Piecemeal still?

So with our "new" DOT commish why does it still seem like we are getting piecemeal projects? And those projects don't seem to be some of the things that NYC advocates have been working on for quite some time. I propose that it is time to give some of these homegrown ideas a chance. Here are a few:

Vision42









Carfree Bedford



















Gapco















Are these worth pursuing?

LA Times covers the Anarchy in NYC streets

Great article that really gets to the heart of the matter.

Still, Manhattan's jam-packed streets often resemble a battleground between bike messengers, car commuters, delivery boys, jaywalkers, limousine chauffeurs and taxi drivers. A few years ago, New York Post columnist Steve Dunleavy described a "civil war" on the streets, referring to bicyclists as "pedal punks" and "kamikaze bike bullies."

"This is a moment when everything can happen," he said, referring to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's willingness to work with the cyclists and the increasing number of cyclists on the streets. "But," he added, "there are some serious cultural structures that have to be dismantled."

As the second quote demonstrates, we are not going to get very far if there is not a cultural shift towards cyclists in NYC.

Just one?

Here is an article in the mainstream press about getting down to one car (or no car). I found it interesting and pretty informative overall. Here is an excerpt:

Further, cities and states have real incentive to invest in trains and buses. Studies show that property values -- read tax bases -- grow rapidly when public rail systems are built. One report found that the value of homes in one Dallas neighborhood doubled when a light-rail system was built nearby.

"City after city is finding that good public transit is good economic strategy," Millar says, adding that there is a 6:1 return on federal dollars invested in public rail systems. Public transit systems in Los Angeles, Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Dallas and Minneapolis have cleaned up their dirty, low-rent images of the 1970s and '80s, and are investing in slick technology to make them even more appealing. (For example, San Francisco's BART system now allows downloads of schedules and maps to iPods.)

I think the more we can rely on public transit and each other, we will make more progress. I have been car free for about 7 years now and intend to stay that way. While it is easier to be car free in a city like NYC, when ever I visit or think of where else I could live, one of the top priorities is being car free.

Here is Bloomberg's comments on the gas tax

League of American Bicyclists new rankings

Here are the current ranking from League of American Bicyclists.

The new Bicycle Friendly Communities are:

Silver
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Durango, Colo.
Minneapolis, Minn.

Bronze
Arcata, Calif.
Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Charlotte, N.C.
Charlottesville, Va.
Coeur d'Alene, Id
Oxford, Miss.
Port Townsend, Wash.
Sitka, AK.

Eleven communities renewed their designation at the same level, with one exceptional standout, Portland, Oregon, which moved up from gold to platinum. These communities are:

Platinum
Portland, Ore.

Gold
Madison, Wis.
Tucson/East Pima Region, Ariz.

Silver
Bellingham, Wash.
Missoula, Mont.

Bronze
Albuquerque, N.M.
Ashland, Ore.
Gilbert, Ariz.
Longmont, Colo.
South Sioux City, Neb.
Sunnyvale, Calif.

Looks like Portland continues to be the Golden Standard in the US. I noticed that Madison is a gold while Minneapolis (which I visited recently) is in the Silver category. Even more interesting is the lack of any large cities (NYC, Chicago).

Red Hook bike master plan

Might toss my hat in the ring for this as well. Master Plan for Red Hook sounds like a fun project.

Wild in the Streets

Here is a good article about the daily battle between motorist and cyclist on the streets of NYC.

On streets clogged by pollution-emitting cars, buses and trucks, New York City’s quest to establish reasonably safe cycling paths by adding to its roughly 300 miles of bicycle lanes has been welcomed by cyclists. But the lanes are often battlegrounds between cyclists and drivers who seem undeterred by the clearly demarcated paths.

Although city regulations forbid cars from blocking bike lanes — a violation that carries a $115 fine — those rules are routinely ignored by drivers who use the lanes as parking spots, loading zones and places to pick up passengers. Such maneuvers have enraged cyclists who say they are unlawful, rude and dangerous.

As the article points out that we are far from finding some kind of common ground between the two users of the street. Both see its function as fundamentally different (something I am looking at in my study). I think these quotes from the article demonstrate the point.

On Second Avenue, Lynn Roman, a 42-year-old construction company employee, sat behind the wheel of a gray Toyota Land Cruiser just north of St. Mark’s Place. Ms. Roman said she planned to be there only briefly while a passenger ran an errand but added that she rarely paid attention to bike lanes.

“I have other things on my mind,” she said. “This is the city. Bike lanes belong in parks.”

A few moments later, Jon Weiner, 34, a sound engineer from TriBeCa who was riding a BMX bike, said he had come to expect a cavalier attitude from drivers in bike lanes.

“A lot of them don’t seem to have any idea that they’re doing it,” he said. “And if they do they don’t care.”

Over the past few weeks I have had conversations with many cyclists and some feel that no matter how much bike infrastructure the city builds, until we can have a change in the perception of biking in the city as a good thing, changes are not going to have that great of an effect.

Visioning a Greenway

Well after seeing what Minneapolis did to its old train tracks it got me thinking about the rail line that runs through Brooklyn and Queens that is the old Bayridge LIRR line. Old NYC has some great pictures of the line. Here are just a few:

The question is what would be the best use of this line. Would it make for a great bike and pedestrian trail, Light rail Line, Bus Line, Nature trail, or some combination? It seems that the possibilities are endless and with the right support and infrastructure this old rail line can be a new great urban space. The highline part II.