 New York City Makes The Cycling Grade, Bicycle Retailer & Industry News

3/30 Less Traffic, a More Livable City, New York Times

3/29 Pedal Revolution, In These Times

3/29 Mayor Defends Out-of-Towner Toll Proposal, Daily News

3/26 Mayor Sets a New Tone, Pushing Drivers Toward Mass Transit, New York Times

3/18 Dummy Cameras Coming, Newsday

3/17 New Arena for Cars vs. Pedestrians: The Sidewalk, New York Times

3/6 Downtowners split on East River bridge tolls, Downtown Express

3/3 Tolls on East River Bridges? Not in Their Backyard, New York Times

3/1 City Driven To Push A.M. Car Pools, Daily News

2/25 Brooklyn Bridge ready to battle over Bloomin' bridge tolls, The Park Slope Paper

2/19 Pol Raps Car Policy, Daily News

2/19 Councilman targets carpooling, Staten Island Advance

2/18 A Walk on the Wild Side: City's streets a big threat to pedestrians, Daily News

2/15 Mayor Looks at Tolls for Bridges on East River, New York Times

2/15 Mike Eyes East River Tolls: Bloomberg weighs charging drivers to use four bridges, Daily News

2/15 Plan Would Take Toll on Bridges, Newsday

2/15 Bloomy's Budget Taking a 'Toll' on East River Bridges, New York Post

2/15 Bloomberg Proposes Tolls For Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and Queensboro Bridges, NY1

2/14 East River Bridge Tolls, CBS 2

2/14 Dangerous Intersections, Fox 5

2/14 East River Bridge Tolls, Bloomberg Radio

1/25 Makeover for WTC Area? Plants, open air and light, Daily News

1/23 7% Drop in Accidents, But traffic deaths increase slightly, Daily News

1/18 Gifted Gifford, The New City Council Speaker: So What's Miller Mulling Over?, On the Line, WNYC Radio

1/17-23 Pelham Parkway intersection named to "deadliest" list, The Bronx Times Reporter

1/15 Traffic trouble zone: Beep pushes safe routes in University Heights, Daily News

1/11-17 Residents Protest Another Dangerous Crossing, Queens Tribune

1/9-15 Think Queens Blvd. Is The Borough’s Most Dangerous Road? Think Again. Residents Demand More Safety Controls on Northern Blvd., Queens Courier

1/7 Dangerous Bronx intersections named, News 12

1/6 Danger Is Lurking Where Speed And Thickets of Humanity Meet, New York Times

1/3 It's All Aboard, if They'll Fit, as Sept. 11 Jolts Mass Transit, New York Times

12/29 Police Release Driver of Van as a 7th Accident Victim Dies, New York Times

12/29 7th Crash Victim Dies: Survivors angry runaway van's driver wasn't charged, Daily News

12/28 7 Killed in Herald Square by Out-of-Control Van, New York Times

12/20 Review and Comment: Calming & Contradiction, Brooklyn Heights Press and Cobble Hill News

12/10 Car Flips Over Inside Prospect Park, Park Slope Courier

12/3 Technology Desk: IT, Marketplace

11/26 Parking Garages Suffer From Manhattan Security Rules, New York Times

11/12 For the New Mayor, a City's Advice on Challenges That Must Be Faced, New York Times

11/5 Park Advocates Jeer Winter Traffic, Park Slope Courier

10/22 THE ROAD BACK: NYC Bike Riding Up 50% Since Sept. 11, Wall Street Journal

10/15 Downtown commuter woes need fix: Pressure building for new bus lanes; many fear job losses because of PATH, Crain's New York Business

10/5 Trade-Off by Environmentalists on Rebuilding, New York Times

10/1 Cycling in a New World, Bicycle Wire

9/27 Off Limits to Solo Drivers, New York Post

9/27 Transit System Faces Tough Test, Newsday

9/19 Commute Eases, With Mass Transit: Holiday helps trim gridlock, Daily News

More Quotes...

Donations Wish List

Help cycling and walking and get a tax deduction. Donate to T.A. We need:

-Pentium II or better PCs
-Laptop computer (P 100+)
-Digital Camera
-Good chairs for conf. table or desks
-Computer Projector

Contact Matt: info@transalt.org

Do Your Part for Safer Streets!  Report:

Potholes and Hazards:
212-CALLDOT (hit 0 to speak with a human) or report them online at transalt.org/hazard  

Sidewalk obstructions: Mayor’s Quality of Life Hotline at 888-677-LIFE/5433

Read more about T.A.'s work to reduce street hazards at transalt.org/haz

Report Dangerous Cabs: 212-221-TAXI or report them online.

Read more about T.A.'s work to make cabs safer for pedestrians and cyclists at transalt.org/cabs

The T.A. Bulletin is a bi-weekly publication of Transportation Alternatives.

Transportation Alternatives is a 5000-member NYC-area non-profit citizens group working for better bicycling, walking and public transit, and fewer cars. We work for safer, calmer neighborhood streets and car-free parks. Join T.A. today!

Week of May 6, 2002

Bike Week NYC
May 12-19, 2002

Celebrate bicycling in New York City!

Commuter Breakfasts & Snacks | Commuter Race | Bike Rodeo | Bicycle Film Festival | Rides, Rides, Rides | And so much more ...

April Showers Bring Bounty of May Bicycle Culture

Bike Week hasn't even started even yet and New Yorkers are already enjoying a huge serving of bicycle culture--and fabulous weather. Last weekend, cycling entrepreneur Glen Goldstein rolled out the 3rd Annual NYC Bike Show at the Penn Plaza Pavilion across from Madison Square Garden. And on Sunday, Bike New York filled city streets with 30,000 cyclists of all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities. Meanwhile, thanks to the NYC DOT, Bike Week posters, featuring the beautiful paintings of Taliah Lempert (bicyclepaintings.com) are blooming at bus stops around the city. It's time get on the bike and enjoy a front row seat to the greatest street show on earth--New York City.

Check out the full listing of upcoming Bike Week events or volunteer.

Mayor Bloomberg, Are You Seeking a Permanent Carpool Rule and Tolls on East River Bridges?

Traffic into Manhattan on the Queensboro Bridge, Midtown Tunnel and Lincoln Tunnel has increased 15% or more since the Carpool Rule was removed from them on April 22nd. However, at the moment, it's not clear how much more traffic is entering Manhattan or what the long-term future of the Carpool Rule is. The current word is that the mayor intends to keep the Carpool Rule in place for the next two years on the Holland Tunnel, Battery Tunnel and Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges. This said, the Mayor has yet to feel the kind of pressure from major downtown business interests necessary to lift the Rule. T.A. is concerned that the City is not seeking state legislation to give it the power to impose the Carpool Rule on bridges and tunnels entering NYC; the City has also neglected to articulate any policy statement on the future of the issue.

No Word of City Toll Study

Likewise, since February's headlines about the mayor seeking tolls on East and Harlem River Bridges, there has been total silence on the matter from City Hall and the Department of Transportation. It seems that none of the agencies involved--the NYC DOT, City Planning and the Economic Development Corp.--are preparing a plan or study that explains exactly how tolls would work. Such a document is a mandatory political pre-requisite to the City winning permission from the state legislature and governor for tolls. A good study would cost about $2 million and take more than a year to complete. The Mayor's budget projects raising money from tolls beginning in 2004. That means that the City needs to get work underway soon if it intends to hire a consultant and go through the laborious contracting process.

City Carpool Study Missing in Action

In February, supporters and detractors of the mayor's Carpool Rule were engaged in political fisticuffs. T.A. and the Straphangers Campaign faced-off with opponents of the Carpool Rule led by the parking garage industry and Queens Councilmember David Weprin. The two sides battled with reports, op/ed pieces, editorials and TV debates. However, missing from the heated debate was an official City document establishing the benefits of the Rule and rebutting a slip-shod parking garage industry study. In the absence of a City analysis, the parking garage study, flawed as it was, became the conventional wisdom. Days and then weeks ticked by but the City's official response, a study commissioned by the Department of Transportation from the consulting firm URS was still missing from the debate. Alarmed by the DOT's inability to make its case for the Carpool Rule, T.A. and Straphangers commissioned a response by Schaller Associates that methodically demolished the parking garage study. Our "Preliminary Analysis of the 'Car Pool Rule' in New York City" was released on February 28. It took a week and a few thousand dollars and was politically timely. It's now May, and the DOT's study is still unreleased - long after it has lost most of its political relevance. Hopefully, the Mayor and DOT will learn from this embarrassment as they advocate for bridge tolls.

Read the full 'Carpool Rule' report or read more about this issue.

"Low Quality" Ticketing for Cycling:
Bike Lane Ticketing

Police in Midtown Manhattan are again summonsing cyclists for riding outside of the bike lane. Unfortunately, New York State's Vehicle and Traffic Law Sec 1234 (a) requires bicycles to be ridden in a bicycle lane when it is provided ( Read the full text of the law as featured in the Summer 2001 issue of the T.A. Magazine). Despite the impression given by the recent spate of ticketing, this absurd state law is very rarely enforced in New York City. This said, every spring, some new bike cops summons 20-30 cyclists for riding outside the lane. It takes T.A. a week or two to get them to stop depending on how specific the information we get is. Recently, top police traffic commanders have told cops to focus on saving lives and improving safety by issuing more "high quality" summonses to motorists, like speeding tickets.

To stop this ticketing we need your help:

If you get a ticket for riding outside of the bike lane please email bike@transalt.org with the:
1. Name and Precinct of the summonsing officer
2. Time and location of the summons

If you get a ticket, fight it

T.A. urges you to plead "not guilty" and get a hearing before a traffic judge. Prepare for the hearing by reading the text of the law and getting a photograph of cars and trucks blocking the bike lane--best is where you got the ticket, but any lane is better than nothing. T.A. will post pictures of blocked bike lane like this on our Web site within the month.

Sorry, we cannot represent you in court. More than 20,000 bicycle summonses are handed out each year in Midtown Manhattan alone. Fighting even a tiny portion of these would overwhelm us.

Stopping this ticketing longer term
Along with responding to complaints from the cycling public, T.A. is doing two things to get the cops to stop enforcing this ridiculous law:
1. We've requested that the newly-formed NYPD Transportation Bureau be given the authority to develop a city-wide bicycle enforcement protocol that emphasizes stopping the most dangerous cycling behavior: sidewalk and wrongway riding first, red light running second. We have also asked that the new protocol deem issuing riding-out-of-bike-lane summonses as counter-productive. Police brass seem receptive, but this wouldn't make a difference on the street for months.
2. We've contacted the training officers for the police commands in Manhattan South of 60th Street and asked them to train their bike cops to stop issuing riding-out-of-bike-lanes summonses.

Getting rid of this absurd law

If the mandatory bike lane rule was a NYC law, we'd have a good chance of changing it. But since it's a state law, it's essentially hopeless. The State DOT has told T.A. repeatedly that it opposes changing the law and upstate lawmakers do not comprehend NYC, let alone bicycling in it. Our conclusion is that our best hope is to educate our local cops.

Read the text of the law or read more about bike lanes.

T.A. Sounds Alarm (again) About Fleet Week Chaos on Hudson River Greenway

May 22nd to 28th is Fleet Week in New York City. Thousands of sailors and their families will jam the Hudson River waterfront at Pier 86. Last year was the first time that the Hudson River Greenway was open simultaneously with Fleet Week and the result was total chaos. For an entire week, throngs of sailors and well-wishers plus police vehicles made the greenway impassable between 38th and 50th Streets. Horrendously, no provisions were made for path users and sothousands of cyclists, joggers, skaters and other travelers were forced to wade into heavy traffic on Route 9A. Miraculously, no one was killed or severely injured. In January of this year, T.A. wrote the State DOT, NYC DOT, Office of Emergency Management, NYPD and Parks Department and asked them to prepare early for Fleet Week. Some of the agencies responded, including City DOT, which recommended creating a more coordinated agency planning effort. Unfortunately, five months have elapsed, Fleet Week is only a few weeks away and still nothing has been done.

T.A. recommendations

1. Hold coordinating meeting with key agencies ASAP. Include T.A. and Hudson River Park Trust.

2. Set aside the western-most lane of Route 9A between 35th and 50th Streets from May 22nd to May 28th as a detour route for greenway users. Post clear, prominent signage that explains what the detour is for and asks Fleet Week visitors not to wander around in it. NYPD and NYC DOT.

3. Make provisions for Fleet Week-related buses to stop outside of the bike/ped detour or on the East Side of Route 9A. Do not allow buses to discharge passengers or park in the detour lane. NYPD and NYC DOT.

4. Station ample numbers of police officers to keep throngs moving and detour route clear. NYPD.

Read more about T.A.'s work for greenways.

Mayor's Cut in Municipal Parking Permits: Enrages Community Board Motor Heads on SI

Earlier this year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked the City Department of Transportation (DOT) to cut the number of Unrestricted DOT Parking Permits it issues to municipal workers by 30 percent. The measure is aimed at reducing congestion--especially in Lower Manhattan--by reducing the number of cars on the road. Progress reducing this irrational, traffic-generating perk has been made, and by June the number of unrestricted DOT parking permits will have been reduced by 3,941 from 14,598 to 10,657--a reduction of 27%. The permits allow parking next to meters for several hours without paying as well as and in city agency and no-standing zones.

Each community board in the city lost one of the two permits it had previously been issued. The board chairmen and district managers had each gotten one.
On Staten Island, petulant Community Board Chairmen said they will no longer attend agency meetings on the Island because they then would have to pay for parking. The Island chairmen--Community Board 1's George Caputo, Lou Caravone of Board 2 and Board 3's John Antoniello called the loss of the parking permits a "slap in the face," "disrespectful" and "offensive." However Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro was unmoved and asked (referring to the permits) "When would you need it on Staten Island?" His office receives two permits from City Hall and Molinaro said he has never used his in the borough.

Unfortunately, the DOT's overall reduction of near 4,000 permits, though welcome, is almost inconsequential given that there are 125,000 restricted parking permits, which allow city workers to park in signed areas adjacent to police stations, fire houses, schools and government agencies.

Read more about parking issues.

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Spring 2002 T.A. Magazine  
This issue is currently being mailed to all T.A. members. It includes news on bicycle, pedestrian and car-free Central Park and Prospect Park, sensible transportation, features and much, much more! View the Table of Contents or request a copy!

Selected articles

T.A.'s New "Ride-and-Ride" Bike Parking at SI Transit

Bridge Paths Caged

What Happen' at the Manhattan?

Can You Say "Kosciuszko"?

East River Greenway Grows! And Shrinks ...

Riverside Park Users Asked to Share

Good Mooooooove: DOT Requests Two Million in FEMA Emergency Dollars for Bollards

Discourteous, Unprofessional, Disrespectful: Remove Police Cars from Sidewalks

New Jersey - GWB Link to Palisades

Take Action

T.A. has many volunteer opportunities.  Please visit our site to learn more about how you can help.  Come to Volunteer Night, Wednesday, May 8th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207). Free snacks, beer, and scintillating conversation!