A weekly roundup of good deeds, missteps, heroic feats and epic failures in the tri-state region and beyond.
WINNERS
Gene Russianoff — The public transit advocate was named a New York Environmental Champion by the EPA this week for his work with the Straphangers Campaign to get more people out of their cars and onto mass transit.
Panasonic Corporation of North America — The Newark, NJ-based company recently announced a new goal to get 75 percent of all employees to use mass transit, and plans to renew its employee-commuting subsidy.
Norwalk, CT — The City is spending $4 million to improve traffic signals and pedestrian crossings at 10 intersections, and is now planning to add bicycle lanes to the project.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy — The governor announced the creation of a climate change council, which includes the commissioners of the state departments of transportation and housing, to make recommendations to help the state achieve its 2050 target of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Staten Island pedestrians and bicyclists — Plans for a road diet on Clove Road include adding bike lanes and pedestrian improvements along the “high-crash corridor.”
LOSERS
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — With the state’s Transportation Trust Fund drying up, NJ Transit is now considering a $300 million loan from a Canadian Bank, but that loan comes with a $900,000 borrowing fee. Meanwhile, another 200 bridges are expected to be added to the growing list of structurally deficient bridges in the next five years, undermining all recent progress to make headway on the bridge backlog.
The Coalition for a Livable West Side — The Coalition is trying to block the long-awaited expansion of Citi Bike’s network to the Upper West Side with a list of restrictions on station placement. Any chance they’ll consider applying that list to car owners?
House Republicans — House Republicans have introduced a $55.3 billion transportation and housing bill that includes cuts to the Federal Transit Administration budget and TIGER infrastructure funding program.
Suffolk County pedestrians and bicyclists — Another pedestrian has been fatally struck on the region’s most dangerous road for walking, and another bicyclist has been injured in the nation’s worst place for bicyclists.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz; Assemblymembers David Weprin, Jeffrion Aubry, Barbara Clark, Vivian Cook, Phillip Goldfeder, Ronald Kim, Michael Miller, Michael Simanowitz and Michele Titus; State Senators Tony Avella, Joseph Addabbo, Jr., Leroy Comrie and Toby Stavisky; and City Councilmembers Karen Koslowitz, Rory Lancman, Daneek Miller, Paul Vallone and Ruben Wills — The Queens electeds released a joint statement stating that the MoveNY toll plan is a “fundamentally unfair” means of funding transit, yet proposed no other funding alternatives to provide options for “the families who live in the transit desert of Queens.”
