New York City’s New Bike Czar

Crain’s Insider reports: "Biking advocates are cheering the city Department of Transportation’s hiring of Josh Benson as bicycle program director. He steps into a tense situation."

Update: We have a little bit more background on Benson. He served as the DOT Bike Program’s Deputy Director in the early 2000’s. Word has it, he left DOT to attend grad school. Even less reliable word has it, he got a master’s degree in planning at Columbia and spent some time working the New York City Housing Authority before being invited back to DOT to take over as Director. As always, we are trying to confirm this information and have a call in to DOT’s press office that is not being returned. If you know any more about Benson or have any educated analysis on what is now happening with DOT’s Bike Program, feel free to drop a line to StreetsBlog.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

DOT Makes the Case for Bike Routes Parallel to W. Houston St.

By Aaron Naparstek |
Last Tuesday night Ryan Russo and Josh Benson from the Department of Transportation presented a plan to Manhattan’s Community Board 2 to create a safer east-west bike route across Lower Manhattan. With three cyclists having been killed on Houston Street over the last two years and major reconstruction of the street currently underway, members of […]

Got a Cycling Question for DOT? Ask Josh Benson.

By Brad Aaron |
Getting in on the Bike Month action, City Room has DOT bike program coordinator Josh Benson answering reader questions this week. As of this writing, over 100 comments have come in since the thread opened yesterday afternoon. While many concern the usual stuff — cars encroaching into bike lanes, problems finding secure parking, etc. — […]

NYC Gets Its First-Ever Physically-Separated Bike Path

By Aaron Naparstek |
The Department of Transportation revealed plans for New York City’s first-ever physically-separated bike lane, or "cycle track," at a Manhattan Community Board 4 meeting last night. The new bike path will run southbound on Ninth Avenue from W. 23rd to W. 16th Street in Manhattan. Unlike the typical Class II on-street bike lane in which […]

Take Action: Support the Prince/Bleecker Bike Route Plan

By Aaron Naparstek |
Ian Dutton and community leaders speak out at an August 30, 2006 rally for bike safety on Houston Street. This comes from Ian Dutton, a member of Manhattan’s Community Board 2 who has been fighting to improve bicyclist safety on Houston Street: Those of you who have been following the saga know that last year, […]

Tonight: Help DOT Build a River-to-River Bike Connection

By Aaron Naparstek |
DOT wants 20th and 21st Streets to be Lower Manhattan’s prime river-to-river bike route. If you are interested in contributing to the development and improvement of New York City’s bicycle network, show up at this meeting tonight: The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 will hear a presentation by Josh Benson, the Department of […]