Stephen Miller
In spring 2017, Stephen wrote for Streetsblog USA, covering the livable streets movement and transportation policy developments around the nation.
From August 2012 to October 2015, he was a reporter for Streetsblog NYC, covering livable streets and transportation issues in the city and the region. After joining Streetsblog, he covered the tail end of the Bloomberg administration and the launch of Citi Bike. Since then, he covered mayoral elections, the de Blasio administration's ongoing Vision Zero campaign, and New York City's ever-evolving street safety and livable streets movements.
Recent Posts
DOT Scraps Bus Lanes in Kew Gardens Hills for Flushing-Jamaica SBS
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This afternoon, the City Council overwhelmingly passed a bill that requires DOT to work with the MTA on a citywide Bus Rapid Transit plan to be updated every two years. The vote came a day after DOT told bus lane opponents in eastern Queens that it will water down a Select Bus Service proposal in their neighborhood. In many ways, the new bill codifies much […]
City Council Regresses on Street Safety, Weighs Fines for Cyclists
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Less than a year ago, the City Council overwhelmingly passed a raft of bills designed to protect New Yorkers from reckless driving. Was it the beginning of a new era, where street safety is taken seriously by city legislators, or was it a fluke? The council could go either way, based on a transportation committee hearing today […]
Harlem Bus Lane Foes: Good Streets for Bus Riders “Trampling Our Liberties”
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Community board meetings in central Harlem have officially gone off the deep end. A DOT plan to extend bus lanes and add turn restrictions on 125th Street was shouted down last night by the same hecklers who have filibustered street safety improvements at Community Board 10 for years. Noticeably absent from last night’s meeting: People who ride the bus on 125th Street. […]
Creating Safer Streets Linking the South Bronx to Randall’s Island
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The South Bronx neighborhoods of Port Morris and Mott Haven are a stone’s throw from 480-acre Randall’s Island, but a ring of highways and industry separates residents from all that parkland. Now, the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) is working with local advocates and health researchers to create better walking and biking connections between the South Bronx and Randall’s […]
These Are the Streets Projects Vying for Your Vote in Participatory Budgeting
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On Saturday, polling places opened for participatory budgeting, which gives New Yorkers the opportunity to decide how to spend small pots of city capital funds on everything from schools to parks. Many of the projects up for a vote could yield safer streets and better public spaces for neighborhoods across the city. This year, 24 of the city’s […]
Jim Brennan’s Transpo $ Plan: Gas Tax, Income Tax, and Forced City Funding
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A bill from Assembly Member Jim Brennan, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, would create a transportation finance authority to collect new taxes and help fund the MTA as well as roads, bridges, and transit statewide. It’s the first major transportation funding proposal to come out of Albany this year. “Time is growing […]
Helen Rosenthal Asks DOT to Install Protected Bike Lane on Amsterdam Ave
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Council Member Helen Rosenthal has come out strongly for a protected bike lane on Amsterdam Avenue, sending a letter to DOT this week asking for a plan to calm traffic and provide a northbound complement to the Columbus Avenue bike lane. “We need to make Amsterdam Avenue safer for families, and that’s just what this street redesign […]
Eyes on the Street: WABC News SUV *PWNS* This Sidewalk Extension
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New York City’s placard class — the elite few who park wherever they want, without consequence — obviously includes police and other public servants. But don’t forget the press. This afternoon, two press SUVs, including one from WABC-TV, were parked on the sidewalk at the corner of Centre and Leonard in Lower Manhattan. The area, filled with courthouses and government […]
Cuomo Taps Syracuse Ex-Mayor Matt Driscoll, His “Go-To Guy,” for State DOT
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News came yesterday afternoon that Governor Andrew Cuomo is changing leadership at the state Department of Transportation, replacing Joan McDonald with former Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll. Cuomo canned McDonald, who’s been on the job since 2011, over a dispute about snow removal in Buffalo, according to Jimmy Vielkind of Capital New York. Driscoll might be familiar to Streetsblog […]
Neighborhood Residents Ask DOT to Tame Deadly Mosholu Parkway
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With its rolling curves and park-like setting, Mosholu Parkway might look pretty to people sitting behind a windshield. But for people on foot, it’s a roaring Robert Moses-era surface highway, up to eight lanes wide, running between Norwood and Bedford Park in the Bronx. The road divides the park and provides few places to safely cross. Now, residents are asking DOT to make some changes. The […]
Bed-Stuy CB Freaks Out Over Adding Pedestrian Space to Fulton and Utica
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Creating more space for pedestrians at a dangerous, crowded transfer point between bus lines and the subway — sounds like a no-brainer, right? Not at Brooklyn Community Board 3, where the default position is to reflexively reject even the smallest street safety change. Fulton Street and Utica Avenue are both dangerous streets that the de Blasio administration has targeted […]
Expecting DOT Street Safety Projects to Deliver More Than the Minimum
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A DOT plan to add painted bike lanes and sharrows to Spring Street [PDF] doesn’t go far enough to prioritize walking and biking, says Community Board 2 transportation vice-chair Maury Schott. Last Thursday, DOT presented the proposal to the CB 2 transportation committee. Two-thirds of the audience supported the plan, meeting attendees said, and neighborhood NIMBY […]