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
Meet One of the Minds Behind TrafficStat, NYPD’s Street Safety Initiative
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A report laying out Mayor Bill de Blasio’s traffic safety strategy, including a section on policing, is due in less than two weeks. In the meantime, precinct commanders have taken wildly different approaches to the issue, some more successfully than others. As a department-wide traffic safety policy comes into focus, TrafficStat, NYPD’s traffic analysis initiative, is […]
Restricting Housing Near Transit Won’t Make NYC More Affordable
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Weeks into his first term on the City Council, Antonio Reynoso is beginning to negotiate the tricky politics of housing and development in the neighborhoods he represents. So far, it’s tough to decipher whether his office will support the construction of walkable, transit-accessible housing that New York needs in order to keep the cost of […]
Manhattan Community Boards Want to Fix 57 Dangerous Places for Peds
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Yesterday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer compiled a list of 57 pedestrian danger hotspots identified by community board district managers and sent it to city agency heads serving on Mayor de Blasio’s Vision Zero task force. Many of the locations in Brewer’s list have a long track record as dangerous locations, including many where people […]
A Bronx Blast From the Past: Car-Free Grand Concourse Gets CB 4 Support
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It’s been an on-again, off-again tradition for at least two decades: Turning the center lanes of the Grand Concourse into a car-free space for stress-free walking, biking and exercise. With an overwhelming vote of support from Community Board 4 earlier this week, it seems this tradition is poised for a return this summer. In the […]
CB 9 Stands by Morningside Road Diet, But DOT Does Not
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A plan to improve pedestrian safety on speeding-plagued Morningside Avenue in Harlem, supported by one community board but stalled by another, is on track for months of additional meetings as DOT goes back to the drawing board. The current plan, which would remove excess car lanes to create space for turn lanes and pedestrian islands, received a […]
First Up for Ydanis Rodriguez: Override of NYPD Hit-and-Run Data Veto
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Today’s transportation committee meeting, the first chaired by Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez, was short and sweet. The new chair opened with a statement outlining his goals for the 13-member committee, which minutes later unanimously passed an override of Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of a bill that would give the council more information about NYPD’s hit-and-run investigations. […]
Brewer Asks Community Boards to Identify Dangerous Places for Walking
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When it comes to street safety improvements, New York’s community boards are usually in a position where they react to proposals from NYC DOT. Now, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer could turn that dynamic on its head: She’s asked each board’s district manager to identify three traffic safety hotspots, saying that she’ll work with city […]
Lentol Wants 20 MPH Speed Limits on Big, Dangerous Brooklyn Streets
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This afternoon, Assembly Member Joseph Lentol announced that he’s sent a letter to Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg asking for 20 mph speed limits on the busiest, deadliest roads in his district. “There are three main streets within my district that are notorious for speeders – McGuinness Boulevard, Kent Avenue, and Park Avenue,” Lentol wrote in […]
Advos Call for Dedicated Fund After Cuomo Budget Again Omits Bike-Ped
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Two and a half years after he signed the state’s complete streets bill into law, Governor Cuomo has again declined to write dedicated funds for pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure — and, therefore, pedestrian and cyclist safety — into the executive budget. A coalition of over 50 advocacy groups and locals governments under the banner New Yorkers […]
Eastern Queens Advocates Hope to Turn “Motor Parkway” Into Greenway
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Union Turnpike, running 10 miles through the midsection of Queens and across the border to Nassau County, is one of the borough’s most unsafe places to walk or bike. Now, a group of eastern Queens residents is looking to extend an existing walking and biking path through state- and city-owned property parallel to the multi-lane road. […]
78th Precinct Targets Drivers Who Fail to Yield to Pedestrians
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Last week, Police Commissioner Bratton said the 78th Precinct and its commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Michael Ameri, made him “proud of PD” by clearing snow from the Bergen Street bike lane. Here’s something even better: The 78th has amped up enforcement against drivers committing one of the city’s deadliest traffic violations — failing to yield to pedestrians […]
At Vigil for Ella Bandes, a Plea to Put an End to Traffic Violence
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Yesterday, nearly 200 people gathered on the sidewalk at a busy intersection on the Brooklyn-Queens border to remember 23-year-old Ella Bandes and hundreds of other people who have lost their lives to NYC traffic since the start of last year. Victims’ families, advocates, medical professionals and elected officials called for slower speed limits and more […]