Streetsblog New York City

Next week, voters in Maryland and Wisconsin may tell state officials to keep their greedy paws off transportation funds. Louisianans will consider whether to create an infrastructure bank to help finance projects. Texans will weigh the wisdom of raiding the state’s Rainy Day Fund for — what else? — highways. And Massachusetts activists who have been fighting to repeal the state’s automatic gas tax hikes will finally get their day of reckoning.

Those are just a few of the decisions facing voters as they go to the polls Tuesday. They’re the ones getting the most press and that could have the biggest impact. For instance, if Massachusetts loses its ability to raise the gas tax to keep up with inflation, it could inspire anti-tax activists in other states that would like to gut their own revenue collection mechanisms, too.

There are lots of local initiatives on next Tuesday’s ballot that aren’t generating so much buzz but could still have major implications for the state of transportation in key parts of the country. Here are some contests you should pay attention to.

Pinellas County, Florida: For years, transit advocates have been trying to correct what they see as a major deficiency in Tampa’s regional transportation network: It is the largest metropolitan area in the country without rail transit. Voters in the three counties that make up the Tampa Bay region — Polk, Pinellas, and Hillsborough — all have to approve a new one-cent sales tax to pay for a potential light rail system and other transit improvements. Voters in Hillsborough rebuffed an attempt to get approval in 2010. Pinellas and Polk are trying this year.

Specifically, Pinellas County voters will decide on Greenlight Pinellas, a plan to increase bus service by 65 percent and build a 24-mile light rail line from downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Clearwater. It would form part of a regional transit system that the three counties are still trying to figure out. It’s by no means a done deal: The Pinellas contest has been one of the most bitterly and loudly contentious of this cycle. But a vote in favor of building the system would be a game-changer.

“The hope is that a positive vote, particularly in Pinellas, would really be a shot in arm for Hillsborough to come back to the voters or to proceed with some other funding mechanism to support the system,” said Jason Jordan, who tracks transit-related ballot initiatives around the country for the Center for Transportation Excellence.

Polk, the least urban of the three counties, will vote on a one-cent sales tax measure that would fund both transit and roads.

Read more…

Motorists injured more pedestrians and cyclists in New York City last year than in any of the previous five years, according to official 2013 data on traffic injuries and deaths released by the state DMV [PDF]. Confirming preliminary NYPD figures, the final DMV stats show total traffic injuries remained near the five-year low — meaning pedestrians and cyclists accounted for a higher share of traffic violence victims on New York City streets in 2013 compared to recent years.

Total traffic injuries increased around 2 percent from 2012 to 2013, while pedestrian injuries went up 5 percent and cyclist injuries rose 8 percent. All told, drivers injured 11,398 pedestrians and 3,817 cyclists last year — the highest totals in any of the last five years.

There were 294 total traffic fatalities in 2013, an 8 percent rise from 2012, when 271 people were killed. More people died in New York City traffic crashes last year than in any of the past five years.

Traffic deaths are more subject to random variation than traffic injuries, and there were some especially large swings in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities last year. Pedestrian deaths increased from 135 in 2012 to 183 in 2013, marking the highest death toll in the last five years after four years of declining fatalities, while cyclist deaths dropped from 17 to 9.

Last year, 65 percent of people killed in traffic were pedestrians and cyclists, compared to 56 percent in 2012.

Read more…

Beavercreek, Ohio, nabbed its own infamous place in civil rights history last year, when the Federal Highway Administration ruled that the suburb had violated anti-discrimination laws by blocking bus service from nearby Dayton.

The Beavercreek case marked the first time civil rights activists had successfully filed an administrative complaint with the FHWA against a public agency for violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Since the law was passed, dozens of these complaints have been filed, but not until Beavercreek did advocates use this mechanism to compel action by a local government. The decision gave Dayton area transit riders access to a bus route to a growing, mostly-white suburb that had sought to keep them out.

The Beavercreek case illustrates larger, more widespread problems with America’s transportation system, say researchers at Ohio State University’s Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. The Kirwan Institute is producing a one-hour documentary exploring the Beavercreek case and how racism can influence transportation decision making. The filmmakers hope to air the show on PBS after its completion this spring.

I got in touch with producer Matt Martin about the project via email. Martin noted that in a Title VI administrative complaint, the plaintiff must only show there was “disparate impact” on protected classes of people, rather than the much-tougher standard of intentional discrimination required in civil rights cases that go to court. Raising awareness of the administrative complaint as a tool for local activists and preserving its usefulness is one of the film’s main goals, Martin says.

Here is our short Q & A.

Read more…

After a request from 78th Precinct commanding officer Captain Frank DiGiacomo, DOT has installed a four-rack bike corral in front of the precinct house on Bergen Street in Prospect Heights. N. Wayne Bailey, chair of the precinct’s community council, snapped photos of the new bike parking yesterday.

The 78th Precinct has established a reputation for supporting livable streets, from making a guerrilla protected bike lane permanent to targeting drivers who fail to yield and hosting monthly traffic safety meetings.

Despite the precinct’s groundbreaking moves, there is still lots of room for improvement. As the photo shows, the 7-8 engages in a behavior that’s all too common at precinct houses across the city: using sidewalks for parking. The precinct did clear its cars from two blocks but continues the practice along both Bergen Street and Sixth Avenue.

Getting officers to obey parking rules? Now that would be revolutionary.

Read more…

Bill Lindeke at Streets.mn calls them “death roads.” Four-lane roads in urban areas can indeed be perilous.

An 11-year-old boy was struck by a motorist on one of these roads recently in St. Paul. The media and others responded in typical fashion, deeming the crash an unavoidable “accident.” But the truth is these types of collisions are easy to prevent, Lindeke says.

Converting four-lane roads to three lanes, a change commonly known as a “road diet,” makes them substantially safer, with little downside. Lindeke cites the data.

#1) 3-lane roads are much safer for car drivers. According to a Federal Highway Administration study, changing a 4-lane Death Road™ into a three-lane road reduces automobile traffic accidents from 20% to 50% depending on the context. (Note: this makes intuitive sense if you’ve ever driven on a street like this.) There are dozens of similar studies out there.

#2) 3-lane roads have marginal impact on traffic flow. I’m not going to suggest that a 4-to-3 conversion of a Death Road™ has no impact on traffic flow (though sometimes that turns out to be the case). Rather, fixing a Death Road™ usually sees a reduction in car throughput in the 5% to 10% range. As another Federal Highway Administration report puts it, “under most average daily traffic (ADT) conditions tested, road diets have minimal effects on vehicle capacity.”

Read more…

It’s official: Alta Bicycle Share, the company that runs Citi Bike, has a new owner, an infusion of cash, and a fresh face at the top — longtime transit executive Jay Walder. At a press conference this afternoon, the new team promised to correct Citi Bike’s blunders and double the system’s size by the end of 2017.

The same ownership group will also be running Alta bike-share systems in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, and Boston, among other cities. While today’s news signals potential changes in those cities as well, the most immediate changes — along with Alta Bicycle Share’s headquarters — are coming to New York.

Citi Bike’s reboot has been months in the making. Top executives from Equinox Fitness, itself a division of real estate giant The Related Companies, burst onto the bike-share scene in April with an unsuccessful last-minute bid for Bixi, the bankrupt Canadian supplier of Alta’s bike-share components. Related execs resurfaced in July, when word came that they were on the verge of buying out Alta. After months of negotiations, the deal is now official, with a company backed by Related executives and other investors, called Bikeshare Holdings LLC, acquiring all of Alta Bicycle Share.

Alta is getting a major cash infusion — $30 million from Bikeshare Holdings LLC, which is led by Equinox CEO Harvey Spevak, Related CEO Jeff Blau, and investor Jonathan Schulhof. Citi has extended its initial $41 million, five-year sponsorship of NYC bike-share by promising an additional $70.5 million through 2024, contingent on system expansion. Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, which has already helped finance Citi Bike, is increasing its credit line to Alta by $15 million. The deal includes $5 million from the Partnership Fund for New York City, an investment fund backed by the city’s big business coalition, to expand Citi Bike to more neighborhoods.

That expansion is set to roll out in stages over the next three years. Today, the system has 330 stations and 6,000 bikes. Alta and DOT promised today that by the end of 2017, it will double to over 700 stations and 12,000 bikes. The first round will bring the system to neighborhoods that have long been promised bike-share, such as Long Island City and Greenpoint, as well as additional parts of Williamsburg and Bedford Stuyvesant. The second phase will expand the system to just north of 125th Street in Harlem, south to Red Hook, Park Slope, and Prospect Heights, and to a large section of Astoria. It does not include Roosevelt, Randalls, and Ward Islands.

Read more…

With a week to go before the November 4 election, StreetsPAC has issued a new round of endorsements for candidates for state legislature. NYC’s livable streets political action committee endorsed State Assembly and Senate incumbents from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

“The incumbents we’re endorsing today have been dedicated advocates for making streets safer statewide, whether newcomers to Albany, like first-term State Senator Brad Hoylman, or longtime veterans of state government, like Assemblyman Joe Lentol,” said StreetsPAC board member Elizabeth Hamby in a press release. “State laws have a huge effect on what happens on the streets in cities and towns across New York, from Buffalo to Montauk, so we consider it a critical part of StreetsPAC’s mission to make sure these standard-bearers for safety are re-elected.”

StreetsPAC supports Brad Hoylman in Senate District 27, which includes parts of Greenwich Village, Chelsea, Midtown, and the Upper West Side. Hoylman backed new state laws lowering the NYC speed limit and increasing the size of the city speed camera program, and he directed the New York State DMV to cease improperly penalizing cyclists for traffic tickets. Hoylman supports complete street designs for Fifth and Sixth Avenues, StreetsPAC says, and the Move NY toll reform plan. Hoylman “has expressed interest in introducing legislation that would make it easier for law enforcement to secure cell phone records after vehicular crashes,” according to StreetsPAC. Frank J. Scala is challenging Hoylman for the District 27 seat.

Greenpoint and Williamsburg rep Joe Lentol is the StreetsPAC pick in Assembly District 50. ”Joe Lentol is the second most senior member of the Assembly, and as chair of the Codes Committee, he drafted and passed legislation that increased penalties for driving without a license or with a suspended license,” says the StreetsPAC press release. “He is committed to improving the suspended/unlicensed driver laws, by uncoupling license suspensions from non-driving infractions and simultaneously increasing penalties for driving without a license and beefing up suspensions for dangerous driving.” StreetsPAC notes Lentol’s role in securing a protected bike lane for the Pulaski Bridge, and says he will work on removing Albany restrictions on city speed cameras. William Davidson is running against Lentol.

In Senate District 33 — covering the West Bronx, Kingsbridge, University Heights, and Tremont — StreetsPAC likes Gustavo Rivera for another term. StreetsPAC calls Rivera a “strong supporter of Webster Avenue Select Bus Service” who “believes there should be a real lock” to ensure state transit revenues are spent on transit. Rivera wants to make the West Bronx bike-friendly, StreetsPAC says, and would like traffic-calming and complete streets measures applied to the Grand Concourse. Steven Stern and Jose Padilla Jr. will also be on the District 33 ballot.

StreetsPAC endorsed Upper West Side and Hell’s Kitchen incumbent Linda Rosenthal in Assembly District 67. Rosenthal has sponsored legislation to increase penalties against repeat reckless drivers, says StreetsPAC, “as well as legislation regarding the misguided ‘rule of two’ that would hold drivers accountable for their actions in crashes that injure or kill.” A supporter of congestion pricing, Rosenthal “intends to endorse” the Move NY toll reform proposal, according to StreetsPAC, and will work to make Amsterdam Avenue safer. Rosenthal is running unopposed.

“Vision Zero can’t be achieved without the state legislature being a full partner,” said board member Ken Coughlin in the StreetsPAC press release. “We know we can count on today’s endorsees to continue to push for life-saving changes, like eliminating restrictions on speed cameras and changing laws to make it easier to prosecute dangerous drivers. We look forward to seeing them all re-elected next Tuesday.”

The Governors Highway Safety Association released a report Monday that, the organization claimed, showed that the ongoing surge in American biking has increased bike fatalities.

Transportation reporters around the country swung into action.

“Fatal bicycle crashes on the rise, new study shows,” said the Des Moines Register headline.

“Cycling is increasing and that may be reflected by an increase in fatal crashes,” wrote NJ.com.

“Bike riding, particularly among urban commuters, is up, and the trend has led to a 16 percent increase in cyclist fatalities nationwide,” reported the Washington Post.

Bike fatalities are a serious problem that needs to be tackled. The United States has dramatically higher rates of injury and death on bikes than other rich countries, and it would be appropriate for GHSA, an umbrella organization of state departments of transportation, to issue an urgent call to action to make biking safer. So it’s especially troubling that the main thrust of this report is complete baloney.

Read more…

The rumors were on target and the wait is over for New York City bike-share: With new management and new capital, the system is on track to cover a lot more ground. Here’s the map of the expanded Citi Bike service area that’s in the works, courtesy of Streetsblog’s Stephen Miller.

City officials including Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg are at Queensbridge Houses this afternoon to announce that REQX Ventures is buying out Alta Bicycle Share, the operator of Citi Bike. As first reported by the Daily News, former MTA Chair Jay Walder will be running things now, so the bike-share system is gaining not only an infusion of funds but a serious management upgrade as well.

Once completed, the bigger bike-share zone will reportedly have about 12,000 bikes and more than 700 stations. The first new stations will be installed next year, and the implementation of all of phase two will stretch into 2017, according to the Citi Bike blog. The price of an annual membership will rise from $95 to $149, but the $60 discount membership for NYCHA residents will not change.

Stephen and Clarence Eckerson are at the presser and will have more details later today.