December 15: Complete Streets, Spatial Equity in the Bronx, Support Our Work
Complete streets projects — such as bike lanes, road diets, and crosswalks — are proven to reduce fatalities and injuries, increase walking and biking, reduce pollution levels, and boost small businesses.
The Complete Streets Funding Bill would provide more funding for towns and cities across New York State to implement these life-saving projects, enabling more communities to break ground on street safety upgrades.
We joined today with NYS Safe Streets Coalition members, Assemblymembers Phara Souffrant Forrest, Zohran Mamdani, and Robert Carroll and Assemblymember-elect Juan Ardila to show our support for the bill.
READ MORE ABOUT TODAY’S COMPLETE STREETS RALLY
THREE THINGS TO KNOW
1️⃣ Green space is not distributed equitably. While a New York Times article rightfully calls the Bronx the city's greenest borough, that space is not distributed equitably. Spatial Equity NYC reveals that the stark differences in green space lead to vastly different summer surface temperatures, for example.
2️⃣ How cities can reshape streets for safety. Head across the Hudson and watch this video from our bike tour of Hoboken and Jersey City during the Vision Zero Cities Conference. You’ll see a variety of street redesigns that have helped Hoboken go more than four years without a traffic fatality.
3️⃣ In the news. Here's what we're reading this week:
Having lost her daughter to traffic violence in 2011, Families for Safe Streets member Sandi Vega writes an op-ed in Streetsblog urging Gov. Hochul to sign the Complete Streets Funding Bill into law now.
THE CITY examines how New York City could make its buses free, as Washington, D.C., and Boston have done on select routes.
Albany transit advocate Naqiy Mcmullen writes an op-ed in the Times Union on how to make streets safer in the state capital.
TWO THINGS TO DO
1️⃣ Check out car-free Fifth Avenue this Sunday. It’s been nice these last two weeks, hasn’t it? Fifth Avenue will be closed to car traffic between 48th and 57th Streets one more time this year, on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. And if you want more permanent street space for people, sign our petition to make Fifth Avenue a complete street.
2️⃣ Sign our petition to keep cars out of bike and bus lanes. Intro 501 from Council Member Lincoln Restler would allow civilians to report chronically blocked bus and bike lanes. Let your elected official know you want this bill to become a law.
ONE ACTION TO TAKE NOW
Support our fight for safe streets. Make a donation to TA before the end of the year and help us continue building safe, equitable streets as we look toward our 50th anniversary next year. As part of our 2022 year-end campaign, a local foundation has pledged to match every dollar raised up to $600,000.
–Ted and the TA team