T.A. StreetBeat
T.A. StreetBeat March 15, 2012   
Where to go before you roll: It's BikeNYC.org.
Launching this April, a one-stop hub for all things bicycling in New York City.



Volunteer @subtle116
tweeted @transalt:
It's cold, warm up w/ free coffee thx to @transalt BK volunteers on the #ManhattanBridge for the re-opening of North side path.
Free coffee and caffeinated advocacy -- follow T.A. on Facebook and Twitter to find out where.

T.A. in the News

One of the city's largest transit advocacy groups is lashing out, calling the fare hikes unfair and demanding the City Council put the brakes on the plan. A spokesperson for Transportation Alternatives says, "Over the past six years, New Yorkers' public transit fare has risen four times while neither New York City nor New York State has chipped in a single dollar more."

 -- CBS New York, 3/6.



 
Take Action: Stop the Fare Hike

Council Member Vacca (center) swore he'd fight the fare hike. Take action to hold Albany accountable, and him to his word.
Image courtesy Nicole Rosenthal
Bus and subway fares are about to skyrocket, with a whopping 7.5 percent spike scheduled for January. New Yorkers like you -- a mass of transit riders 7.5 million strong -- pay those rising costs every day. Now 7.5 million New Yorkers are going to stop that fare hike in its tracks.

At a City Council hearing last week, a few elected officials already promised to shoulder the fight against the fare hike. T.A. testified, and so did Ja-Esha Ramos, a 27-year-old native New Yorker. "I just learned that the City of New York was not paying its fair share of the public transit budget," she testified. "How can this be? We are all New Yorkers. We fully understand the importance of our transit system."

In 2013, your subway fare will be hiked for a fourth time, but New York City isn't contributing a single dime more than they were in 1992, and Albany has seized more than $260 million dedicated transit funds since 2009. With the cost to New Yorkers about to go up again, transit riders are looking to elected officials in Albany and the City to stop the fare hike before next year.

Hearings on the fare hike begin in September. That's six months to make as much noise as possible. But, New Yorkers are already speaking out. As Ja-Esha put it in her testimony, "After three fare hikes in four years, I said enough is enough."

Along with Council Member Brad Lander, City Council Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca agreed. "I will support all efforts to stop this fare increase and do what I can," he promised. "The people of this city have had enough."

Promises, promises. In 2008, 2009 and 2010, New Yorkers have suffered a fare hike every year, and every year elected officials stood idly by. Talk is cheap -- it's time for action to make public transit affordable. The fare hike hits in 2013, but now is when the fight against it begins.

There's 30,000 of you reading, but that's nothing compared to New York City's 7.5 million transit riders. To count every transit rider in opposition, our friends at Change.org are hosting the citywide demand to stop the fare hike: Stand up against the fare hike.

TAKE ACTION
Transit riders have ten months to stop the fare hike. It begins when you take action now. Tell officials in Albany and New York City: I am counting on you to fight the fare hike.
 



 
Where to Go Before You Roll

In 1991, the second-ever Bike to Work Day was in black and white.
Image courtesy Genia Gould
We are about to make your bike commute easier, your Friday night more bike-friendly and the number of bicycling New Yorkers a whole lot bigger. Launching this April, it's BikeNYC.org.

BikeNYC.org is a user-friendly, open-platform events calendar, with bicycling tips and deals from local businesses and bicycle-makers. Anyone can share a bicycling-related event, and every New Yorker can use this new tool to rally a crowd, or gather a crew of bicyclists to explore a nook of New York City. But that's not all -- BikeNYC.org will feature guest curators from every spectrum of the bicycling community. These experts will help you pick and choose your ultimate bicycling experience.

The great minds behind Twitter's #BikeNYC knew New York City bicycling was about to blow up. With one hashtag, they geo-located a growing movement. With BikeNYC.org, we want to give those great minds a megaphone, and help every bicyclist find the best places to go in New York City.

Before BikeNYC was a hashtag, it wore a lot of nametags: Bike Month NYC, Bike to Work Day, Bike Week, among them. It was in 1990 that T.A. inaugurated New York City's first official celebration of bicycling, then just one day long. Then, Bike to Work Day didn't celebrate the masses as much as the minority. In 22 years, the celebration grew from one day to one week to one month, while the number of New Yorkers riding bicycles exploded.

With New Yorkers expected to take an estimated 27.5 million new bicycle rides in the first year of New York City Bike Share, the next big thing in bicycling needs to be even bolder. Bike Month is a relic of a time when bikes were marginalized, and it's going to look like geocities­.com compared to the platform we're about to launch. Bike Month will begin as usual on May 1st, but at the month's end, BikeNYC.org will keep riding, bigger, better and all year long.

This new tool is people-powered. We need you to participate, and BikeNYC.org will be great when New Yorkers like you use it. You can start right here.



 
Drivers Caught on Tape

When volunteers recorded how drivers behaved on Jay Street, anecdotes became evidence.
Watch the video.
On Jay Street in Brooklyn, there are 13 buses, five subways, three schools, two bridges and the busiest shopping district in the borough -- but when T.A. volunteers recorded how drivers used Jay Street, their footage looked more like cars-gone-wild than a bustling borough hub.

Among commuters and students who travel the Downtown Brooklyn hub, errant drivers were a common anecdote: midblock U-turns, blocking the bus stop, parking in the bike lane, dangerous, law-breaking driving, with NYPD officers and traffic agents among the offenders. But if the NYPD is setting a bad example, Downtown Brooklyn drivers are following suit. Every hour, on a single block of Jay Street:
  • 49 drivers park in the bike lane
  • 18 park in the bus stop
  • 18 make an illegal U-turn
Jay Street is packed with walkers and bicyclists, and volunteers with T.A.'s Brooklyn Committee are among them. In fact, it was Brooklyn Volunteer Committee's Paule Herodote who decided to turn anecdote into fact, organizing volunteers to monitor traffic on Jay Street for more than eight hours. Armed with astonishing results and 7+ minutes of YouTube footage, Brooklyn volunteers brought their evidence to a meeting of the NYPD 84th Precinct Community Council last month.

"The NYPD is setting a bad example for New York City drivers," Paule Herodote concluded, after the footage was shown to neighbors and her local precinct commanders. "If the enforcers don't behave, no wonder our streets are so dangerous. The NYPD caring is the first step."

There's nothing like incontrovertible evidence to make a point to those in power, and T.A.'s Brooklyn Committee has done just that. Their old-school, new-tech strategy is pure cleverness, and we would like to see it implemented around the city. Do you know a street corner you think should star in New York's Most Dangerous Streets? Roll film, and let us know.


 

Image courtesy Bre Pettis
Bicycle repair is like a kitchen-supply store, chockfull of task-specific tools. At Red Lantern Bicycles, you can learn the difference between an apple corer and a pedal wrench, and as a T.A. member, save big on the cost of classes at this Brooklyn bike shop. Learn beginner, intermediate or advance bike repair at Red Lantern's education program, and shop around! T.A. members' 15 percent discount extends to accessories, bicycles, clothing and parts. Unsure if a third hand is a bike tool or a byproduct of New York City pollution, but not a T.A. member? Join T.A. today.



 
Q & A on Bicycling and the Law

T.A. East Side Volunteer Committee Chair Steve Vaccaro (left) isn't just a master petitioner. He's a lawyer, too.
Do New Yorkers still have rights, once they choose to ride a bike? Did you know the NYPD gave bicyclists more tickets than truck drivers last year? Is going the wrong way right? Find out the answers to these questions and more at a Q & A on Bicycling and the Law, starring T.A.'s own Steve Vaccaro, Esq.

T.A. has teamed up with the 5 Boro Bike Club to host an evening of legalese at REI's new Manhattan location. Steve Vaccaro will outline the laws of interest to New York City bicyclists, explain what to do in case of a crash and talk about ticket blitzes and how it effects bicycling in parks. On March 23rd, get lawyered up.

Q & A on Bicycling and the Law
Friday, March 23, 2012
6:30 pm
REI Community Room
295 Lafayette Street
Manhattan



 
Street Memorial Ride and Walk

A Ghost Bike for Jerome E. Johnson on the corner of Linden Boulevard and Schenck Avenue.
Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker
Ghost Bikes -- those white-painted bicycles on too many New York City street corners -- are a quiet testament to our dangerous roads. Each marks the site of a bicyclist's death. Every year, the Street Memorials Project hosts an event to draw attention to those fatalities.

This year, they will ride to the locations where bicyclists were killed in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx. Because the sites of pedestrian fatalities are far too numerous to visit in a single day, a walk along McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn will commemorate the countless pedestrians killed around the city, and on that dangerous street. In honor of the bicyclists and pedestrians whose deaths go unreported in the media, a Ghost Bike will be installed outside the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn at the conclusion of the Street Memorial Ride and Walk. Times and locations are subject to change, but you can follow the ride in real time.

Seventh Annual Street Memorial Ride and Walk
Sunday, March 18, 2012

Staten Island Ride
12 pm
Everything Goes Book Cafe
208 Bay Street
Staten Island

Bronx-Manhattan Ride
11:30 am
La Finca Del Sur Community Garden
East 138th Street and Grand Concourse
Bronx

Queens-Brooklyn Ride
11:30 am
Cross Bay Pkwy and Beach Channel Drive
Queens

Brooklyn Ride
12:30 pm
Avenue T and West 9th Street
Brooklyn

Convergence Locations
Ghost Bike for Chris Doyle
2:45 pm
Metropolitan Avenue and Gardner Avenue
Brooklyn

Ghost Bike for Jeffrey Axelrod
3:10 pm
Chrystie Street and Delancey Street
Manhattan

90th Precinct
4:00 pm
Union Avenue and South 5th Street
Brooklyn

Memorial Walk
1:45 pm
Manhattan Avenue and Green Street
Brooklyn



 
New Amsterdam Bike Show
The New Amsterdam Bike Show is better than ever before, and this year, a whole lot bigger. A whopping 21,000 square feet of bikes, bikes, bikes -- and proceeds from New York City's only bike show benefit Transportation Alternatives.

The two-day event will feature bicycle-makers, every kind of gear and events that connect your ride to New York City's growing bicycle community. Tickets are now on sale.

New Amsterdam Bicycle Show
April 28-29, 2012
Skylight Soho
275 Hudson Street
Manhattan



 
Where Do You Want Your Bike Share?

David Byrne and neighbors pick bike share
station locations at an open house at
Manhattan Community Board 2.
Who might you run into?
Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker
The New York City Department of Transportation is now hosting open houses in every district with a planned bike share site. If you want to have a say in where your neighborhood's bike share stations will be, this is your moment. Manhattan's Community Board 8, and Brooklyn Community Boards 1 and 3 are up next. Information about each planned Bike Share Open House is online.

These are open houses, so feel free to drop in and leave when you please. Each will feature neighborhood maps and stickers to place-mark your desired bike share location. From your whole community's choice spots, the DOT will tally input and feasibility, and then present the chosen locations for each neighborhood.

Brooklyn Community Board 3 Bike Share Open House
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Restoration Plaza
1368 Fulton Street
Brooklyn

Brooklyn Community Board 1 Bike Share Open House
Thursday, March 22, 2012
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Swinging 60s Senior Center
211 Ainslie Street
Brooklyn

Manhattan Community Board 8 Bike Share Open House
Monday, March 26, 2012
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Lighthouse
111 East 59th Street
Manhattan



 
Hiring The Kitchen Sink: 18 New Jobs

Think we can pack a few more in?
Image courtesy Andrew Hinderaker
With Spring just about sprung, T.A. is turning all the sunshine and rain into a major growth spurt. We're hiring in a big way. Do you have what it takes to help the City's leading advocate for bicycling, walking and public transit succeed?

T.A. is hiring a Membership Manager, a Transportation Research Intern, a Volunteer Program Intern, a Bicycle Advocacy Design Intern, a Play Streets Fellow, a Director of Finance, plus a Lead Organizer, a Street Canvasser and ten enthusiastic, personable New Yorkers for our Bicycle Ambassador program.

Next up: More desks!