Council, DOT weigh bill to hold motorists
blocking bike lanes accountable
BY MARK HALLUM
Acting city Transportation Commissioner
Margaret Forgione testifi ed
in City Council Tuesday morning
about a bill that would address illegally
parked delivery vehicles in bike lanes citing
an increase in cyclist deaths over the last
two years.
The bill in question, introduced by
Brooklyn City Councilman Stephen Levin,
would create a new civil penalty for motorists,
trucks in particular, blocking anything
from bike lanes, bus lanes when restrictions
are in effect, sidewalks, crosswalks and fi re
hydrants.
The violation would apply when vehicles
are parked within 1,320 feet of a school,
especially.
“We must respond to the dramatic
evolution of our streets amid the ongoing
pandemic while continuing to address the
urgency of eliminating traffi c fatalities
and meet so many other demands on the
agency,” Forgione said. “So we must prioritize
our efforts toward the most proven,
effective and promising strategies, regardless
of the concerns we were received. This
proposal would require staffi ng upfront,
investment, legal work to make rules and
evidence guidelines for multiple types of
offenses, as well as capacity and effort at
oath. All requiring signifi cant time to set
up.”
Transportation Committee Chair Ydanis
Rodriguez called on the DOT to begin collecting
and centralizing data from the Department
of Motor Vehicles, a state agency,
FILE PHOTO/MARK HALLUM
in order to get a gauge on how many new
delivery vehicles are added to New York
City roadways in the interest of informing
public policy on safety.
Even determining the success of ticketing
delivery companies for these violations
was not clear for NYPD, who also testifi ed.
According to NYPD Chief of Transportation
Kim Royster, millions of summonses
were handed out to trucks throughout the
past year, but determining how many of
these fi nes were paid by companies were
another matter for Department of Finance
to respond to.
“When we start to look at the number
of parking summonses that were issued
throughout the city. There were at least 7
million parking summons that were issued
in the year of 2020,” Royster said. “However,
when you start to drill down and
look at the number of parking summonses
issued to trucks. In this over 1 million
parking summons and over 25,000 moving
summonses for traffi c violations in 2014.”
The number of resources to step up
enforcement for Levin’s bill as well as how
complaints could be submitted were of
concern for Forgione.
Claiming there has been an increase in
traffi c enforcement agent assaults as well
as disputes between members of the public
made Forgione cautious to back a plan in
which New Yorkers would need to submit a
photo of motorists violating the law, hoping
to avoid road rage incidents.
Forgione hopes that the delivery industry
will utilize cargo bikes in increased numbers
rather than using trucks in the future.
Congress members make their cases to impeach and remove Trump
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Prior to voting for the article of
impeachment against outgoing
President Trump on Wednesday,
New York Members of Congress joined
Mayor Bill de Blasio on the steps of City
Hall on Jan. 9 to demand Trump’s removal
after a mob of his supporters stormed the
Capitol last week, calling the event “an act
of sedition.”
The group of federal lawmakers —
which included newly-elected Congressman
Jamaal Bowman, Representative Nydia
Velazquez, Carolyn Maloney, Hakeem Jeffries,
Adriano Espaillat, Gregory Meeks,
and Tom Suozzi — urged the president to
resign. But if Trump refuses to leave on
his own terms, Congressmembers said
they were ready to remove him “by any
constitutional means necessary.”
Although President Trump only has
11 more days in offi ce before Joe Biden is
sworn in as president, lawmakers worry
that Trump will use his remaining time in
offi ce to attempt to undermine democracy
again, or otherwise cause further harm to
the republic.
“Donald Trump may be in the Twitter
penalty box but he still has access to the
nuclear codes and that’s a danger to the
American people,” said Jeffries. The comment
refers to Twitter’s decision to ban
Trump after the attack on the Capitol out
of fear he would use the platform to incite
violence.
“We can not proceed as if this is ordinary
because this is extraordinary. Sedition
is extraordinary, insurrection is extraordinary,
domestic terrorism is extraordinary,”
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Jeffries added.
Chaos overtook the Capitol on Wednesday,
Jan. 6 after thousands of pro-Trump
rioters fl ooded into the building, breaking
through barricades and Capitol Police, in
an attempt to overturn the results of November’s
presidential election.
Congress traditionally gathers on Jan.
6 during a presidential election year to
count electoral college votes in a short and
mostly ceremonial event. But given the
large number of Republican representatives
planning to object to their state’s election
results in an attempt to extend Trump’s
presidency, the event took on a new level
of importance.
The mad rush happened shortly after
President Trump spoke to a crowd of
his supporters on the National Mall telling
them ” we will never take back our
country with weakness,” according to The
New York Times. The attack disrupted the
vote count and resulted in the death of fi ve
people, including a Trump supporter who
was shot in the neck by Capitol Police.
Eventually, lawmakers reconvened to
continue the count on Wednesday night to
fi nish the count.
On Jan. 9, Congressmembers at City
Hall, as well as the mayor, also joined a
chorus of lawmakers admonishing Missouri
Senator John Hawley — who was
the fi rst senator to pledge to object to
Biden’s win citing election fraud — for
his role in instigating the attack on the
Capitol.
Congressmembers also chastised other
Trump loyalists, such as former New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani, for supporting
of a president with a clear intent to undermine
democracy.
4 January 14, 2021 Schneps Media