In terms of pedestrian safety, 2004 was a mixed bag. Though many of the city's 12,000 signalized intersections remain dangerous for all but to most fleet-footed of walkers, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has fixed several dangerous streets. In 2004, the DOT took unprecedented action to extend crossing time and protect pedestrians from speeding and turning traffic. As a result Queens Blvd. and many streets in Midtown are now much safer for pedestrians.

The year saw some positive signs but little real improvement on traffic issues. While Mayor Bloomberg has decreed that commuters should leave their cars at home and the city — for the first time in decades — saw a decline in the motor vehicle ownership rate, gushing traffic continues to hurt the health and quality of life of New Yorkers.

Meanwhile, a plan to toll East River bridges — the city’s best hope for a real traffic solution — was again shouted down without public discussion of its many merits, including faster emergency response times, more mass transit funding, and less pollution.

In other key areas, the outcomes for the year wore more clear-cut. The city made Central Park — for the first time since the dawn of me modem era — car-free for most of the day. And thanks to more greenways, bike lanes, and bridge paths, more New Yorkers took to bicycling as daily commuting and group rides hit record high numbers. The city also unveiled its new citywide Safe Routes to Schools program.

Chalk up most of 2004’s negatives to lost opportunities. As our leaders chased Olympian development dreams on the West Side, existing destinations continued to suffer from traffic overload and bad design.

Affordable, pro-pedestrian plans for downtown Brooklyn and Times Square, for example, were watered down and ignored.

Millions in federal dollars for bicycle and pedestrian improvements went unspent because the DOT didn’t have enough staff to develop projects. Fewer than 12 of the DOT’s 4,500 employees are dedicated to improving bicycling and walking.

But perhaps the worst of 2004 was the MTA's $15 billion budget crisis, which no fare hike, large or small, can fix. Either the severity of this crisis is lost on Gov. Pataki or he simply does not care enough to dedicate real revenue to our ailing subways and buses.