Andrea Bernstein

(New York, NY - Collin Campbell)  Five years of data and 7,000 crash records are showing a rich picture of collisions between pedestrians and cars in New York City.  They're at the lowest point in recorded history, the Bloomberg Administration says, and the analysis released today may inform policy decisions to push them lower.

Among the findings from the mayor's announcement today:

•    Male drivers are involved in 80% of crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians.  They're only 57% of registered drivers in New York City.
•    Private vehicles – not taxis, trucks or buses – are involved in 79% of crashes that kill or seriously injure pedestrians.
•    Pedestrian fatalities in 2009 were down nearly 20 percent from 2001.

(Houston -- Wendy Siegle,  KUHF) "Wrong way Driver Detected! Wrong Way Driver Detected."   That's what Houston-area highway dispatchers hear when a motorist enters the Westpark Tollway going in the wrong direction, enabling patrols to quickly get to the scene. The technology was installed after a triple fatality in 2006 resulting from a wrong way driver. But the devices are costly, putting them out of reach of many transportation agencies, Full story,  here.

First, let me say I'm having a hard time letting go of the moniker "Freedom tower," even though I know the replacement for the Twin Towers' new name is "One World Trade."   I was there when it was named, and I'll be there, I hope, when the 1776-foot tall tower is complete.

(Detroit -- Jerome Vaughn, WDET).   Detroit is buzzing about word of a leadership change at GM -- it's almost as big news as the Flint serial killer.   The Editor of Autoline Daily John McElroy says GM's new CEO,  Dan Akerson "fits the bill perfectly for what the[U.S] treasury wanted."  But, he adds "if GM is  going to have only finance people running the company-- we saw the trouble that it got into in the last decade by having those kind of officers in charge."

McElroy also notes that the company's 1.3 billion profit this quarter  "is not a surprising number" and that " what everybody seems to forget is that  the Obama administration came into town a year ago, waved a magic wand, and made all of GM's and Chrysler's legacy costs disappear, pouf, they're gone...that was not done by the people who are running GM right now."

McElroy's prediction for the future of the industry: "Three, four years from now the auto industry in Detroit is going to be rocking like we haven't seen in a long, long time."

More on Detroit from today's New York Times "Detroit Goes from Gloom to Economic Bright Spot."

Photo: Bureau of Land Management

(Billings, MT -- Jackie Yamanaka, Yellowstone Public Radio)
"When the temperature gets above 85 degrees everybody comes out." So says Tim Finger, of the Bureau of Land Management of river access sites in rural Montana. Popular fishing and boating sites cause jams, but Finger says building more parking isn't in the cards

"I just did that last year. No matter how big of a site we construct we're not going to be able to deal with that real large spike. I can't keep building new parking lots and expanding them. " Finger says shuttles to and from the river access sites are a better idea.

Full story, here.

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/gohsuket/2550771432/

(Oakland, CA -- Casey Miner, KALW) CalTrans raised tolls on the Bay Bridge July 1 during peak hours, from $4.00 to $6.00 -- and for carpools, to $2.50, from nothing. What happened?

Five thousand fewer cars are using the Bay Bridge each day, and BART, the cross-bay commuter train, saw 4500 more riders. The full story here.

Only 25 percent of San Francisco Bay Area residents use mass transit -- but local planners are serious about trying to get that number up. As KALW reports, local political glitterati are getting behind a new bus terminal, which they one day hope will be a hub for rail, buses, and BRT.

Photo: Michael Drury

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) New York City continues to give less space to cars, more to...um...other pursuits. Lower Manhattan's street grid is the only part of New York that still looks like Amsterdam, and businesses there have been pining for outdoor cafe space. Now, the city has converted five parking spots to a "pop-up cafe," where residents can dine and chat.

The spaces contain wooden platforms that support steel planters with with herbs and 15 folding tables with two chairs apiece. Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan said the experiment was about creating "high performing streets that work for all user" -- and that this location works out, the City will expand the program next summer.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) There have been some interesting political alliances in the transportation world -- former Charlotte Mayor Pat McGrory, a conservative Republican, has been one of the nation's biggest backers of transit. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,  also a Republican, who has also run on the Republican line, has found himself lauded by scrappy environmentalists who would probably otherwise hang with the far left. But when Bloomberg last spring appointed a former Republican Mayor of Indianapolis -- and adviser to George W. Bush -- to oversee Parks, Environmental Protection, and Transportation, a bit of a frisson shuddered through the transit world. Turns out Goldsmith is a huge supporter of congestion pricing, which he's called "terrific" and "imperative." He loves BRT and has seen it in operation in Curitiba, Brazil. He's studied bike share and thinks it's compatible with the short distances New Yorkers travel. But does he love bike lanes as much as Janette Sadik-Khan? Here's a bit of his exchange with me --

BERNSTEIN: There was some thought -- the commissioner wanted to have bike lanes all the way up First and Second Avenues. And then that plan was pulled back and that was around the time that you were coming and there was some speculation that was because you were concerned about that. Is there any truth to that?

GOLDSMITH: No. Not exactly. The mayor and I are concerned about getting the balance right. How to make the city more livable in a way that doesn’t create ancillary byproduct problems. And how extensive the bike lanes should be and where they should be is a legitimate question. I had a conversation about this with the mayor this morning. You know, he is interested in getting the balance right. He asked me a lot of questions and asked Janette a lot of questions about it, as he should, and I’ll continue to work on it.

BERNSTEIN: That was a very evocative ‘not exactly’. Can you expand on that?

GOLDSMITH: No.

Audio, and full transcript, after the jump.

(Andrea Bernstein) There's a big problem with New York's pedestrian plazas -- nothing to eat. In Times Square you can sit in the middle of Broadway, but you have to go to Starbucks for a coffee to sip at your cafe table. Assuming, that is, you don't want to ingest a dirty water hot dog. Now, New York City's DOT says it will unveil what it's calling a "pop-up cafe, an innovative, new temporary public space in Lower Manhattan." It will provide "room to sit, eat, or enjoy a cup of coffee, enhancing enjoyment of the streetscape and increase business revenues in Lower Manhattan.

Pix coming tomorrow.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) It's become de rigeur for major cities to have a sustainability plan -- but one of the largest and most comprehensive has been New York's PlaNYC. The plan has been a driving impetus for New York's bike lane expansion, its conversion of schoolyards to playgrounds, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg's support for converting the Great White Way to a pedestrian plaza.

Now, after importing the former Republican Mayor of Indiana, Stephen Goldsmith, to be Deputy Mayor of Operations (in charge of Transportation, Parks, Environmental Protection, and other departments) , New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is tapping David Bragdon, former President of the Portland, Oregon Metro Council, that greenest of green cities, to run the New Ycrk City Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability.

Comments, Portland residents?

Commuters Jam NY's Penn Station Photo: Collin Campbell

(New York -- Collin Campbell, Transportation Nation)  The "massive" tree, as an Amtrak spokesman described it, couldn't have fallen at worse time or in a worse place.

At around 5 a.m. this morning near Princeton Junction, NJ, a storm of branches and leaves came down on overhead wires and an Amtrak signal box. The result fried fuses and shut down signals on a 20 mile stretch of the Northeast Corridor.

Great, just in time for rush hour on one of the busiest stretches of train track in America.

It's the latest insult and injury to New York and New Jersey commuters, who endured delays and humid, 90+ degree temperatures on the ride home.

In May, NJ Transit raised fares 25 percent and cut way back on service. Then, as the NY Times exposed, trains don't run on time anyway. I n New York, dozens of bus lines were cut and two train lines were scrubbed from the alphabet entirely at the end of June.  Trains are twice as dirty as they used to be. There are delays caused by the punishing heat ... and then came the tree.

NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said he didn't even have time for breakfast. "The phone rang and I went to work," he said.  Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole called it "weird."  "We don’t have any storms or wind,” he said.

Garden State commuters were the hardest hit.  For much of the morning, NJ Transit trains couldn't leave a train yard near Trenton, as switches and signals wouldn't budge, or were limited to helping Amtrak function as it could.

Later, Amtrak workers "walked" trains through miles of track, functioning as traffic cops for miles of signal-less track. Commuters endured delays the reached two hours.  On the way home, express trains were canceled.  The 67-mile ride to Trenton was on crowded, local service.  Amtrak canceled some trains, but had delays under an hour by the end of the day.

Transportation officials saw days like this coming.   Currently, Amtrak workers are using $30 million in federal funds to remove trees close to the track in the Northeast Corridor.  But today, for the boughs of the mighty Princeton Junction tree, it was too late.

(Washington, DC, WAMU) Earlier this summer, Pennsylvania Avenue got a bike lane leading up to the home of a certain famous resident. Officials say the lane will be part of an 80-mile network of dedicated lanes. Now, life is going to get even better for cyclists in the nation's capitol. This just in from the DDOT:

"(Washington, D.C.) – The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is making safety improvements at the intersection of 16th Street, U Street and New Hampshire Avenue, NW that includes installing the first traffic signals for cyclists in the District. DDOT has also installing contraflow bike lanes on New Hampshire Avenue and “bike boxes” for cyclists on 16th Street as part of this experimental project approved by the Federal Highway Administration.

“We know that this is already a very popular route for many cyclists, but it can be treacherous getting through the intersection,” Said DDOT Director Gabe Klein. “These changes will make it safer without impacting other traffic.”

Will members of Congress now be taking bikes to dash over to their meetings at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

This just in from the Manhattan D.A. :

DISTRICT ATTORNEY VANCE ANNOUNCES GUILTY PLEA OF CARMEN HUERTAS IN FATAL DRUNK DRIVING INCIDENT

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., today announced the guilty plea of CARMEN HUERTAS, 32, in connection with the drunk-driving incident that killed 11-year-old Leandra Rosado and injured six other girls between the ages of 11 and 14. Huertas pleaded guilty to all of the charges against her, including the top charge in the indictment:
Manslaughter in the Second Degree. HUERTAS will be sentenced on October 1, 2010.

"In pleading guilty to the charges against her, Carmen Huertas is acknowledging criminal responsibility for this tragic incident," said District Attorney Vance. "It is my hope that the family of victim Leandra Rosado can derive some small measure of comfort from today's events, and from the fact that her death inspired the swift passage of Leandra's Law. That law made it a felony to drive drunk with a child in the car, and as of this Sunday will require ignition interlock devices in the cars of those convicted of driving while intoxicated. Leandra's Law is a powerful tool for prosecutors and will prevent other senseless deaths from occurring in the future."

According to documents filed in court, the investigation leading to today's guilty plea revealed that

Photo: Daniel Tucker

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) The fanfare has been incessant -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg did no less than FOUR live interviews this morning about it. Perhaps because it's been a season of relentless bad news for local budgets, which means major infrastructure completions are totally rare these days. Perhaps it's because this project has been so vivid -- a bridge floated down the Hudson River from Albany to Bayonne, NJ, tweaked, then sent up the East River by barge to its Bronx home. But we're suckers for it anyway, we can't help ourselves, it's catnip for journalists, irresistible especially these slow August news days. So here it is, the new Willis Avenue Bridge, getting ready to be moved into place in the Bronx.

(New York -- Ailsa Chang, WNYC) Anthony Trocchia used to go to Manhattan every weekend – to shop, go to the movies, people-watch in the park and visit his best friend in the East Village. But since the B39 bus was cut June 27, Trocchia has been to Manhattan only once. Listen here:

"I think about what’s involved,” says Trocchia, “and I say to myself, ‘Well, you know, the movie – I can wait for the DVD, and I’ll get it from Netflix. If I have to do some shopping, --ahh -- there’s, you know, the Internet.”

Trocchia was born with muscular dystrophy and has been in a wheelchair for 30 years.

If he wanted to take the bus into Manhattan now, it would mean taking three separate bus routes that zigzag him from Williamsburg into Queens, over to the Upper East Side and down to the East Village.

It’s been more than a month since the New York City MTA cut 38 bus lines and reduced service on another 76. Now, disability rights activists say they're preparing several lawsuits, because they say, disabled New Yorkers have been hit particularly hard by the cuts.

(Billings, MT -- Jackie Yamanaka, Yellowstone Public Radio) Yellowstone National Park officials today announced July set a new record for visitation -- at more than 957-thousand people. That's the largest number to ever visit the park in any month and comes on the heels of a new visitation record for June.
It's also the first time in Yellowstone's history that the number of visitors for the first seven months of the year has topped the 2-million mark.

Yellowstone officials are struggling to cope with the record traffic -- the story here.

Photos here.

(Andrea Bernstein, Transportation Nation) U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in Detroit on Monday, just a couple days after President Barack Obama visited a car factory, drove a Volt, and otherwise touted the revival of the auto industry.

LaHood was there talking about another mode of transportation, entirely. "You build a bus line, a transit line, a light rail line, people will come, they will use it, and it will become an economic engine," LaHood said at a press conference announcing the U.S. DOT is backing an environmental review for the proposed Woodward Avenue light rail line, the linchpin of a plan to revive downtown Detroit.

The light rail, LaHood said, "will give people a new choice or maybe a  first chance to get from one place to another, from home to school, to work, to the store, to see family and friends, or a doctor. They will help make Detroit a model for livable communities. A place where transit brings housing in close proximity to jobs and businesses. A place where sidewalks and bike paths are usable, inviting, and safe."

"Woodward Avenue was the first street paved with concrete any place in the world. What an extraordinary piece of history. Its traffic was among the first to be managed by public stop lights which a Detroit police officer invented in 191," LaHood said. "And while the community is rightfully proud of its history as the birthplace of the freeway and automobile, Woodward Avenue was also once upon a time the backbone of a streetcar network and transit system replicated in cities across the United States."

Sounds like a joke for transpo wonks, but it's not. "Ray LaHood's Transpo-Looza" was a Jeopardy category. It's the perfect marriage of geekdom and pop culture. Giving an answer like "What is Dulles?" gets you $800. I won't tell you the rest of the answers -- you can watch the segment here at Lahood's blog. The only sad thing? You don't get to see the contest for "Janet Reno's Dance Party." I am not making this up! -- Andrea Bernstein