Sarah Goodyear
Recent Posts
Bike-Sharing in New York: Could It Happen Here?
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A bike-share station in Lyon, France It was a vacation in Paris a couple of months ago that gave David Haskell, executive director of the Forum for Urban Design, the idea. Haskell was so impressed by the preparations the French capital is making for its massive municipal bike-sharing program that he decided he had to […]
A Rising Bicycle Tide in Mexico City
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Back in April, Marcelo Ebrad, the mayor of Mexico City, announced he wanted those who worked in his administration to ride bicycles to work one day a month (at right, Ebrard, center, kicks off the program). Many were shocked at the idea, or simply laughed it off. But this excellent article in the San Diego […]
Slow Going for New Bus Lanes
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The Village Voice took a trip down lower Broadway earlier this week to see how smoothly the new bus lanes were flowing. The answer? Despite reports of stepped-up enforcement, change is not coming quickly to the traffic culture of Lower Manhattan — as you can see from the picture at right, which shows a bus […]
No Exit, Upper West Side Style
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Over on the New York Times’s City Room blog, Sewell Chan reports on opposition to the July 8 closing of the West 72nd St. exit ramp from the West Side Highway, a move that has been fought in court for years by neighborhood activists. The off-ramp is being demolished at the request of the Extell […]
Take Back the Streets, for the Kids
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An article in Sunday’s New York Times discussed the decline of stickball and other games on city streets: The fun stopped, or moved inside, depending upon whom you ask, thanks to (pick two or three): television; two-income families; air-conditioning; digital technology; organized sports, crime; smaller families and roomier apartments; too much homework and other responsibilities; […]
How US Energy Emissions Compare (It’s Not Pretty)
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This eye-opening map from the Sightline Institute’s blog uses US Department of Energy figures to demonstrate how individual states stack up against nations from around the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions from energy use. The figures are especially astonishing when you look at the population comparisons (which can be found in spreadsheet form […]
No Love for One-Way Proposal in Jackson Heights
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Congestion in Jackson Heights: The DOT needs some new ideas The Queens Times-Ledger reports on the "cool reception" given last week by Queens Community Board 3 and City Council Member Hiram Monserrate to the DOT’s proposal for a one-way pair of streets on 35th and 37th avenues. What’s most disappointing about the debate so far […]
Carpetbagging Drivers Head to North Carolina for Plates
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On his frequent runs and bike rides around his Jackson Heights neighborhood and nearby Corona and Elmhurst, Will Sweeney recently started noticing something strange: a lot of license plates from North Carolina. Sweeney writes: Two weekends ago, I decided to take an informal and unscientific survey of license plates in these three neighborhoods. I found […]
Jackson Heights: New Front in One-Way Battle
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A view of 35th Ave. in Jackson Heights, part of the DOT’s proposed one-way pair for the neighborhood Apparently undeterred by the resounding community rejection of proposed one-way streets in Park Slope in March, the city’s Department of Transportation is proposing changing two major thoroughfares in Jackson Heights from two-way to one-way. The proposal, which […]
Call for Ped Safety Measures on Third and Fourth Avenues
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A third-grader was hit on her way to school here two weeks ago. You have to move fast to beat the turning traffic on Fourth Avenue. DOT Deputy Commissioner for Brooklyn Dalila Hall faced some tough questioning from members of the public at a meeting on pedestrian safety on Third and Fourth avenues in Brooklyn […]
Motor Vehicles Leading Cause of NYC Child Injury Deaths
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According to a new study out from the city’s Department of Health, children in New York are seven times less likely than children nationwide to die as car passengers. That’s the good news, likely the result of the fact that our kids spend a lot less time in cars than most American children. The bad […]
Blind Spots in SUVs Still Killing Kids
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Growing public awareness of the danger posed to children by the huge blind spots in SUVs has led to likely passage of what is known as the Kids and Cars act in this session of Congress. But it remains unclear whether the now-weakened bill will adequately address rear-visibility issues that have led to the deaths […]