
	January 19, 2012

How we traverse New York City is changing -- new routes and connections appear every week. These countless improvements are the direct result of you taking action. In the subways and on the street, more than 58,000 New Yorkers had a face-to-face conversation with T.A.'s street teams. From the T.A. Action Center -- where New Yorkers have a direct connection to elected officials and city agencies -- you sent more than 20,000 faxes, e-mails and letters to New York City's power players. Your success is seen on every street corner.
Scroll down to see what you accomplished in 2011.

In 2012, T.A. will connect you to new neighborhoods, from Grand Concourse to Coney Island, and connect new communities to their decision makers -- winning safer streets and securing public transit where New York is least connected. Transit hubs will connect to bike lanes, pedestrian spaces will be connected to the neighborhoods where they are most needed and New Yorkers like you will be more connected than ever before to the power to change your community.

You are now one of more than 54,000 New Yorkers in T.A.'s expanding reach. Currently, we are gathering the tribes of New York City's bike culture for an online hub that will connect the growing ranks of bicyclists to bicycling's diverse communities. Soon, we will convene a coalition of social justice organizations -- connecting public transit access as a critical resource, as essential as jobs and housing. We are going to publish groundbreaking research on how the NYPD investigates traffic crashes, and why their investigations rarely produce prosecutions. This spring, we will triple our staff of Bicycle Ambassadors, so every new bicyclist will be educated about the rules of the road. With our first ever student volunteer committee, and a citywide campaign to recruit young people to fight for safer streets in their communities, we will be youth-led for the first time in our 39 year history.

Bicycling is going to explode into New York's consciousness -- and we will engage every new rider. In the coming year, we will mobilize more New Yorkers than ever before and cement the changes we have won on our streets. In 2012, T.A. will connect you to your neighbors, your neighborhood's elected officials and every other neighborhood in New York City.

New York City's Stankest Subway And Other Things You Told Us You wrote the job description for the MTA's next chairperson. You decided how the MTA would schedule service disruptions. You voted on which subway station smelled the worst. More than ever before, T.A. heard what transit riders thought in 2011 -- with poll results tallying to more than 1,500 -- and we broadcast those opinions far and wide, generating press coverage that drove home the point. More often than not, your opinion became the new reality, or at least cause célèbre, for New York City's seven million daily transit riders.		Prospect Park West Defended Can you litigate safety off of a street? Thanks to thousands of Brooklyn residents, the answer is a resounding "No Way!" When a small group of well-heeled NIMBY neighbors decided to sue New York City -- demanding the removal of pedestrian safety improvements and a protected bicycle lane -- local support for the safety improvements mounted. After a children's bike parade with more than 750 attendees, hundreds at an 8 am rally and two unanimous community board votes in support of the safety improvements, the lawsuit was dismissed. Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker

Better Data From the NYPD Image courtesy Dmitry Gudkov After years of misinformation about the state of traffic enforcement, T.A. succeeded in passing Local Law 12 in the New York City Council -- the Saving Lives Through Better Information Act. Now the state of local streets -- crashes, fatalities, summonses issued -- is part of the public record. The NYPD is reporting monthly on the internet, precinct by precinct, how safe they're making your neighborhood. Now when you want to change your street you can be more informed than ever.		East Side Success x 2 When East Side Volunteer Committee Chair Steve Vaccaro led a group of T.A. volunteers to petition on the corner of Houston Street and Second Avenue, no one thought those signatures would result in the longest protected bicycle lane in the nation. But after T.A. volunteers collected more than 2,500 letters, and another 1,400 New Yorkers like you petitioned for the cause, we won! The East Side Bikeway will be expanded -- providing safe bicycling space from Houston to 125th Street. And that's not the only improvement on Manhattan's East Side. A nine-year advocacy campaign saw success in 2011, when the City finally agreed to complete the East River Greenway, allowing for riverfront walking and bicycling all around Manhattan.

#BikeNYC #winning Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker From public opinion polls to the plan for public bike share, bicycling has become a reality for more New Yorkers than ever, and they couldn't be happier. Polls conducted by Quinnipiac University, NY1-Marist and Penn Schoen Berland shared a common result: an overwhelming majority of New Yorkers love our new bike lanes. Now, those lanes are about to get a lot more use. In 2011, after years of T.A. advocacy, the NYC DOT announced a plan to bring 10,000 public bicycles to our streets -- making New York City home to the largest public bike share program in the nation.		Play Streets Become Permanent What began as an innovative experiment to bring play space to park-free neighborhoods is now an official citywide program. Mayor Bloomberg's PlanNYC sustainability initiative was updated last spring to include a new addition: playing in the street. The regularly scheduled street openings -- complete with activities and programing to get kids playing -- are now official City policy. Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker


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