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Come to the Volunteer Mailing Party, Monday, November 24th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207)! Different day than usual to avoid conflict with Thanksgiving travel. Free beer, soda, snacks and scintillating conversation. Bike Rack Review
This fall, the Department of Transportation’s CityRacks program sent bike rack locations to community boards for approval. If you submitted a bike rack request or would like to submit one for Midtown or Manhattan’s East Side, attend one of the below meetings! Community Board 6
(Murray Hill, East Midtown, Stuyvesant Town) Community Board 5
(Midtown)
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 25,000 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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District attorneys, advocates and victims’ families have long known that killer drivers, especially sober ones, rarely face punishment for their crime. But after a motorist killed 15-year old Giulia Lewis while turning on 80th Avenue in Queens on November 5th, the Daily News was spurred to launch a campaign to change the law to make it easier for district attorneys to convict killer drivers. The Daily News featured its campaign, "Save a life, Change the Law" on the front cover of its November 8th paper and in a series of follow-up articles. T.A. has sought new laws governing killer drivers since the early 1990s, but despite concerted work by district attorneys, the legislation has gone nowhere in the State Assembly.
Said T.A. in 1992, "This is insane. The message from our political leaders seems to be that motorists are exempt from laws and moral behavior, and are free to kill and maim at will." Unfortunately, a decade later, nothing has changed.
Hopefully, this new crusade for justice by the Daily News will succeed in pushing the state assembly to finally get killer drivers off the street.
Act now. Fax State Assembly
Speaker Silver and State Senate Leader Bruno using the form below or modify it
as you see fit.
Name:
Your message will also be e-mailed to Transportation Alternatives. If your e-mail program does not support forms, visit this page online to participate: http://www.transalt.org/press/askta/031120.html
To much media fanfare, Transportation Alternatives and the Straphangers Campaign awarded the second annual Pokey Award to the slowest of the most-used bus routes in New York City earlier this month. We also renewed our calls to the Department of Transportation and the MTA New York City Transit to work to boost bus speeds. Transit officials have acknowledged that New York City has the slowest bus speeds in America; they have averaged 7.5 mph in recent years. After the 2002 Pokey Awards, City traffic and transit officials conducted joint field surveys of a number of bus routes and took some modest steps to address some specific route-by-route problems.
B-35 4.6 mph Runs between Brownsville and Sunset Park in Brooklyn
There is a lot city traffic officials could do to make buses travel faster. T.A. recommends:
The Department of Transportation to Study Skyway Connecting Brooklyn Bridge Path to Cadman Plaza
993MayJune/04bbridge.html. At the time, the Department of Transportation could have procured $4 million in Federal clean air (CMAQ) funds to study and probably build a "fly-over" ramp above motor traffic from the promenade to Cadman Plaza by 2004. Now, the Department of Transportation says it has approximately $500,000 in CMAQ funds to study how to build a "fly-over" ramp approximately stretching from the Washington Street stairs on the promenade to Cadman Plaza East. A small sampling of the e-mail T.A. receives Riverside Park Boat Basin Gates & Humps
Thanks! Matt G. T.A. Response: Bicycle-pedestrian conflicts are a major problem on Riverside Park’s waterfront promenade. T.A. has been working with the Parks Department to reduce these conflicts and make the greenway safer and more convenient for everyone. We believe that creating a preferred path for cyclists on the underused in-land paths in Riverside Park would significantly reduce the number of bicycle-pedestrian conflicts on the waterfront promenade. See the following articles from Transportation Alternatives Magazine: Riverside Park Users Asked
to Share, T.A. Stresses Safety and Courtesy, Not Enforcing Speed Limits (Spring
2002) Riverside Park Needs
'Preferred Path' (Winter 2003) You can write to Parks Commissioner Benepe and urge his agency to create a preferred path for cyclists in Riverside Park. Commissioner Adrian Benepe Sidewalk Cyclists
Very Sincerely Yours, T.A. Response: In an effort to improve bicyclist and pedestrian safety and improve the image of bicyclists, T.A. has launched a “Working Cyclists: Safety Education for Couriers and Food Delivery Cyclists” campaign. Our goal is to get bicycles off sidewalks and reduce the number of bicycle-pedestrian crashes, injuries and near misses. As part of this campaign, we are working on getting businesses to take responsibility for the actions of their working cyclists.
The Working Cyclists campaign fills an education void. Most working cyclists, many of whom are new immigrants, receive zero safety training from their employers and few employers are familiar with New York City’s laws regarding working cyclists. Our Working Cyclists campaign sends the messages: Do not ride on the sidewalk, ride with traffic and yield to pedestrians. T.A. is working with city council members, the NYPD and community boards to develop materials and target businesses to increase safety. This summer, T.A. developed trilingual, English-Spanish and English-Chinese safety classes, manuals and posters that teach working cyclists and their employers the laws of bike riding in New York City. During the fall, T.A. will teach safety classes to businesses identified by elected officials, the NYPD, community boards and the public. The current issue of Transportation Alternatives Magazine features an article about the campaign. Goethals Bridge Walkway
F.B. T.A. Response: During the summer of 2003, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a plan to rehabilitate the deck surface of the Goethals Bridge. According to the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey: "The three-year project involves the removal of the asphalt (auto) riding surface, rehabilitation of the bridge deck where necessary, replacement of deck joints and storm drains, rehabilitation of a portion of the structural steel, installation of a new asphalt riding surface and replacement of the sidewalks." The Port Authority has told T.A. that this means the now-closed walkways on the bridge will reopen upon the completion of the work in 2006.
As a resident of Hoboken, New Jersey and a Manhattan commuter for five years, I have become increasingly frustrated with bicycle parking at the PATH and train stations. I was wondering if you might be able to point me in the right direction as far as who to talk to about removing obviously abandoned bicycles at stations, particularly the Hoboken PATH station. There is considerable space taken up by un-rideable bikes, some of which have been there two years without moving.
Has this subject been raised before? What is the correct agency to contact about this problem? Who installed the bike racks? Who owns the property? What is done about this problem at other stations in other cities? Any direction you could give me would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! Brian P. T.A. Response: We suggest you contact either the station manager for the Hoboken PATH station or higher-ups in PATH management and operations (this will take longer, but will probably result in a more lasting solution). You have identified all of the important questions; namely, who owns the property and who installed the bike racks. Even if PATH does not own the property or install the racks, it should help you figure this out because it is a customer service issue. Try contacting Dan Millard, PATH customer service supervisor, 201-216 6921, or writing to: Michael P. DePallo Please let us know how this progresses; we are happy to help. [an error occurred while processing this directive] Take Action
Advocacy Committees Brooklyn@transalt.org Centralpark@transalt.org Gowanus@transalt.org Citywide: |
Dear Reader, Thanks to the generous support of our members, Transportation Alternatives won an historic victory this year. In 2003, we helped reduce pedestrian fatalities in New York City to an all-time low. This means that motorists killed one-third as many people walking in New York City’s as they did in 1973, when T.A. was founded. This is a major accomplishment. It is due in part to T.A.’s unrelenting work over the last decade to keep the issue of pedestrian and bicyclist safety before the public. Yet, as the Daily News’ recent "Save a Life, Change the Law" campaign suggests, it is small consolation that city streets are safer than they used to be to the families and friends of the 140 pedestrians killed in 2003. For them, this year was one of heartbreaking tragedy, not an historic success. Nor was this year the best of times for the 15,000 pedestrians and 3,500 cyclists struck by cars and trucks in New York City. T.A. has plenty of good ideas about how to make streets safer and more congenial for cyclists and pedestrians. But in New York City, good ideas do not count for much unless they are backed by tenacious advocacy. T.A. has staying power because of you and our other generous contributors. Our resolve and endurance make the difference between life and death. Please join the T.A. and the Daily News in our advocacy to make the streets safer by making a generous donation today. Your support matters. Sincerely,
Join T.A.
today to start receiving Transportation
Alternatives Magazine, our members-only in-depth quarterly
magazine— Selected articles
City Hall Needs Greenway Working Group
Innovative Designs Along the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway
Opportunity Knocks on 8th Ave: Two community boards support proposed bike lane
DOT Takes Second Look At Manhattan Bridge Access
New York City Pedestrian Fatalities at Historic Low
Speed Cameras Prove Huge Success in D.C.
What Germany and Holland Can Teach NYC About Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety 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
Saturday,
November 22, 10 am. Rockaway Beach to Jacob Riis Park, Queens. Northwest
corner of 42nd St. & 8th Ave. Will take A train to Beach 90th St.,
Rockaway Park, Queens; can meet there at 12 noon. Shorewalkers. Saturday,
November 22, 10:30 am. The Rockaways. 8th Ave and 42nd Street to take
the A train at 10:30, or at Rockaway and 196th Street at 12:30 PM. Shorewalkers.
Sunday,
November 23, 9 am. Orchards. New York side of the GWB. Fast
& Fabulous.
Sunday,
November 23, 8:30 am. Piermont by Kilometers. Chelsea Piers (22nd St. &
12th Ave.). 5BBC.
Tuesday,
November 25, 10 am. TBA. The Loeb Boathouse. The
Weekday Cyclists in NYC.
Thursday,
November 27, 10 am. Near Brooklyn (Reprise). City Hall. 5BBC.
Friday,
November 28, 7 pm. Critical Mass. Union Square Park North. Time's Up!
Saturday,
November 29, 10 pm. Riverside Ride. Union Square Park North. Time's Up!
Saturday,
November 30, 9 am. Early Frostbite to Broadway. PATH train station, 32nd
Street and Sixth Avenue. 5BBC.
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11/11 
Killer Drivers Still
Remain Unpunished
A
1992 T.A. study of New York State Department of Justice records found that only
one motorist served time for vehicular homicide and 16 for vehicular assault in
New York City, even though motorists killed 282 pedestrians and 17 cyclists and
struck or injured 13,599 pedestrians and 3,520 cyclists that year. Similarly, in
1999, the New York Post found that New York City district attorneys charged
murdering motorists with vehicular homicide or assault just 11 times, even
though motorists killed 419 people that year. 
Killer
drivers roam free because of a 1956 New York State court case that created the
"rule of two." An appeals court decided that prosecutors must prove that
motorists know that their behavior posed a "substantial, unjustifiable risk of
harm." This is taken to mean that prosecutors must show that the motorist was
committing at least two dangerous actions when s/he killed a pedestrian or
bicyclist. For instance, the motorist would have had to have been speeding and
running a red light. Under current case law, a motorist who goes through a red
light and kills a pedestrian would probably not be convicted of a felony or face
jail time. The deeper, social and political explanation for why this obscene
disregard for human life is tolerated in New York is that most
state legislators
seem to identify more with killer motorists than they do with the pedestrians
and bicyclists who are their victims. 
Learn more about the “rule
of two” and drivers getting away with murder on New York City streets:
The city’s slowest most-used bus route is the M-23 cross-town; it averages
3.4 miles per hour as measured during the evening rush hour along the route’s
most crowded segments. To put this into perspective, a King penguin can swim at
5.3 mph and a chicken can travel at speeds up to 9 mph. The average person walks
at 3 mph, which is close to the speed of the slowest routes. 
The
slowest most-used bus routes in each borough are: 
The seven overall slowest bus routes in the city were all in Manhattan: The
M-23 (3.4 mph); the M-42 (3.6 mph); M-66 (3.6 mph); M-14 (3.8 mph) and M-31,
M-96 and M-101 (4.4 mph). 
Bus lanes with physical means to discourage other vehicles from violating bus
lanes
During the summer of 1999, T.A. extolled the
"Cadman Plaza Connector" as a
potential boon for cyclists and pedestrians traveling to and from the Brooklyn
side of the Brooklyn Bridge. See
I
bicycle to work every day through Riverside Park from 70th Street to
Columbia University. Recently metal gates, in addition to the speed humps,
have been installed between the Boat Basin and the parking garage. The
irony, it seems to me, is that in an attempt to make this area *slightly* safer
for boat owners, the area is much *less* safer for those who bicycle, skate,
scooter and run through this area. To protect the tiny number of people who
traverse this short segment of the pathway, they have created an impediment to
the natural flow of traffic and set up a slalom course to negotiate. Is
anything being done by T.A. to address this debacle? 
What
is T.A. doing to force bikers to stay off the sidewalks? I was nearly run
down on Second Avenue and 73rd Street the other day; when I screamed, the biker
became very rude! We need harsh police action, with zero tolerance for
infractions. Bikers on the sidewalk are a horrible menace; don't give me the
ridiculous answer that cars are more dangerous. Sidewalk bikers must spend time
in jail! 
In
1998, the Port Authority said that the Goethals walkway would reopen in 2003.
I've e-mailed the Port Authority about this but haven't gotten a response.
Any idea where the walkway stands? 
Bike
Parking at Hoboken PATH 
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