NYCcentury.org
Choose Your Distance, Ride Your Pace. Early registration discounts end July 31st. Save $15! Register today or sign up to volunteer or marshal!

Come to the Mailing Party, Wednesday, June 26th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207). Free snacks, beer and scintillating conversation!

Special Events/Volunteer Coordinator

The special events intern will work alongside T.A. staff and learn the ins and outs of event organizing. For more information on this internship, visit our Web site at transalt.org/jobs.

Environmental Transportation Advocate

Experienced public interest advocate needed for T.A.’s cutting-edge NYC environmental transportation campaigning. Will manage pedestrian, traffic calming and car-free parks advocacy. Must have excellent writing skills, post-graduate political and/or advocacy experience and the ability to work both on policy issues and community coalition building. Salary $30k-$40k to start. E-mail and postal mail only. No phone calls please. Send cover letter (important) and resumé to Transportation Alternatives, 115 West 30th Street, Rm. 1207 NYC 10001 or info@transalt.org. Please do not attach Word documents--plain text or pdf only.

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.

Bike Counts Coordinator Needed

T.A. needs a responsible volunteer to take the reins of the East River Bridge Count project for the summer. Responsibilities include organizing monthly bike and pedestrian counts, collecting count sheets and compiling and presenting the data. Database or spreadsheet skills are a must. East River Bridge Counts are a barometer of cycling activity in the city. The data is also used in efforts to make bridge access safer for cyclists and pedestrians. To apply, contact: bike@transalt.org.

T.A. also needs volunteers to count all those bikes and pedestrians as they cross the Queensboro, Williamsburg, Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The counts take place from 7-10 am, one morning a month. To volunteer, register online.

Valet Bike Parking Coordinator Needed

Organize volunteers to provide valet bike parking at events throughout the year. You are encouraged to seek out events, though not required. Register online to express your interest in this opportunity.

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

7/5 Traffic Accidents, Injuries Down in City, Daily News

7/4 Mayor Acknowledges M.T.A. May Have to Raise Fares in '03, New York Times

6/24 4 Pols Back Trial Of a Car-Free Park, Daily News

6/22 On Bridges, the View Includes Chain Links, New York Times

6/18 Drive Is on to Get City Scooter OK, Daily News

6/13 Group Calling For Car-Free Summer In Central Park, NY1

6/10 A New York Question: Shall We Walk, or Do We Have Time to Take a Bus?, New York Times

6/10 A Slow Burn for Riders: Angry over buses that crawl, Daily News

5/30 Fat fines aim to curb cyclists, Daily News

5/30 Heavy Pedal Fines: New law would hit crazed cyclists, New York Post

5/29 Private garbage trucks are most likely to kill, The Villager

5/21 Two-wheel lovers celebrate river path, Downtown Express

5/16 BP's office marks Bike to Work Week, Staten Island Advance

5/16 Re "Visionaries Dare to Take the Catwalk", New York Times

5/13 Cyclist Beats Car, Train In Race From Brooklyn To Manhattan, NY1

5/13 Weekend Warrior, Daily News

5/7 Step on a crack and break city's back: Mayor wants to make it harder to collect on personal-injury lawsuits, Staten Island Advance

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

5/1 NYC Bike Week Returns This Month, Metro Sports

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. E-Bulletin is a bi-weekly publication of Transportation Alternatives. The T.A. E-Bulletin has 16,000 subscribers.

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 June 24, 2002

Wake Up America! Wake Up NY! It's for Real!

Four million acres of Alaska spruce forest is dead from insect infestation, tundra is melting and the Alaskan temperature has risen seven degrees in just 30 years. Meanwhile, the largest fires in recorded history are burning in the Western U.S., mountain meadows are disappearing, coral reefs are dying and deserts expanding. 2001 and 1998 were the hottest years on record globally. 

Even the Bush administration (President: oil company owner; Vice President: CEO of an oil company; Chief of Staff: executive at General Motors) admits that burning carbon based fuels like oil and gas is causing global warming. Yet the Bush administration and Congress are doing nothing about it--including nothing to reduce the 1/3 of carbon dioxide emissions caused by motor vehicles. In fact, 2001 was the first year that sales of SUVs and light trucks exceeded passenger cars in the U.S.

Here in New York City--the only U.S. city where car-free households are a majority--land use and transportation rules encourage more parking garages, cheap on-street parking, driving in parks, driving across bicycle paths, widening streets and doing just about everything possible to make motor vehicle use--and greenhouse gas production--easier. Even here, efforts to redistribute street space from cars to busses, bicycles and pedestrians is bitterly resisted. Yes, gains in cycling and the Carpool Rule in Lower Manhattan are encouraging. But NYC is taking baby steps when giant steps are needed.

Read more about reducing automobile dependence.

All Neighboring Councilmembers Support Three Month Car-Free Test in Prospect Park

The five city councilmembers with districts neighboring Prospect Park have endorsed a three month car-free test in Prospect Park. Councilmembers Bill DiBlasio, Yvette Clarke, James Davis, Angel Rodriguez and David Yassky are throwing their weight behind T.A.'s proposal that a carefully monitored test of the costs and benefits of keeping cars out of Prospect Park for three months be conducted this fall. The councilmembers note that DOT's own traffic studies show that keeping cars out of the park would cause few if any traffic problems. This is also the conclusion of leading traffic experts like Sam "Gridlock Sam" Schwartz, former First Deputy Commissioner of the NYC DOT, and former Commissioners Lou Riccio and Elliot Sander.

Read T.A.'s press release and subsequent Daily News quote that appeared on June 24, 2002.

Iris Weinshall, DOT Commissioner, Opposes Car-Free Experiment in Prospect Park

In a disappointing response to the growing support for a three month car-free test in Prospect Park, DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall stated her opposition via an agency spokesperson: Tom Cocola, a spokesman for the city Department of Transportation, told the Daily News, "We just think that it's best to keep it the way it is. We do think there would be problems if the park were made car-free all the time."

Weinshall has lived on Prospect Park West, across the street from the park, for nearly two decades. She recently told T.A. that, because of growing traffic around the park, a car-free experiment will produce significant traffic diversions into surrounding areas. Weinshall seems unaware of the "shrinkage" that has been shown to occur when traffic capacity is reduced. In 1958, Fifth Avenue was closed at Washington Square, creating Washington Square Park. Traffic in the area declined. In 1973, the West Side Highway was closed and traffic both along the highway and in Lower Manhattan declined.

Read more about the Car-Free Prospect Park campaign and send an e-postcard in favor of a car-free park.

Sidewalk Massacres Horrify City

June 22, Cab slams into 11 pedestrians outside Bloomingdales. "The streets are filled with screams and a trail of blood."

In an average year in New York City, motor vehicles kill twelve pedestrians on the sidewalks and injure 250 more. While many of these crashes are an inevitable byproduct of too many motor vehicles, some are preventable. This June, a relentless series of sidewalk crashes drew attention to the City's failure to take action. Inaction is unacceptable and Transportation Alternatives demands that the City do five things to start preventing cars from driving onto sidewalks:

1. Crackdown on speeding in the city’s most pedestrian precincts. Get Highway Units on motorcycles to emphasize the 30 mph speed limit. Time traffic lights to keep speeds 30mph or less. Keep fighting for speed cameras.  Read more on killing speeding in NYC.

2. Place steel protective bollards at every location where a car jumps a curb. Most sidewalk crashes occur at locations where the design of the street, the type of turning traffic and motor vehicle speeds combine to make sidewalk jumping likely.

3. Map sidewalk crashes for the last five years and install bollards at those locations over the next year.

4. Over the course of the next decade, install bollards at corners in areas with a high pedestrian volume: all Manhattan Avenues from 60th street to Canal Street and major retail centers like Steinway Street in Astoria and 5th Avenue in Brooklyn.

5. Create a task force of DOT, NYPD and City Planning experts to analyze sidewalk crashes, find their common features and develop forms of prevention.

NYC's Most Dangerous Place to Be a Pedestrian: The Sidewalk

June 9 Police cruiser jumps curb in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: three pedestrians injured. No charges filed.
June 11 SUV jumps curb on Park Ave. in Midtown: pedestrian loses leg. No charges filed.
June 13 Car crashes into scaffolding on East 47th Street: three pedestrians injured. No charges filed.
June 22 SUV jumps curb in Brownsville, Brooklyn: grandma 46, granddaughter 11 killed; second granddaughter critically injured. No charges filed.
June 23 Cab jumps curb at 60th Street and Lexington: 15 pedestrians injured, 2 critically. No charges filed.

Note: On Wednesday 6/26/02, the NYC City Council will vote on legislation that will increase the already steep fines for bicycling on the sidewalk. No such comparable legislation for driving on the sidewalk is in the works.

Read T.A.'s report on increasing the use of bollards or read more about reclaiming the sidewalks and reducing pedestrian deaths.

Sheldon Silver Blocks More Red Light Cams for NYC

According to an authoritative 1999 report by the NYC Comptroller's Office, motorists run one million red lights a day in NYC. The City Department of Transportation has installed high-tech, digital cameras at 50 locations throughout the city to a reduce this rampage. Now the City DOT and Mayor, supported by T.A., want to put cameras at 10 more locations.

Unfortunately, state legislation allowing this (why does the state have to approve it anyway?) is stalled in the Assembly by Rochester Assemblymember Gantt, who hates red light and speed cameras and chairs the Transportation Committee. His boss, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who represents the Lower East Side and Lower Manhattan, refuses to overrule his wayward subordinate. This is wrong and Silver is doing a disservice to his constituents and all New Yorkers by refusing to support more red light cameras. Last year Silver and company also bottled up an increase in the number of intersections with red light cameras. 

Tell Silver to stop playing games and start supporting safer streets! Even if you sent this letter before, please take the time to send it again. 

---

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

---

Spring 2002 T.A. Magazine  
This issue has been 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 the Mailing Party, Wednesday, June 26th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207). Free snacks, beer, and scintillating conversation!

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 e-mail Mayor Bloomberg.

POTHOLES, STREET HAZARDS GOT YOU IN A RUT?

STAY SMART & INFORMED

Savvy transit riders get their lowdown on the subways here:

straphangers.org
The ultimate source for bus and subway service changes, rider comments and complaints that produce action. Help yourself and T.A.’s favorite transit advocates--check it out.

Sensible Transport Junkies:

Subscribe to the Tri-State Transportation Campaign’s e-weekly, Mobilizing the Region.  tstc.org

The daily Gotham Gazette

Bikes in Bogota? Car-Free Cartagena? Tel-Aviv by Train?

Go global at itdp.org!

Check our maps page for links to NYC-area bicycle and transit maps.

RIDES AND WALKS

Thursday, June 27, 10 am. "Views" ride to Staten Island. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

Friday, June 28, 7 pm. Critical Mass. Union Square Park NORTH (temporary location due to construction). Time's Up!

Saturday, June 29, 9 am. Sagamore Hill. Cunningham Park. 5BBC.

Saturday, June 29, 9:15 am. Sphere in Battery Park. 3rd Annual Missing Links Along the Hudson Bike-Skate Tour. Time's Up!

Saturday, June 29, 10 AM. Brooklyn Queens Greenway, Queens. Take the #7 train to Willets Point-Shea Stadium station. Meet at the circle at the end of the long ramp that leads to Flushing Meadows Park. Take a Walk, New York.

Saturday, June 29, 10 pm. Riverside Ride. Columbus Circle. Time's Up!

Sunday, June 30, 9 am. Hudson River Museum. Plaza Hotel. 5BBC.

Sunday, June 30, 9:30 am. Beach Blanket Bayville. Cunningham Park. 5BBC.

Sunday, June 30, 9 am. Brooklyn Historical Ride. Brooklyn Boro Hall. 5BBC.

Sunday, June 30, 10 am. Greenwich Village to Brooklyn. Outside Path Station, 9th St and 6th Ave. Shorewalkers.

Tuesday, July 2, 10 am. TBA. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

Thursday, July 4, 10 am. TBA. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

Friday, July 5, 10 pm. Central Park Moonlight Ride.  Columbus Circle. Time's Up!

Tuesday, July 9, 10 am. TBA. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

More Rides and Walks...

Note to Hotmail users: Hotmail times out all links after two to three minutes.  If you have trouble following a link, return to your Inbox and click on this message again.