Specifically, the study is finding that residents living on "high" traffic streets are more likely keep their children indoors and participate in fewer outdoor activities compared to people who live on "medium" and "low" traffic streets. The study is also finding that residents on high-traffic streets are more fearful of traffic and speeding, and in at least two study areas, possess fewer friends compared to residents on low and medium-traffic streets.

T.A.'s team of 17 researchers interviewed over 450 residents in Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, Astoria in Queens, Chinatown in Manhattan and High Bridge in the Bronx. In each of the four neighborhoods, they interviewed residents on high (over 5,000 vehicles per day) medium (between 2,000 and 3,000 vehicles per day) and low (less than 1,000 vehicles per day) volume streets. The study will conclude in April after 150 additional interviews have been completed in these neighborhoods.

Download the preliminary results of the study (PDF 1.6 M)

To receive the full study when it is released in April, email info@transalt.org.

Last fall, the NYPD's 9th Precinct in Manhattan's East Village started an exemplary program to tag and clear abandoned bikes from bike racks, street signposts, parking meters, trees and other street fixtures.

Police officers affix tags to suspected abandoned bicycles, informing the owner that the bike will be removed in two weeks. Officers tag bikes that have elicited complaints or show signs of abandonment like stripped parts, flat tires, rusted chains or a layer of dirt. If the owner does not remove the bike by the end of the two-week period, the NYPD and the Department of Sanitation clip the lock and Sanitation carts the bike away.

This commonsense program allows people to park their bikes at bike racks and City-owned street fixtures, only removes bikes that are clearly abandoned and gives adequate notice before removing them. Abandoned bikes take up valuable bike parking spaces and can block the sidewalk.

The NYPD should immediately expand the 9th Precinct's program to other neighborhoods fraught with abandoned bikes, starting with the 94th Precinct in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where, this fall, officers removed over a dozen bikes without warning or notice.

These ads are a big first step in an education campaign that will help stigmatize speeding and lead the way towards necessary changes in enforcement and engineering to reduce reckless driving.

In January, the NYC Department of City Planning released "The State of Cycling in New York City," a report based on a public forum held during Bike Month 2005 to solicit comments about cycling in the city. The goal of the forum was to gather information and opinions from cyclists about the best and worst aspects of cycling in the city.

At the event, City Planning staff asked participants to submit three positive comments and three negative comments about the following five categories: safety, government, design, bicycle facilities and miscellaneous.

Participants raved about car-free greenways paths and car-free parks, but berated drivers' rampant disrespect of bike lanes, the lack of motorist enforcement and government's deference to cars and drivers.

Top Five Positive Issues

Top Five Negative Issues

It is yet to be seen what actions the City will take in reaction to the comments elicited in the report.

The report is available on City Planning's website.

At the gala opening of the Livable Streets exhibit, Councilmember John Liu said the time is overdue for New York City to create more pedestrian and bike friendly streets. Photo courtesy Sam Chadwick Photography

See the short 5 minute video of the gala opening of Livable Streets: A New Vision for New York

See a sampling of the exhibit boards (PDF 5.5M)

Here is what you can do to make Livable Streets a reality:

1. Go to nycstreets.org and sign-up as a supporter of the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign.
   
   
2. Email info@transalt.org to say that you want to sponsor your own living-room screening of the new documentary film, Contested Streets: Breaking NYC Gridlock. See the film trailer here.
   
   
3. If you represent a community or business group, go to trafficrelief.org and register your group as a supporter of the Charter for Citywide Traffic Relief.
   
   
4. Write a personal letter to Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, City Hall New York, NY 10007, and urge him to support wider sidewalks, more on-street greenways and traffic calming, and to adopt more far-sighted street performance and transportation goals (PDF) in 2006.

See a full listing of Livable Streets events.

2/23, 8:30-10 am  Better Streets = Better Business: How to Attract the Walking Shopper

2/27, 6:30-8 pm  Broadway as a Destination

Events are at the Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue, Manhattan
Please RSVP for all events you plan to attend at rsvp@mas.org or 212-935-2075.

Join Times Up! and fellow cyclists at the precinct's monthly community meeting to ask for heightened enforcement of traffic laws that keep streets safe. Motorists who run red lights, speed, drive and park in bike lanes, and tailgate, cutoff and "door" cyclists pose a serious safety hazard.

The 13th Precinct covers 29th to 14th Street, between Seventh Avenue and the FDR. They are responsible for enforcing portions of the Broadway and 5th and 6th Avenue bike lanes.

A Special Advocacy Program at the Municipal Art Society
457 Madison Avenue
March 1st, 8:30 - 10am

Click on the flyer at right for more details:

The Bike Film Fest is a celebration of bicycles through film, art and music. We screen a wide range of material from the highly produced feature to the unique first time short.

The Bike Film Fest will be held in New York City May 10-14th at the legendary Anthology Film Archives. The Festival will then tour to Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Melbourne, Sydney, San Francisco, Tokyo and Kyoto. Last year's Festival was a lot of fun and was attended by over 15,000 enthusiastic people.

For more info please visit bicyclefilmfestival.com.

Help make Bike Month NYC 2006 the biggest and best ever. If you're already an avid cyclist and love to organize events or have a group or bike related business you'd like to promote you can plan a Bike Month NYC event and list it for free in the Bike Month NYC calendar.

Register by March 6th and be listed both online and in our print calendar which is distributed to area bike shops and at events throughout April and May. Find out more and register your event today at BikeMonthNYC.org or email events@transalt.org.

This weekend's blizzard had at least one benefit: you now have another opportunity to tour the proposed Queens East River and North Shore Greenway!

Join T.A. and the Partnership for Parks' Astoria and Long Island City Waterfront Parks Catalyst Project on a bike tour of the planned Queens East River Greenway. See the proposed route up close and get inspired to help make it a reality. Ride the planned greenway and neighborhood streets and visit Queensbridge, Rainey, Socrates, Astoria and Ralph Demarco Parks, which will all be connected by this new waterfront greenway.

If you haven't already done so, please RSVP for the ride via email at bike@transalt.org. To learn more about what is happening on the Queens waterfront, visit astoriawaterfront.org.

In the event of inclement weather, the ride will be rescheduled for Sunday, February 26th, at 1 pm.

Beer, wine and light hors d'oeuvres. Tickets $45 each.
Limited space available. RSVP to events@transalt.org.

Make checks payable and mail to:
Transportation Alternatives
127 W. 26th Street Suite 1002
New York, NY 10001
(Please note Peñalosa Reception in pay memo) or pay at the door via check or credit card.

Truck Traffic Needs Work, Critics Say as Study Lags New York Times 2/15

Is City Traffic Killing Your Love Life? Village Voice 2/14

How Should the City Keep Truckin' gothamist 2/14

News Focus: TA's Graham Beck on a Car-Free Central Park WKCR Columbia Radio 2/13

Letter to the Editor: Into the Snow (and Where Did the Cars Go?) New York Times 2/13

Tix Blitz a Big Yikes for Bikes New York Post 2/12

Chinatown's Police Parking Complaints Captured on Video Downtown Express 2/10

Living on the Street The New York Observer 2/10

Livable Streets: A New Vision For New York City Spacing Wire 2/10

Up Next: Exhibit... Manhattan User's Guide 2/9

Congestion Pricing Advocates Take New Tacks To Drum Up Interest New York Sun 2/8

Event of the Week: Streets for People Gotham Gazette 2/10

Aiming To Influence City Development, Group Opens 'Livable Streets' Exhibit New York Sun 2/1

Reinventing the Avenue gothamist 1/31

New York Stalls on Traffic Charging Financial Times 1/31