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BikeMonthNYC
Come to the Volunteer Magazine Mailing Party, Wednesday, May 26th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207)! Free beer, pizza, soda, snacks and scintillating conversation.
T.A. In the News Latest
T.A. News 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. Valet Bike Parking Volunteers Needed Volunteer to provide valet bike parking at events throughout the year. Register online to express your interest in this opportunity. T.A. still has two open internships:
- Advocacy
(work with T.A. program staff) Please visit transalt.org/intern for more information. Donations Wish List Help cycling and walking and get a tax deduction. Donate to T.A. We need: -Pentium II or better
PCs Contact Matt: info@transalt.org
Do Your Part for Safer Streets! Report: Potholes
and Hazards: Sidewalk
obstructions: Mayor’s Quality of Life Hotline at 888-677-LIFE/
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. The Bulletin has 26,000 subscribers. Transportation Alternatives is a 5,000-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!
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Whenever a child is killed by a car or truck it is a tragedy. But how often are such tragedies considered preventable and subject to accountability? When a driver is drunk? Certainly. But what if the driver was driving just above the speed limit? Deaths in this and similar situations, while tragic, are not usually deemed preventable.
Must a driver be drunk to label the "accident" preventable? Must a street see hundreds of severe injuries and scores of deaths before the City implements robust design measures? It is time for the City to universally apply proven traffic safeguards and hold drivers and traffic engineers accountable. As New York citizens and twenty two Council members clamor for a car alarm ban, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller has remained strangely inert. Although he promised The New York Times in December 2003 that he would schedule a final hearing on the bill to ban car alarms, Miller has not followed through. T.A. recently received a letter Miller sent to a concerned citizen that sheds light on his position. He writes:
We applaud Miller for speaking out against car alarms. But the "legal and practical hurdles" he describes are easily surmountable.
Myth:
"... if the Council were to pass a law completely banning audible car alarms, it
would be nearly impossible for the vast majority of car owners to comply." Myth:
People from outside of New York City who use car alarms in the city "would be
subject to a law that is not binding in their home jurisdiction...."
Name:
Please include your full contact information so that your message will be treated as official correspondence! Your message will be faxed to Speaker Gifford Miller and e-mailed to Transportation Alternatives. If your e-mail program does not support forms, please visit this page online: transalt.org/press/askta/040520.html#fax
On May 17, Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro hosted a bike commuter breakfast on the Staten Island Ferry. Thanks to the Borough President and his staff for celebrating Bike Month NYC with his borough's cyclists! T.A. awarded the Borough President Molinaro with the "Friend of City Cyclists" award, and the Borough President issued a Bike Month proclamation. Don’t miss the chance to celebrate bicycling with your Borough President!
See www.bikemonthnyc.org for a full schedule of events. Bicycle Commuting
I
was pleased to
read that a bicycle commuter
got to work faster than a taxi or subway rider.
Julia C.
Could you please provide me with information regarding safe bike parking at Shea? I bike to Shea every opening day, but usually stash my bike in a friend's car. Though I’m interested in Bike To Shea Day on May 23, I'm looking to bike there on another date but will only do so if I can park the bicycle safely. Any information you could provide would be appreciated. Andrew N. T.A. Response: May 23's Bike to Shea Day will include free valet bike parking, i.e. people will watch your bike during the game. Call 311 to register.The DOT and Parks Department are discussing the installation of bike racks at Shea. I suggest you cheer them on by writing to the Parks Commissioner: Commissioner Adrian Benepe
Last night I heard that the City is repaving every midtown street to prepare for the Republican Convention. This was very disappointing news after riding down Flushing Avenue (next to the Brooklyn Navy Yard) during my commute north along the Brooklyn waterfront. The condition of this road, between Cumberland and Clymer streets, is appalling. The only smooth (and I use that term very liberally) stretch of pavement requires a cyclist to ride down the center of two lanes of traffic. What can I do to get this road repaired? Or, better yet, is there any way to push for a bike lane along or within the Navy Yard? It sure looks like there is room to spare. Alex L. T.A. Response: Regarding the paving, you can write to the Department of Transportation's Brooklyn Borough Commissioner and ask that the DOT repave Flushing Avenue. Flushing is a truck route and takes a serious beating.Regarding the bike lanes, there is a local organization called the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway Initiative (www.brooklyngreenway.org) advocating for the construction of a greenway path from Greenpoint to Sunset Park. T.A. supports their effort. Bike lanes on Flushing are part of their short term plan. You can contact them directly to get more involved with creating the greenway.
As a regular user of Prospect Park (I'm a biker), it is my observation that the evening car-free time actually starts between 7:15 and 7:20 rather than 7:00. It seems that a single Parks Department employee is charged with putting the barriers in place so the closing process does not start on time and it takes 15-20 minutes for the official to make the circuit to close the entrances. S.G. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Take Action
Advocacy Committeess Brooklyn@transalt.org Centralpark@transalt.org Gowanus@transalt.org Citywide: |
RALLY AGAINST CAR ALARMS Last September, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller promised us a hearing on the legislation to ban car alarms. Eight months later, he has done nothing but stall, defer, ignore and obstruct this bill, while the useless sirens continue. We've had enough. On Tuesday, May 25th at noon, please join us for a rally at City Hall to demand that Miller ban car alarms! We will march silently, holding signs and wearing noise-blocking ear muffs. Come spend your lunch break making New York a quieter, better city!
Date: Tuesday, May
25 If you think you can come, please e-mail af@transalt.org and we'll make sure you have a sign to carry. We hope to see you there!
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Why Not the Best for the Big Apple?
Thumbs Up to DOT's New "Shared Lane" Bike Markings
New Bike Lanes in Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn Still Waiting
T.A. Wins Removal of Greenway Stop Signs
Houston Street Rebuild: Once in a Century Chance for Greatness
City Council's Weak Vendor Box Law is Failing NYC Pedestrians
Daily News Gets Governor to Join Fight against Killer Drivers TAKE
THE TOUR!
MAD AS HELL? DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Call the Mayor's Quality of Life Action Line (real people 24 hrs a day): 888-677-5433 or 888-677-LIFE. POTHOLES, STREET HAZARDS GOT YOU IN A RUT? Call DOT at 212-225-5368 and hit 0 to skip the message and speak with a
human. You can also report them online at transalt.org/ STAY SMART & INFORMED Savvy
transit riders get their lowdown on the subways here: Sensible
Transport Junkies::  The daily Gotham Gazette: gothamgazette .org NYC News summaries and savvy commentary. Bikes
in Bogota? Car-Free Cartagena? Tel-Aviv by Train?
Give on-line at transalt.org/join Quick!
What's your city council GET THERE!
Check our maps page for links to NYC-area bicycle and transit maps. RIDES AND WALKS
Visit www. for a list of more than 100 bike rides in May! |
5/18
5/18 
5/17 
5/16
5/14
5/8
5/6 
Traffic
Safety and the Time of Cholera 
In
the early nineteenth century, Cholera routinely killed New Yorkers. Despite
growing consensus among medical professionals about effective ways to prevent
such deaths at the time, city government was unwilling to assume the cost of
preventative methods, save the occasional ad hoc quarantine. Eventually, as it
became clear to the public at large that such deaths were almost entirely
preventable, politicians’ hands were forced to apply higher standards of hygiene
and undertake citywide infrastructural improvements to city sanitation and water
supply systems. Deaths were driven to near zero. Today, even only a few cholera
deaths per year are totally unacceptable. 
Last month, at a press
conference, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the City would fix Queens
Boulevard hazards until, "we can drive the amount of fatalities all the way down
to zero." Yet the City is not applying the same measures it has prescribed for
Queens Boulevard to other streets and intersections around New York City.
Similarly,
the City has yet to universally
apply speed humps and other proven effective
traffic calming measures around every school in New York City. What speed humps
and other traffic safety measures have in common is that they prevent deaths and
serious injury even when drivers are acting less than perfect. 
"I
support [the ban on the operation of car alarms] because I personally believe
that the harm caused by these alarms far exceeds any theft deterrence they might
provide to individual owners. However, because the Council’s legal jurisdiction
does not extend beyond the five boroughs, we face legal and practical hurdles in
passing such a law."
Car
Alarm Myths
Read more about
**Friday, May 21st is also
GAME: See the New York Mets play the Colorado Rockies. Free valet bike parking
during the game! Buy your tickets at 718-507-TIXX and ask for "Bike to Shea
Day." Call 311 and ask for the DOT Bike Program to RSVP.
I commute by bike from Jackson
Heights, Queens to east Midtown Manhattan. I can attest to the fact that my
commute is faster by bike than by either taxi or subway. By bike, my commute is
26 minutes. By taxi (assuming I can get one since yellow cabs rarely cruise my
neighborhood) is 41 minutes and by subway (door to door) is 47 minutes. 
Safe
Bike Parking at Shea Stadium 
Repaving
and Bike Lanes 
Prospect
Park 
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