It's not too late to make a special end of year donation to support T.A.'s work for bicyclists and pedestrians.

T.A. In the News

transalt.org/
media

Latest

1/19 One-Vehicle Gridlock, New York Times

1/14 New bike lanes aren't welcome in one Bronx neighborhood, CBS2

1/13 Prospect Park set to go car-free... sort of, The Brooklyn Papers

1/13 More Car-Free Hours Coming, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier

1/13 Issue of the Week: 311, Gotham Gazette

1/9 Prospect Park cuts drive time, Daily News

1/9 For 1st Time, DOT Sets Car-Free Winter Hours in Prospect Park, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

1/7 Beep: Cross In The Middle, Newsday

12/27 Guide to Bicycle Parking Made Available for Building Owners/
Managers, The Urban Transportation Monitor

12/20 Upgrade Transit, Daily News

12/16 Brooklyn Politics: Car-Free Park Politics Revealed, Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill Courier

12/15 Going the distance, Daily News

12/14 Let's talk token utopia, Daily News

12/13 Transit strike would squeeze NYC, USA Today

12/13 Water they'll do during walkout?, Daily News

12/11 Forget Taxis: Some Say Biking Is Best Bet In Event Of Transit Strike, NY1

12/11 How About Biking to Work?, NBC4

12/9 For whom the bridge tolls, Daily News

12/7 Runaway car kills teen, injures man, Daily News

More Quotes...

Come to the Volunteer Mailing Party, Wednesday, January 29th at 6 pm at the T.A. Office (115 West 30th, #1207). 

Paid Advocacy Internship/
Asst. to Executive Director

16 to 20 hours a week. Minimum commitment of one semester. Visit transalt.org/jobs for details.

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.

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)
- Bicycle Advocacy

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
-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. Bulletin is a bi-weekly publication of Transportation Alternatives. The Bulletin has 23,000 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!

Week of January 6, 2003

Breaking News
T.A. Wins Big Increase in Prospect Park Weekday Car-Free Hours!
Councilmembers want more — ask the DOT for three month car-free trial period

Queens Boulevard 2003: Still Mean and Deadly

In 2002, two pedestrians were killed on Queens Boulevard, the fewest in decades. Yet the seven-mile long roadway remains a daunting obstacle for pedestrians. Indeed, a pedestrian was killed there last week. In 2000, the Daily News led the public outcry over the "human bowling alley," aka the "Boulevard of Death." Relentless media coverage led to an intense police crackdown and safety improvements by the Department of Transportation--including longer crossing times, a pedestrian fence on the center median, better lighting, new signage and a uniform 30 mph speed, new parking regulations and traffic-calmed access roads. Thanks to these changes, pedestrian fatalities fell from more than a dozen a year to four in 2001.

Unfortunately, DOT seems uninterested in transforming this beast of a street from a quasi-highway into a functional, walkable urban boulevard, like say upper Broadway, Park Avenue or Ocean Parkway. Recently, Borough President Helen Marshall rightly asked the DOT to install more mid-block crosswalks on Queens Boulevard, a must on a street where pedestrian crossings are hundreds of feet apart. The DOT is said to be "considering" her proposal. The troubling thing is that the DOT has no sense of urgency and is not initiating or planning profound pedestrian improvements. The agency seems to have settled back into its familiar role of saying "no" to requests for new improvements on the boulevard. Sadly, it's a good bet that the Queens Boulevard of 2003 will be the same in 2053.

In late 2000, T.A. laid out in the Daily News a multi-year improvement plan for a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly Queens Boulevard. Check it out.

Write DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall and tell her that her work on Queens Boulevard is not done. Urge her to formulate a 5, 10 and 15 year plan to create a bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly Queens Boulevard that is reintegrated into the surrounding neighborhoods. Be sure to send T.A. a copy of your message when you are finished: info@transalt.org.

This month, a red maple sapling and bronze plaque memorializing "all who lost their lives on Queens Boulevard" was dedicated at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills. Norbert Chwat, co-president of the Forest Hills Action League, was noted at the dedication as saying that, "You cannot or should not have a superhighway running through a residential area. You will eventually have death." 

U.S. Govt. Gives $1 Billion/Yr. Subsidy to SUV Buyers 

The NY Times and Wall Street Journal report that SUV buyers receive a federal subsidy of as much as $987 million a year because of a quirk of federal tax law that allows business owners to depreciate SUVs and pickups more quickly than cars. The discrepancy has been around for nearly two decades, but it's getting new attention amid the soaring popularity of SUVs and pickups as suburban people-movers. The deduction stems from the longstanding and somewhat bizarre classification of SUVs as "light trucks" rather than "cars." This language confusion means a tax break that was at least partly intended to help farmers buy pickup trucks is now being applied to today's quintessential suburban passenger vehicle.

The law gives people who qualify an immediate deduction of as much as $24,000--which grows to $25,000 next year--off the price of an SUV. Plus, until 2004, there's a bonus deduction of 30% of the rest of the cost of the truck. Both these deductions are on top of the regular five-year depreciation that would apply to light trucks bought as business transportation. The only catch: To get all these breaks, you have to buy a truck that weighs over 6,000 pounds. The Chevy Suburban makes it, but the Chevy Blazer doesn't.

January 8, 2003 
TV Ads Say S.U.V. Owners Support Terrorists
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, NY Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 - Ratcheting up the debate over sport utility vehicles, new television commercials suggest that people who buy the vehicles are supporting terrorists. The commercials are so provocative that some television stations are refusing to run them.
Patterned after the commercials that try to discourage drug use by suggesting that profits from illegal drugs go to terrorists, the new commercials say that money for gas needed for S.U.V.'s goes to terrorists.

The two 30-second commercials are the brainchild of the author and columnist Arianna Huffington. Her target audience, she said, is Detroit and Congress, especially the Republicans and Democrats who last year voted against a bill, sponsored by Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, that would have raised fuel-efficiency standards.

Spokesmen for the automakers dismissed the commercials.

Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said of Ms. Huffington, "Her opinion is out-voted every year by Americans who buy S.U.V.'s for their safety, comfort and versatility." He said that S.U.V.'s now account for 21 percent of the market.

Senator Kerry distanced himself from the commercials. He said that rather than oppose S.U.V.'s outright, he believed they should be more efficient.

"Anybody can drive as large an S.U.V. as they want, though it can be more efficient than it is today."

Ms. Huffington's group, which calls itself the Detroit Project, has bought almost $200,000 of air time for the commercials, to run from Sunday to Thursday. The advertisements are to be broadcast on "Meet The Press," "Face the Nation" and "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" in Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.

But some local affiliates say they will not run them. At the ABC affiliate in New York, Art Moore, director of programming, said, "There were a lot of statements being made that were not backed up, and they're talking about hot-button issues."

Ms. Huffington said she got the idea for the commercials while watching the antidrug commercials, sponsored by the Bush administration. In her syndicated column, she asked readers if they would be willing to pay for "a people's ad campaign to jolt our leaders into reality."

She said she received 5,000 e-mail messages and eventually raised $50,000 from the public. Bigger contributors included Steve Bing, the film producer; Larry David, the comedian and "Seinfeld" co-creator; and Norman Lear, the television producer.

Watch this ad in Real Player format	Watch this ad in Real Player format

November 19, 2002 
What Would Jesus Drive? 
By DANNY HAKIM (Excerpted from the NY Times)

DETROIT, Nov. 18 - A broad coalition of religious groups is preparing a grass-roots campaign linking fuel efficiency to morality, with some ads going so far as to ask: "What Would Jesus Drive?"

"We are under a commandment to be faithful stewards of God's creation," said Paul Gorman, of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, an umbrella organization of Christian and Jewish groups. "This is a crisis in God's creation at the hands of God's children." Leaders of many groups within the partnership have signed a letter to the Big Three automakers asking for improvements in fuel economy. They say they have a biblical mandate to be good stewards of God's creation and a responsibility to the poor who are especially harmed by pollution. And they decry supporting "autocratic, corrupt and violent" governments that produce oil. 

"We write now to ask you in the automobile industry a more explicit question," the letter said, "what specific pledges - in volume, timing and commitments to marketing - will you make to produce automobiles, S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks with substantially greater fuel economy?"

The letter was signed by an array of denominations, including Frank T. Griswold, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal church; David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee; and the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The campaign could create complications for G.M.'s Chevrolet brand, which makes S.U.V.'s like the TrailBlazer and has been courting religious conservatives by sponsoring a Christian concert series.

www.whatwouldjesusdrive.org is more pointed.

Fall 2002 T.A. Magazine  
This issue is being 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!

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/
hazard.

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!

Give on-line at transalt.org/join 

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

RIDES AND WALKS

Saturday, January 11, 9 am. Temperature Regulators--
Quick Spin. Pelham Parkway at White Plains Road. 5BBC.

Sunday, January 11, 9 am. Orchards. New York Side of the GWB. Fast and Fabulous.

Saturday, January 11, 9:15 am. Brighton Beach. Food Emporium, 59th St. & 1st Ave. NYCC.

Saturday, January 11, 9:30 am. Diner Finders: White Plains. Central Park Boathouse. NYCC.

Saturday, January 11, 10 am. Nyack the Fun Way. Central Park Boathouse. NYCC.

Sunday, January 12, 9 am. Bronx River Trail. Grand Central Terminal: 9:23 train to Bronxville. Shorewalkers.

Sunday, January 12, 9 am. Winter Off-Road Series--Blue Mountain Bike Trail. Peekskill Metro-North Station. 5BBC.

Saturday, January 12, 9:30 am. Chilly River Road Challenge. New York Side of the GWB. Fast and Fabulous.

Sunday, January 12, 10 am. Frostbite Series #7--Coney Island Dreamin' on such a Winter's Day. City Hall. 5BBC and NYCC.

Tuesday, January 14, 10 am. TBA. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

Wednesday, January 15, 8 am. Bound Brook--
Kingston, NJ. Penn Station NJ Transit Windows. Shorewalkers.

Saturday, January 18, 9 am. Temperature Regulators--Quick Spin. Pelham Parkway at White Plains Road. 5BBC.

Saturday, January 18, 9 am. Coney Island. New York Side of the GWB. Fast and Fabulous.

Sunday, January 19, 9 am. Frost Bite #8--Historic Flushing. City Hall.  5BBC and NYCC.

Sunday, January 19, 9 am. Winter Off-Road Series--
Graham Hills Mountain Bike Trail. Mt. Pleasant Metro-North Station. 5BBC.

Sunday, January 19, 10 am. 45 Minutes from Broadway. Van Cortlandt Park & 242 St. 5BBC.

Sunday, January 19, 11:37 am. Tod's Point. Grand Central Terminal: 11:37 am train to Old Greenwich. Shorewalkers.

Tuesday, January 21, 10 am. TBA. Central Park Boathouse. The Weekday Cyclists.

More Rides and Walks...