Transportation Alternatives Unveils Policy Platform for 2013 Elections

At its annual membership meeting last night, Transportation Alternatives unveiled its transportation policy platform heading into the thick of this year’s election cycle. Primary day — September 10 — is less than six months away, and TA is calling on candidates in the mayoral and City Council races to include these principles in their campaign platforms:

  1. Safe Neighborhood Streets For All: To ensure neighborhood streets offer safe space for local families, seniors and children to bike, walk and play, the City must fulfill local demand for Play Streets, 20 mph Slow Zones, bike lanes, Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes for Seniors in 50 neighborhoods a year.
  2. Transportation Choice On Commercial Streets: To guarantee New Yorkers have the safe and convenient access to local businesses allowed by a robust variety of transportation choices, the City needs to provide protected bike lanes, Select Bus Service, bike share and pedestrian refuges and plazas on four major roadways in each of the city’s five boroughs each year.
  3. Zero Tolerance Traffic Enforcement: To make New York City streets as safe as they can be, the New York City Police Department needs to enact a zero tolerance policy for dangerous driving by setting a multi-year goal of eliminating traffic deaths and cracking down on the deadliest traffic violations like speeding and failure to yield.

In June, TA will launch a website where supporters can send messages to candidates asking them to support safe streets. The site will also link to voter registration forms and information about the candidates.

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Streetfilms: Making Streets Safer for Seniors

|
Transportation Alternatives’ Safe Routes for Seniors campaign began in 2003 to encourage senior citizens to walk more by improving the pedestrian environment. Funded by the New York State Department of Health, it was a pioneering program to address the needs of elderly pedestrians. In 2008, New York City launched its own Safe Streets for Seniors […]

Doctors’ Note Says Complete Streets Are Vital to New York’s Health

|
Transportation Alternatives and the New York Chapter of the American Association of Family Physicians today released a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, signed by 140 medical professionals from a broad spectrum of specialties, praising the city’s bike and pedestrian infrastructure as essential to the health of New Yorkers. It’s a solid counterweight to the hysteria surrounding […]

Residents Call for Better Crosstown Bike Routes on the Upper East Side

|
About 30 Upper East Side residents hit the streets last Saturday to evaluate potential routes for crosstown bike lanes in their neighborhood. For the “street scan” organized by Transportation Alternatives and Bike New York, the volunteers split up evenly between people on foot and people on bikes. Both groups surveyed three possible east-west routes to document current conditions for biking. Currently, the Upper East […]

Congestion Pricing Plan Includes a “Livable Streets Lock Box”

|
There is a nice surprise for City Council, neighborhood groups and transportation reformers in the congestion pricing plan approved by the Traffic Mitigation Commission yesterday. On page 8 of the plan, in a section called "Securing of parking revenues," the commission proposes dedicating all revenue raised within the congestion pricing zone from additional parking meter […]

TA Urges DOT to Expand Safe Streets for Seniors

|
TA recommends longer crossing times than DOT’s Safe Streets for Seniors program currently employs. Older pedestrians are probably the city’s most vulnerable street users, much more likely to die in traffic collisions than younger New Yorkers. It’s a public health concern that extends beyond fatality statistics: Fear of the street keeps seniors cooped up inside, […]

This Week in Livable Streets Events

|
Sunday’s Tour de Queens is shaping up to be the big event on this week’s Streetsblog Calendar. Transportation Alternatives will also offer opportunities for residents of the Bronx and Manhattan to get involved in improving their neighborhood streets. Tuesday: Transportation Alternatives East Side Committee Meeting. Transportation Alternatives is kicking off an exciting new campaign focused […]