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
West Harlem CB Members to DOT: Let Drivers Use Neighborhood as Shortcut
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Riverside Drive in West Harlem is shaping up to be another test case for DOT’s commitment to safety improvements, and whether the agency will allow ignorance of basic street design principles and fear of change guide its decisions. DOT didn’t put bike lanes in its road diet plan for Riverside Drive. Now, key members of […]
Bronx Beep Ruben Diaz Calls on State DOT to Transform Sheridan Expressway
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The effort to transform the Sheridan Expressway got a boost this morning from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., who in his State of the Borough address called on the Cuomo administration to take action. The 2013 proposal from the Department of City Planning would turn the little-used stub highway in the South Bronx into a boulevard, opening […]
Eastern Queens Electeds Want Bus Lanes. Will DOT Deliver?
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Council Member Rory Lancman and Assembly Member Michael Simanowitz have taken up the cause of opposing bus lanes for Select Bus Service in their eastern Queens districts. While the pair has gotten a lot of attention, they are outnumbered by almost a dozen city, state, and federal elected officials along the route urging the city to […]
Trottenberg: To Reach Vision Zero Goals, DOT Will Need More Resources
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After unveiling its pedestrian safety action plan for Queens yesterday, DOT released plans for Manhattan and the Bronx today. (Staten Island will come tomorrow, followed by Brooklyn.) The reports each follow the same pattern, identifying problem areas in depth but describing solutions in general terms. It’s clears from the sheer mileage of streets in need of […]
The Politics of NYC Toll Reform — What’s Different This Time?
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Next month’s MTA fare and toll increase will be the seventh hike in 15 years, noted “Gridlock” Sam Schwartz this morning. “But there is one traveler that hasn’t seen any change in the cost of travel,” he said. “And that’s the person that drives into Manhattan.” Schwartz was speaking at the public launch event for the Move NY […]
DOT Proposes Roundabout for Dangerous Longwood Intersection
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New York seemingly has a traffic signal on every corner. To improve safety at one Bronx intersection, DOT is going with something different: a roundabout. The proposal is part of a larger road diet for Intervale Avenue in Longwood [PDF]. The plan was supported by a Bronx Community Board 2 committee in a 7-1 vote earlier […]
The Complete Guide to the Final Move NY Plan
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After years of fine-tuning, the Move NY coalition has released the final details of its plan to reduce congestion and fund transit by reforming New York City’s dysfunctional toll system [PDF]. We’ll have a full report from the launch event later today. In the meantime, here’s a breakdown of the proposal in all its detail. […]
Diversity Plaza Wishes You a Happy Valentine’s Day
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In preparation for Valentine’s Day, the Neighborhood Plaza Partnership set up a camera in Jackson Heights’ Diversity Plaza to learn how to say “I love you” in some of the 138 languages spoken in Queens. Diversity Plaza lives up to its name. In the video you’ll hear Farsi, Bangla, Hungarian, Italian, Urdu, Basaa, and Tibetan. Located in the heart […]
CB 3 Committee Asks DOT for Protected Bikeway on Chrystie Street
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The community board covering the Lower East Side and Chinatown is set to ask DOT to transform the Chrystie Street bike lane from barely visible stripes blocked by double-parked cars into a two-way protected bikeway along Sara D. Roosevelt Park, connecting the Manhattan Bridge with the Second Avenue protected bike lane. The transportation committee of […]
Albany Has Already Saddled the MTA With More Debt Than 30 Nations
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As Albany contemplates paying for the MTA capital program by borrowing as much as $15 billion, it’s worth pausing to examine the debt load straphangers are already shouldering. To put it in perspective, the MTA carries more debt than Bolivia, Tanzania, and Luxembourg combined, according to numbers compiled by the Straphangers Campaign. The MTA owes more than at […]
RPA: Growing Outer Boroughs Need New Generation of Transit Investment
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With the boroughs outside Manhattan adding people and jobs faster than the city core, New York needs to reorient its transit priorities, argues the Regional Plan Association in a new report. The authors warn that increasing travel in the other boroughs will strain the local bus system and lead more people to drive, causing more traffic congestion and […]
Trottenberg: DOT Staffing Up to Add More Select Bus Service Routes
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The City Council transportation committee held a hearing today on the de Blasio administration’s Bus Rapid Transit plans, giving council members an opportunity to prod DOT about its BRT progress and show their support (or lack thereof) for bus lanes and more robust surface transit improvements than the Select Bus Service program has yielded so […]