Hello Streetsblog readers. As you may have noticed, we recently launched our year-end online pledge drive. What I’m pleased to announce in this post is that, thanks to our friends at Bicycle Habitat, everyone who gives $50 or more online will be entered to win a new Specialized hybrid bike. The lucky winner will choose between a Sirrus or a Vita. Take a look:

Reader donations help Streetsblog and Streetfilms produce reporting, commentary, and videos in support of streets that work for people, not cars. We’re the site you can count on to get stories about street redesigns right the first time, and we provide the most in-depth coverage of important issues that shape our neighborhoods, like public plazas in Queens, parking reform in Brooklyn, bus improvements in the Bronx, pedestrian safety in Staten Island, or bike lanes in Manhattan.

With a mayoral race coming up in 2013, we’ve got a lot we want to do in the year ahead. Your tax-deductible gift will help us:

• Raise expectations for the mayoral contenders’ transportation platforms and inform readers about how the candidates plan to deliver complete streets, better bus service, robust transit funding, and effective traffic enforcement.
• Make the case for a smart road pricing system to fund upgrades to the city’s transit network, as the Cuomo administration decides how to rebuild after Sandy.
• Keep the pressure on NYPD to reform its shoddy traffic enforcement and crash investigation policies.

We’ve been doing these pledge drives for a few years now, and with each new one, our readers pitch in more. So far this fall we’ve raised $35,000 from our annual benefit, and we’re counting on our readers to help us reach our fundraising goal of $60,000 for 2012.

Thank you to everyone who has helped keep us going. Please give today and support journalism that makes our streets safer, greener, and more livable.

— Ben