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
Eyes on the Street: Reconstructing the East River Greenway
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Last week, we reported about the Blueway Plan for the East River waterfront, which includes a deck over the FDR Drive at 14th Street to fix a notorious pinch point in the East Side greenway. In the meantime, the greenway is receiving some nuts-and-bolts upgrades. The bikeway in East River Park, long prone to ponding, is […]
Envisioning a Safer Fourth Avenue in Park Slope
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Last night, DOT staff led a public workshop sponsored by Borough President Marty Markowitz’s Fourth Avenue Task Force on how to improve 28 blocks of Fourth Avenue in Park Slope, between 15th Street and Pacific Street. DOT expects to have a draft plan for the avenue, one of the borough’s most dangerous streets, within two months. This project follows DOT’s […]
Quinn, Citing “Middle Class Squeeze,” Ignores High Cost of Transportation
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Just hours before her final State of the City address today, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn released a report on the challenges facing middle-class New Yorkers. But her vision has a conspicuous blind spot: the transportation costs consuming more than one in ten dollars of the average NYC household budget. Quinn’s report talks a lot about housing policy, […]
State Budget Includes $625 Million Road Bailout for 2013
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For years, Albany has raided the state’s highway trust fund, using general tax revenue to patch holes. This year, the governor’s budget, as filed in the Senate and Assembly, includes a mammoth $625 million road bailout, larger than the $519 million projected in the financial plan and higher than most trust fund bailouts in previous years. The Dedicated Highway and […]
London Mayor: Get Bigshots Out of Cars, Onto Transit “Like Everybody Else”
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London Mayor Boris Johnson, whose entertaining quotes about Mike Bloomberg have been ricocheting around New York’s political circles today, could teach a thing or two to the candidates running for mayor here in NYC. Yesterday, “Boris from Islington” called in to a radio talk show with a recorded question for Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg about Parliament’s profligate […]
Bridging the Bike Gender Gap in Corona With a Program for Latinas
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Compared to the population at large, Latinas have high rates of diabetes and obesity, putting them at elevated risk of heart disease. At the same time, women are less likely than men to get around by bicycle. In an effort to integrate active transportation into the daily lives of Latina residents, community groups in Queens […]
Sneak Preview: Stringer’s “Blueway Plan” for East River Greenway
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Compared to its West Side counterpart, the East River Greenway needs some help. It could serve as a continuous waterfront park and a trunk route for bicycling on the East Side, but it’s hampered by missing links, poor maintenance, and the barrier created by the FDR Drive. Today at his State of the Borough address, […]
Scared by Dangerous Traffic? Take a Xanax
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Once in a while, a story comes along that perfectly encapsulates how dangerous traffic forces people to re-orient their lives. This example, relayed to us by a reader, comes from a recent lecture at the psychiatry department of a major Manhattan hospital about anxiety disorders in the elderly. The lecturer brought up the case of an […]
By More Than 2-to-1, CB 7 Supports Columbus Avenue Bike Lane Extension
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Last night, Manhattan Community Board 7 signaled its support for an extension of the Columbus Avenue protected bike lane — which currently runs one mile, from 96th to 77th Streets — north to 110th Street and south to 69th Street [PDF]. The 26-11 vote (with one abstention) was a much wider margin than CB 7’s 23-19-1 […]
Does Cuomo’s Budget Include Tappan Zee Subsidies?
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Governor Cuomo’s state budget proposal includes hundreds of millions of dollars in discretionary spending for what one administration official has called “transformational projects.” It’s not clear what the loosely-defined pot of money will be used for, but so far the rhetoric indicates that Cuomo’s wide, transit-less, double-span Tappan Zee replacement bridge could be one recipient. This […]
Manhattan Parking Meter Rates Increase, Nobody Notices
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Did you hear? It didn’t get press coverage, but a week ago rates for on-street parking in Manhattan below 110th Street increased by 50 cents. The lack of attention this story has gotten is truly amazing, given the media’s usual windshield perspective. As of January 25, meters below 96th Street now charge $3.50 an hour, […]
Enthusiasm Builds for Slow Zone as DOT Stonewalls on Bronx Park Safety Fix
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Residents of the Bronx’s Norwood section have long dealt with missing sidewalks and crosswalks on the street encircling Williamsbridge Oval Park, the neighborhood’s central green space. After getting stonewalled by DOT’s Bronx Borough Office, neighborhood leaders are now hoping a Slow Zone application will get DOT to take action. Since 2009, advocates have been asking for basic […]