On June 27 New York's leaders will meet at the Independent Film Center for the world premiere of Contested Streets: Breaking NYC Gridlock. Until then, you can host your own living room screening or purchase one of a limited number of pre-release DVDs.

Articles and Actions

• Contested Streets: Breaking NYC Gridlock
• New Car-Free Hours Start on Monday; Take Action to Win More
• City Construction to Temporarily Close Queensboro Bridge Path Overnight

Events and Appeals

• See Jan Gehl's Vision for a Pedestrian Friendly Grand Army Plaza
• Tell City Council that NYC Commuters Need Bike Access to Buildings
• Roll into Summer with Transportation Alternatives' Tour de Brooklyn
• Get Free Breakfast at the Willy B.
• Sound Off Against Illegal Truck Traffic in Brooklyn and Queens
• Don't Tolerate Pokey Buses
• Bike Collection for Ghana and Recycle-A-Bicycle

On June 27 New York's business leaders, elected officials and taste makers will convene at the Independent Film Center for the world premiere of the long-awaited documentary film Contested Streets: Breaking NYC Gridlock. Until then, Transportation Alternatives is making a limited number of DVDs available for purchase and to those interested in hosting living room screenings.

Contested Streets is a Transportation Alternatives co-produced documentary film that chronicles how New York City was overwhelmed by vehicular traffic and explores how, by learning from recent innovations in London, Paris and Copenhagen, New York City can reclaim its public spaces, boost street performance and secure its place at the forefront of the global economy.

"If New York is focused on this [traffic congestion] and paying any attention at all, then they've got a good model to follow in London."

The 57-minute film features examples of reclaimed streets from New York's sister cities, including footage of London's congestion pricing zone, Paris' Bus Rapid Transit corridors and Copenhagen's network of protected bike paths.

The film features interviews with:

• Bob Kiley, former CEO, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and recent Commissioner of Transport for London
• Kenneth T. Jackson, President, New York Historical Society; author, Encyclopedia of New York
• Kathryn Wylde, President and CEO, Partnership for New York City
• Majora Carter, Executive Director, Sustainable South Bronx, recent recipient of MacArthur Genius Award
• Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces

And many more. See who else is featured in the film and check out the trailer.

Want to see it for yourself? There are two easy ways.

1. Buy the DVD. The DVD contains the 57-minute documentary as well as extras such as extended interviews and a short film about Enrique Peñalosa, the visionary former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia. Special rates for T.A. members.
   
   
2. Host a living room screening. The power and vision of this documentary can help transform New York City streets, but only if people actually watch it. For this we need your help. Gather up a few friends, colleagues, members of your block association, etc. and host a screening in your living room, local coffee shop or community center. We'll provide you with a copy of the DVD and all the materials you'll need to host a successful event. It's a great excuse to bring folks together and start the conversations that will forever change the way people think of streets and transportation.

At press time, it looks like the City Council will vote on the Summer Car-Free Parks bill (Introduction 276) on June 13. Now is the time to let Speaker Quinn and your City Councilmember know that you support this critical legislation and they should too. Call, write, email, phone or fax.

Whether this is your first action for Car-Free parks or your ten-thousandth, we need you now, more than ever.

Int. 276 would make Central Park car-free all summer long and Prospect Park car-free every summer evening. It's a common sense step to reducing injuries, improving health and restoring these crown jewel parks to their original splendor.

QBB – PED/BIKE LANE
NIGHTLY CLOSURES
10 P.M. to 5 A.M.
SHUTTLE PROVIDED
CLOSURES BEGIN
5/30/06

According to an e-mail announcement from the DOT on Tuesday,

"The pedestrian and bike lane of the Queensboro Bridge will be closed on an intermittent nightly basis starting Tuesday, May 30 for work related to the cleaning and repainting of the bridge. The work is scheduled to end on July 2, weather permitting.

The lane closure will be intermittent and will not take place every night. On nights when the lane closure is enforced, it will be closed from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

A shuttle bus will be provided for pedestrians and bikers when the lane is closed. The Manhattan pick-up/drop-off point is at East 60th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues, at the bottom of the pedestrian ramp. The Queens pick-up/drop-off point is at Queens Plaza and Crescent Street, at the bottom of the pedestrian ramp." The shuttle will run every 15 minutes.

More information about the Queensboro Bridge Rehabilitation Program is available on the DOT website.

As of press time, the City had responded to most of T.A.'s inquiry for more details about the closure. One unanswered question remains: Why doesn't the DOT plan to divert cyclist and pedestrian traffic to the bridge's South Outer Roadway, which has carried bikers and walkers off and on for over the past decade?

For the safety and convenience of the 2,500 people who walk and bike over the Queensboro Bridge path every day the DOT should ensure that the path closure ends promptly on July 2nd.

In fall 1996, the DOT banned cyclists and pedestrians from the Queensboro Bridge on weekdays between 3 pm and 8 pm and provided shuttle bus service. Bridge use dropped almost 50%. The ban and shuttle bus were in place until spring 2000, when 24-hour access was restored.

Today, Brooklyn's plaza rivals the grandeur of European plazas like the Parisian Etoile where the Arc de Triomphe is located. There is, however, one notable difference: unlike the great European plazas, Grand Army Plaza is, for the most part, disconnected from the city around it and virtually inaccessible for pedestrians. The message that Grand Army Plaza sends to the public is, "Look but don't touch."

In recent months, a diverse group of community stakeholders have come together to begin to re-envision Grand Army Plaza. The Grand Army Plaza Coalition includes a rapidly expanding list of neighborhood groups, advocacy organizations and important local institutions like the Prospect Park Alliance, The Brooklyn Public Library and The Heart of Brooklyn (which represents all of the cultural institutions around Grand Army Plaza), as well as the Park Slope Civic Council and the Prospect Heights Parents Association and advocates like Project for Public Spaces and Transportation Alternatives.

For the past three months the Grand Army Plaza Coalition has been holding regular monthly meetings. The Coalition's immediate goal is to create safer, easier pedestrian access to the under-utilized center of Grand Army Plaza.

Transportation Alternatives and the Prospect Park Alliance have retained the renowned Danish urban designer Jan Gehl, whose Gehl Architecture firm helped London, Melbourne, and Copenhagen transform inefficient, traffic-clogged streets and squares into great pedestrian spaces and models of public space reclamation.

The first phase of the study will be completed by June 2nd, when Gehl will present the key findings to the public.

Join us tomorrow, June 2nd!

9:30 am: Presentation of Findings at the Prospect Park Picnic House
Prospect Park Loop Road, near Prospect Park West and 4th Street

11 am: Press Conference to Discuss Findings
Bailey Fountain, Center of Grand Army Plaza
Rain Location: Prospect Park Picnic House (see above)

Flexible rules allow offices to turn under-utlized space into bike storage.

Parking your bike on the street for an entire day is just not an option for many NYC bike commuters. New York City has the worst bike thieves in the U.S.--they steal upwards of 50,000 bikes each year, and, according to the NYPD, less than 2% are recovered.

Enter City Council Introduction 38, introduced by Brooklyn City Councilmember David Yassky, which if passed into law, would allow tenants and their employees to bring their bicycles into the buildings where they work.

Now, the City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee, chaired by Councilmember Erik Martin Dilan, needs to hold a hearing on Int. 38 to review the proposed legislation and receive public input on it.

Int. 38 requires landlords to make "reasonable provisions" to provide bike access to buildings for their tenants. Most simply: if your boss says you can park your bike in the extra space next to your desk, or in a closet, storage room or other unused space in your office, there is no reason why you should not be allowed to bring your bicycle from the street to your office.

This spring, State Assembly member Joan Millman amplified the call for bike access to buildings by introducing A11101, a State Assembly bill that would also allow tenants to bring their bikes inside buildings in New York City.

This 18-mile, leisurely paced tour will take you through beautiful Brooklyn neighborhoods including Bed-Stuy, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, DUMBO, Red Hook and Carroll Gardens. And did we mention it's FREE?

The tour will begin at Von King (aka Tompkins) Park in Bed-Stuy, at the corner of Lafayette and Tompkins Ave. The ride will end at the same location, where the Brooklyn Best Festival will be in full swing. Riders can park their bikes and stay to enjoy music, fashion shows and a community BBQ. Later on join us at Habana Outpost for a Tour de Brooklyn after party at this hot eco-eatery in Fort Greene.

This is a great chance to tell us about your commute, organize bike-to-work rides with other Brooklyn cyclists and find out what we're doing to make biking across the Williamsburg Bridge, and to and from it, safer. Join us at the Brooklyn entrance to the bridge path on your way to work!

Catch the nationwide trend! Cyclists in Portland, OR enjoy a free breakfast on their bridges each month.

All meetings will be held from 6 to 8:30 pm. Please see meeting details and contact Transportation Alternatives at info@transalt.org for more information.

NYC bus riders are still waiting for BRT to make their trips faster and more reliable.

Throughout June, MTA New York City Transit, the NYC Department of Transportation and the NYS Department of Transportation will host public meetings in each borough to update the public on their joint effort to (finally) bring Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) to New York City.

At the public meetings the City and State will:

• Review the 15 candidate corridors
• Solicit public input in selecting the five demonstration projects

The schedule of meetings and list of 15 candidate corridors are below. Photo ID is required to access meeting locations. Study details are online. Contact the MTA for meeting details at 917-339-0488.

Please contact Transportation Alternatives at info@transalt.org for more information.

Bikes Not Bombs and Tufts University alumni are hoping to collect 100 used bikes to ship to Ghana. Additional bikes will be donated to Recycle-A-Bicycle here in New York City. Click here for more information.