A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in tri-state transportation news.
Winners
Citi Bike – In perhaps the most significant single indicator of New York City’s bike share program’s success since launching just two months ago, Citi Bike users made 42,010 trips on August 6, eclipsing seven daily trips per bike. London’s bike share system, for example, has never broken six daily trips per bike in its three-year existence.
NYS Senator Chuck Fuschillo — Fuschillo and the New York Coalition for Transportation Safety are sponsoring two bike safety rodeos for Long Island children this month.
Bethel, CT — The town plans to rezone 133 acres near its Metro-North station to accommodate mixed-use, transit-oriented development.
Losers
NYC Democratic Mayoral Candidates Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson and Anthony Weiner — Not one of these mayoral candidates made mention of any of the City’s myriad transportation issues in last night’s debate.
NJ Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon — O’Scanlon wants to increase speed limits on the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway from 65 mph to 75 mph because “he believes that a higher speed limit would result in fewer accidents,” despite ample evidence that higher speeds are more deadly (and, not to mention, less fuel-efficient).
NYS Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — Instead of using a more efficient mode of transport, Silver has been taking energy-intensive, 500-mile detours to out-of-the-way transfer airports as a way to rack up frequent-flier miles on trips between Albany and New York City.
NYPD 14th Precinct — Officers from the 14th Precinct were out in force ticketing bicyclists in Manhattan this morning, but ticketed zero drivers for speeding in 2012.
