Mother of All Neckdowns Installed in Brooklyn

Great traffic calming work that should be replicated in Newark and nearby towns, to help solve the area's serious pedestrian injury problem.

Since the spring, DOT construction crews have been building out traffic calming improvements all over the neighborhoods near downtown Brooklyn. When the years-in-the-making Downtown Brooklyn Traffic Calming Project wraps up, pedestrians will have safer crossings at dozens of intersections. The sidewalk extension at the northwest corner of Smith and Bergen, shown here, is especially impressive. Several hundred square feet of street space now belong to pedestrians instead of cars.

http://www.streetsblog.org/2009/08/28/now-thats-what-i-call-a-neckdown/

Transit Systems Collapsing, Fare Hikes Devastate Local Economies

See reporting from Tri-State Transportation Campaign here: http://blog.tstc.org/2009/08/18/9-out-of-10-transit-agencies-cutting-service-raising-fares/

The full report on national service cuts can be found here: http://t4america.org/resources/stranded/

Also, despite over a hundred thousand crumbling bridges around the country, planning for long-term improvements to highways and mass transit has come to a virtual standstill over the past few months, because of the lack of Federal legislation to authorize future spending.

Newark, NJ started a national biking tradition

For more than three decades that lasted through 1930, Newark, NJ, achieved international renown for its outdoor board cycling track. The best racers from both sides of the Atlantic and Pacific competed there from May through Labor Day. They raced around the pine oval before paying crowds. The grandstands were always full and it made cyclists America’s best-paid athletes at the time.

Newark served as the home base to a vital American racing circuit on the Eastern Seaboard. The outdoor track, the Velodrome, measured six laps to the mile, a little less than 300 yards around. The steeply banked turns accommodated racers in vibrant jerseys who rode at speeds topping 35 MPH. They set dozens of world records and put Newark, NJ in the record books!

Newark was a popular destination for racers until the property it used expired at the end of 1930 and by then the Great Depression had a hold on the national economy. The Eastern Seaboard’s Velodrome circuit collapsed.

Since then Newark has become one of the lowest ranked cities in America for being accessible to walkers and bikers. Today, citizens and bikers in Newark are attempting to change that by channelling the history of the city.

Brick City Bike Tour promotes Healthy Living

In June 2008, a non-competitive bike tour was held in Newark, NJ to raise awareness for “Team Newark” a city bicycle team that was gearing up to compete in the Race Across America in 2009. The free event attracted many participants by giving out free bicycle helmets to the first 100 children and 100 adult participants along with free food and live music on the route.

In 2007, Prevention magazine ranked Newark at the bottom of 100 cities nationwide for its “walkability”. With its limited sidewalks and narrow streets, Newark NJ definitely isn’t considered the safest place to ride a bike. One of the goals of the bike tour was to raise awareness about living a healthy lifestyle and the importance for cities to make walking and bicycling accessible to residents.

"The more interest people cultivate in their own health the more interest they will have for the health of their neighborhood, their community, their city, and the world,” stated Team Newark on their website.

Two groups rally for safer streets in Newark

Tri-State and La Casa de Don Pedro, a Newark-based community group, recently rallied to gain pedestrian safety improvements in Newark, NJ. The City of Newark recently installed three flashing street signs at the intersection of Crane Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., giving additional safety to children playing in the area.

Over a two-year period, Tri-State and La Casa conducted walking tours in several Newark neighbourhoods to call attention to the unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. When a group of students was taken on a 1.5 mile walk from NJ Transit’s Newark Broad Street station to the Rutgers campus, many students pointed out that the many parking lots and the abundance of parking lots and the bleakness along the route would make them feel unsafe walking the street at night.

Students also noted that the streets they lived on were too wide to walk across safely and they feared riding their bikes on them because there were no bike lanes. Tri-State and La Casa de Don Pedro worked with the City and County and was successful in winning some visible changes making it safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

Coverage of the meetings can be found elsewhere on this blog and the TSTC's website.

New Haveners "Enthusiastic" About Raising Money for Police Bikes

Interesting news tidbit. Maybe Newarkers would be interested in chipping in to Cory Booker for more police bikes?

NEW HAVEN- Alderwoman Elizabeth McCormack of New Haven’s 24th Ward announced today that residents of the Whalley Ave./Edgewood Ave./Beaver Hill neighborhood will be gathering at 6 p.m. this Wednesday, August 5, 2009 at 45 Hobart St. for presentation to the New Haven Police Department of three new specially equipped patrol bicycles.

Responding to the city’s fiscal troubles and area public safety concerns, the Hobart St. Block Watch launched an effort to raise enough funds to purchase bicycles for police to use in patrolling Police District 10, served by the Police Substation at 386 Whalley Ave. (the corner of Whalley and Norton). The fundraising effort took off, as the entire community came together with tremendous spirit and enthusiasm to raise the necessary funds.

Alderwoman McCormack praised the many neighbors who stepped forward to meet this need. She had special thanks for the leadership shown by Margaret DeMarino, as well as for Joanne Oram and James Taylor, residents of the home at 45 Hobart where the bicycle presentation event will take place. McCormack was also grateful for the outstanding effort put in by Mike Newton, a real estate agent at
H. Pearce Co., as well as the large donation contributed by the non-profit organization Continuum of Care.