Council candidates to support transit
Transportation groups call on 2021 hopefuls to get on board with initiatives
BY MARK HALLUM
With an overwhelming number of
people running for City Council and
mayor leading up to the June and November
elections in 2021, transportation
advocates are urging them to adopt initiatives
that envision a future where nobody
will die on New York City streets.
With Mayor Bill de Blasio’s sevenyear
in-the-making Vision Zero initiative
remaining a respected effort
on this front, advocates hope the next
mayor will take an aggressive approach
to revolutionizing the way curb space
is utilized, not only for free parking on
side streets but also lowering speed limits
and creating more open space.
“Not only do we have the tools and
resources that we can look at globally,
but New York City has been a leader and
has been on the forefront of advancing
these ideas. You can take a look at the
transformation of Time Square and the
14th Street busway of the protected bike
and bus lanes that are popping up across
the city. New York City’s opportunity is
really to scale of the incredible success
that we’ve achieved today,” Danny Harris,
executive director of Transportation
Alternatives, said. “As we see that
this year is likely to be either the most
deadliest or the second most deadly under
The new bike lane on E.L. Grant Highway Courtesy of DOT
Mayor de Blasio’s administration,
again I want to stress that we can turn
the corner on this, especially to ensure
that we provide the resources to put
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people, not traffi c, fi rst.”
One starting point for the city, according
to New York League of Conservation
Voters Policy Director Pat
McClellan, would be to make better
use of curb space on side streets which
he regards as free storage for cars and
trucks in some of the priciest lands in
the nation.
The money levied from motorists
from parking fees, he says, could be a
revenue stream for public transportation
including the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority, long-suffering under
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of on-street parking in the city
is free. Outside of business districts,
you know, we don’t have meter parking
on most streets, outside of business districts,
we don’t have a parking permit
system. We don’t really have any kind
of a curb management system,” Mc-
Clellan said. “There are a lot of things,
the city could be doing here to even go
a little bit of the way towards properly
pricing, our road and sidewalk space
which we don’t really do at all right
now, could be an important way to both
raise revenue for public transportation
and also have more effi cient use of our
streets so that we’re not basically giving
away some of the most valuable
real estate in the United States for free
for personal vehicle storage and delivery
truck drop-offs.”
While Mayor de Blasio promised to
bring 20 miles of bus lanes to the city
by the end of 2020, and a new revelation
reported by the New York Daily
News that this progress was about .8
miles in reality, the groups in the panel
called the next city leaders to clear the
way for real this time for buses.
“So New York’s slowest-in-the-nation
bus system carries 2.5 million
daily riders before COVID and serves
over 1 million now. Buses are the lifelines
for low-income New Yorkers of
color and link neighborhoods that
lack sets subway access, and in 2019,
the better buses action plan promise
25% faster buses, a goal that must be
met via the following policies,” Jolyse
Race, a senior organizer with Riders
Alliance, said.
Race suggested more widespread
separation of bus thoroughfares from
the rest of traffi c with automated enforcement,
a redesign of the MTA’s
bus network to refl ect modern commuting
patterns, and a redesign of
bus stops with more shelters and
countdown clock.
Harris closed by advocating for
NYPD to be taken out of the equation
when it comes to traffi c stops to prevent
discriminatory interactions with the
public as well as getting key programs
either underway or back on track.
“We need to prioritize Street and
intersection. In the DOT’s pedestrian
safety action plan that are focused
on complete street designs, we need
to fully fund the Dangerous Vehicle
Abatement Program that takes most
reckless drivers off the street, we need
to fund the Streets Master Plan, we
need to get the green wave and Vision
Zero back on track,” Harris said. “I just
want to end by saying that zero is not
impossible Helsinki and, and Oslo did
it last year, New York, needs to do it by
2024, or sooner.”
Eric McClure from Streets PAC said
that if the city’s rolling out of the Open
Restaurants plan amid COVID-19 is
proof of how fast New Yorkers can
adapt to a new way of life with car-free
streets, reduced parking availability,
and evolved methods of sanitation.
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All toys collected will be distributed
on December 21st to After School and
Learning Lab participants. Thank you for
participating in this annual tradition to
make the holiday season a little brighter
for the members of our community who
need it most!
DECEMBER 7TH – DEC 18TH
Unwrapped toys should be dropped off
at Castle Hill YMCA
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