The Oil Drum

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to highlight some short films that show a lot about how NYC is changing and becoming more sustainable. Many will come from one of my favorite local videos sites, Streetfilms and others from amateurs and other vlogs in the area. There's a lot going on so stay tuned.

This video shows how Mayor Bloomberg answered the call from transportation advocates for a more forward looking DOT Commissioner earlier this year. New York's new Transportation Commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, is a breath of fresh air for all New Yorkers. Not only does she talk about building a city that is bike and pedestrian friendly, she showed last week that she is willing to ride her bike with NYC's alternative transportation advocates on a tour around Brooklyn. Some of the quotes in this short video speak volumes about how far NYC Gov't transportation policy mindset has changed just in the last year. Welcome Janette!

Based on two recent cases in Brooklyn and Queens, it seems the NYC Department of Transportation is overriding local community board opposition to bike lanes. Under DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall, the DOT has had a policy of only installing bike lanes following the approval of the local community board. However if you consider that bike lanes are an essential piece of traffic safety infrastructure, it would seem more appropriate to consult with community boards on how and where bike lanes should be installed, similar to other critical infrastructure. Indeed, an unreleased health department study of cyclist deaths, shows that only 1 of 200 cyclist deaths were on a street with a bike lane.

As first reported over at Streetsblog and followed up by the NY Daily News the NYC Department of Transportation's Bike Chief, Andrew Vesselinovitch, quit his job after 5 years of frustration in trying to improve bike safety in NYC.

It shows an inside look into the negative atmosphere at the city DOT toward cycling in the city. It appears that despite strong protestations to the dangerous bumps on the Williamsburg Bridge, Vesselinovitch was basically told to shut up by DOT deputy commissioner Primeggia.

See Vesselinovitch's departing shot at the DOT as he left work last Friday as originally posted at Streetsblog.

Tonight I attended a forum on Bus Rapid Transit sponsored by State Senator Liz Krueger's office and co-sponsored by newly elected councilmembers Lappin & Garodnick, CIVITAS and Transportation Alternatives as well as other local elected officials and community board members. There was even a representative from Borough President Scott Stringer's office.

First to present their side were a collection of folks from the MTA, city DOT and state DOT. The first disappointment to most of the people in attendence was that despite the broad-based community support for faster, more efficient and higher quality bus services all that is being discussed by city/state/MTA officials is a STUDY that will examine 15 routes to pick JUST 5 in June 2007 and then (assuming the planets are aligned) to implement by late 2008.

They have been dragging this study out for years. People are starting to get frustrated at the lack of progress and continuing uncertainty around the actual implementation. And you could almost understand the time to plan this out if their plan was even semi-ambitious, but alas it's about as minimal as BRT can get and even still honestly call it "BRT".