Your weekly guide to heroic and villainous actions in tri-state transportation and smart growth.

This week’s winners:

Hastings-on-Hudson—the Westchester village’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution urging Governor Cuomo to include mass transit in the Tappan Zee replacement plan. Hastings-on-Hudson’s resolution affirms what TSTC and the public have been saying over the past decade: transit must have a place on the bridge.

Connecticut Department of Transportation Commissioner Jim Redeker—in a TSTC interview earlier this week, the ConnDOT commissioner showed a commitment to smart growth and sustainable transportation. He’s forging ahead with system integration, complete streets, and hybrid buses.

Senators Lautenberg and Menendez—New Jersey’s Senators sent a joint letter to the Delaware River Port Authority in support of an ADA-accessible ramp on the Ben Franklin Bridge’s Camden side. A ramp on the bridge would both improve accessibility and lighten the load for cyclists, who currently have to carry their bikes up three flights of stairs before they can ride across. Construction plans have not yet been solidified.

Governor Cuomo—New York’s governor came through on his promise to fill the MTA funding gap that was opened by last year’s Payroll Mobility Tax cut. The executive budget released Tuesday compensates the MTA for lost tax revenue, follows through on plans for $770 million in MTA Capital Program assistance, gives struggling upstate transit systems support, and consolidates the New York State Department of Transportation. While New York State’s transportation doesn’t make any great gains in the budget, it doesn’t lose much either. Speaking of which…

This week’s losers:

New York City Council—the New York City Council passed legislation that gives people a 5-minute grace period on muni-meters. Council Members also voted unanimously to stop sticking signs on cars that don’t adhere to parking regulations on street sweeping days. Council Speaker Quinn, reflecting on her own parking sticker experience, said that “it was a multiday effort…you almost have to chisel it.” Shouldn’t the council focus on some other issues on New York’s streets, like Manhattan’s 10 most dangerous intersections all being near housing projects?

New Jersey Department of Transportation Commissioner Jim Simpson—in response to a reporter’s question about complete streets this week, Commissioner Simpson said that “we work well with Tri-State, but Tri-State thinks throwing money everywhere is a solution. If we had fatal accidents where people were walking in the street, we’d build sidewalks there, but we can’t build sidewalks everywhere.” TSTC, which acknowledges NJDOT’s financial challenges, has criticized the agency for its overspending on highway expansion and underfunding smart growth and complete streets initiatives. So it’s not that we want to ‘throw money everywhere’—we just want to see more of New Jersey’s funds going towards pedestrian safety.

Connecticut Senator Joe Markley and Representative Whit Betts—the two Republican state legislators are attempting to reroute state funds for the Hartford-New Britain Busway, a bus rapid transit project whose substantial federal funding was sewn up in November. TSTC has long supported plans for the busway (you know how we feel about BRT), and is heartened by the Hartford Courant’s assurances:

To even get the idea on the table, though, [Markley and Betts would] have to win over a legislative committee chaired by one of the busway’s chief supporters.

Even if that happens during this short legislative season, the bill then would need more than half of the heavily Democratic General Assembly to vote down one of Democratic Gov.Dannel P. Malloy’s signature projects.

Governor Chris Christie—New Jersey’s governor stealthily signed the so-called “dirty water bill” into law on Wednesday. The hushed maneuver, which was overshadowed by a State of the State speech that included no mention of smart growth, could lead to sprawling developments in environmentally sensitive areas. Green advocates opposed the bill, since it staves off the implementation of environmentally-conscious development regulations for the next two years.

ReplaceTheTZBridgeNow.org—last week, a group called replacethetzbridgenow.org declared its existence. The group said that they would push for the immediate replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge without mass transit. One of their many problems appears to be technical: despite naming themselves after their website, as of 5:18pm today, replacethetzbridgenow.org is not live.