Wednesday’s Headlines: Tuesday Bloody Tuesday Edition

Photo: Gersh Kuntzman
Photo: Gersh Kuntzman

Just once, we hope a voter in Ottumwa, Ia., or Powdersville, S.C., will sidle up to Mayor de Blasio and say, “We love your brand of progressive politics, but for now, why not had back to New York City, where fatalities on your roads are up 21 percent over the same period last year?”

It would be a fair question, especially after Tuesday, when two people were killed in separate crashes by truck drivers backing up over them. The Daily News and the Post both covered the 76-year-old man who was run down on First Avenue in Manhattan (Streetsblog had it, too). And that back-over incident occurred a few hours after a motorcyclist in Queens was run over by a backing-up private sanitation truck.

There wasn’t much other news yesterday, but here’s what we got:

  • Someone was pulling emergency brakes on subway trains, delaying everyone. (NY Times)
  • Advocates for the disabled appear to be closer to winning a case against the MTA for failing to install enough elevators. (amNY)
  • Council Speaker Corey Johnson trolling the NYPD’s 13th Precinct might just be the best thing we have seen all year. It’s peak Johnson. (via Twitter)
  • City Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez says taxi drivers should be exempt from congestion pricing — even though taxis are roughly 50 percent of the congestion in Manhattan, and the surcharge cabbies currently charge is passed along to passengers. This misguided bid to help struggling cabbies — who do need help — is probably DOA. (amNY)
  • The 7 train is improving! (NY1)
  • In case you missed it, the Brooklyn Navy Yard now has a ferry stop. (NY1)
  • And, finally, Streetsblog’s David Meyer is going deep on his walk along Memory Lane (which, we’re told, has a protected bike lane!).

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Cartoon Tuesday: Add It Up

|
Related on Streetsblog: The Case for Active Transportation, by the Numbers Shaping the 2009 Transpo Debate: Rockefeller Foundation’s Nick Turner Nobelist Krugman Joins Call for Federal Transportation Spending Transportation for America Launches Legislative Campaign Cartoon by Andy Singer

Cartoon Tuesday: Pricing Post-Mortem Edition

|
Also particularly germane today is this CARtoon by Andy Singer, the first of what we plan to make a regular series on Streetsblog. Singer is a Minnesota-based cartoonist known in the livable streets universe for skewering car culture in strips like this one.

This Week: Biking Behavior, Road Pricing, and the Waterfront

|
Most of the action on the post-Thanksgiving calendar is crammed into a very busy Tuesday. Tuesday: The 2010 Waterfront Conference features an impressive roster of speakers, including Mayor Bloomberg, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, Port Authority chief Chris Ward, NYC EDC President Seth Pinsky, and author Bill McKibben. The all-day event, which will focus on the […]

This Week: Highway Teardowns, Stopping Speeding, RPA Gala

|
Tuesday night is going to be busy, with three great events scheduled for the same evening. Then, the leading lights of the transportation world will gather at the Regional Plan Association’s annual assembly on Friday. The theme this year is “Innovation and the Global City” and speakers include Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy and former New York […]

This Week: G Train Strategy Session, Sandy and Social Media

|
This afternoon, readers in the Boston area will have another chance to hear from a livable streets leader when Streetsblog founding editor Aaron Naparstek, a fellow at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning, talks with Chicago DOT chief Gabe Klein. “Chicago Forward: Toward a User-Friendly City” begins at 4:00 at the MIT Media Lab. More info […]