Gizmo will direct you to empty parking spots

Here's a story from this week's Bronx Press.

By Brendan McHugh 

DOT hopes the senors can withstand the
New York weather and traffic conditions.

Need a parking spot? There may soon be an app for that. 

If the technology proves durable, drivers in the Bronx will be the first to find parking spots by checking their smartphones. 

Hockey puck sized sensors were drilled into the streets near Arthur Avenue last week in 177 parking spaces on both sides of 187th Street in Belmont. If they can survive the harsh weather conditions of New York for the next three months, motorists will be able to download a free application on their phones to find vacant parking spots. 

"We are making it easier for drivers to park. We are actually piloting new technology that will bring parking information into the palm of your hand," said Janette Sadik-Khan, the NYC DOT Commissioner. 

“There are benefits, not only to drivers but to the surrounding community,” she said. “You’re relieving the congestion and pollution associated with those people who are cruising around looking for parking.” 

The app will tell drivers if there are a high number of open spaces, if it is beginning to fill up, or if there are virtually no spots available. 

Sadik-Khan said they haven’t figured out how drivers will use the app while driving; using a mobile device not physically connected to the car is illegal in New York. 

“Right now we’re just testing the equipment,” she said. “The parking app has worked in other cities that have done it.” 

Koppell grateful for new taxi accessibility law

As Chair of the Council Committee that deals with disability services and a longtime advocate for full taxi accessibility, City Council Member G. Oliver Koppell said he is particularly pleased that the legislation creating changes in NYC taxi service will provide for wheelchair accessibility and has praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo as being instrumental in making this happen.

In a letter to the governor, Koppell said, “Your leadership with respect to this legislation was crucial in moving the city toward the goal of full accessibility. Without your insistence that there be greater taxi accessibility for disabled people this would not have happened.” (Jump below for the full letter)

In addition to giving credit to the governor for the success of this historic legislation, Koppell also credited the disabled community and their advocates saying in a statement, “A victory of this magnitude does not happen in a vacuum. It can be attributed in large measure to those who have been forcefully calling for “taxis for all” for more than a decade."

As the prime sponsor of a bill in the City Council to make all new yellow cabs in New York City wheelchair accessible, Koppell has been a strong spokesman for equal transportation. It should be noted that a member of his staff is in a wheelchair.

The legislation provides for 2,000 more wheelchair accessible yellow cabs, whose medallion auction is expected to raise at least $1 billion for the city. It also creates a new class of livery cabs with metered fares, credit card readers and roof lights. Of the 18,000 new permits that the Taxi and Limousine Commission is expected to issue for these cabs, one fifth will be wheelchair accessible. The city will also provide up to $54 million in subsidies and loans to encourage livery drivers to buy vehicles that accommodate disabled riders. 

Head over to our post to see other Bronx politicians' reactions, and jump here to see how Assemblyman Carl Heastie celebrated.

As part of the deal, within a year, the city must create a long-term plan to convert the entire yellow cab fleet to disability access. The State Department of Transportation, which is overseen by the governor, will have to approve that plan before the city can auction all 2,000 new medallions. 

Koppell also said how grateful he is that people in northern Manhattan and the outer-boroughs will have vastly expanded access to taxi service, something his constituents have wanted for a long time.

“As the representative of an outer-borough district, I am delighted that my Bronx constituents will no longer be disadvantaged with respect to taxi service. I am equally gratified that, after a long fight, members of the disabled community will have equal access to taxi service,” Koppell said. 

Jump below for the letter.

DOT putting stickers on their parking signs

Two Department of Transportation employees have a pretty repetitive job right now.

They were seen today outside our office putting stickers on parking signs, changing 'HR METER PARKING' to 'HR MUNI-METER PARKING.'

Stickers!

Thank goodness they hopped right on this, because I for one would have been even more confused than the signs already make me.

To the DOT's credit, at least they're saving money by not replacing the entire sign.

R.I.P.

The DOT is replacing every single-space meter in the city right now, saying the muni-meter's are better because they offer more parking spaces (Unless they don't know how to pull up to the car in front of them!), you can pay for parking with a credit card or dollar bills and not just quarters, they break less and are less expensive to maintain.

'Slow Zones' latest DOT measure to curb speeders

Here's the story from this week's Bronx Press that explains the new 'slow zone' that will be coming to more neighborhoods throughout the city. A Riverdale elected official has already said that he wants to bring the zone to part of his district, which you can read about here.

By Brendan McHugh 

Those with a lead foot are about to find it much more difficult to drive through the city. 

Slow zones create 20 mph
speed limits throughout a neighborhood.

The Department of Transportation began the city’s first-ever Neighborhood Slow Zone on Monday, reducing the local speed limit in Claremont from 30 mph to 20 mph and adding certain traffic calming measures.

Chosen because of the neighborhoods high accident and fatality rate, Claremont is getting nine new speed bumps in addition to the five already present, and other traffic calming measures such as signage and street markings are being added to the roads. 

Signs posting the 20 mph speed limit are at 14 entranceways to the quarter-square mile zone. Also, 14 more speed limit signs are post throughout the neighborhood and stencil speed limits on the street itself are in 45 different places.

Jump below for the full story.

New answer for school traffic woes?

A story from this week's Riverdale Review. There is a similar story in a separate post that fully explains the 'slow zone' practice that debuted in Claremont this week.

By Brendan McHugh 

Last month, elected officials requested slower speed limits, new signage and speed bumps for the area around PS 24 and MS/HS 141. 

Turns out, the City has a new program that can do just that. 

On Monday, the Department of Transportation announced its first-ever Neighborhood Slow Zone in Claremont. The slow zone reduces the speed limit in the quarter-square mile neighborhood from 30 mph to 20 mph, adds nine new speed bumps and over 50 new signs—both on poles and stenciled onto the street—to the area alerting drivers of the speed limit. 

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, one of three legislators who wrote to DOT in October, says Independence Avenue is a model candidate for the new traffic safety program. 

“Given the area’s proximity to several schools, a public library, and houses of worship, I believe this stretch of Independence Avenue would be an ideal location for a Neighborhood Slow Zone,” he wrote in a letter to DOT commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan earlier this week. 

Jump below for the full story.

Walking around Riverdale is safe

And not just because of the low crime numbers.

From 1995 to 2009, there were 8,604 motor-vehicle crashes involving pedestrians in the 42 blocks that make up Manhattan Community District 5. In Bronx District 8 (Riverdale, Fieldston, Marble Hill, Van Cortlandt Village, Kingsbridge) during the same period, only 788 crashes occurred; less than 10 percent of Manhattan's District 5, which is Midtown.

The data comes from Transportation Alternatives new interactive map, CrashStat.

The only area that is considered safer than Riverdale is the South Shore of Staten Island (Community District 3) with 653 crashes.

 

The city's Department of Transportation disputes these findings, however (even the good ones). A spokesman points out to Crains New York that reporting the 15-year neighborhood-by-neighborhood totals misses an important point—the decline in injuries and fatalities over the period:

"Safety has actually increased and nowhere is this more evident than in places like Manhattan Community District 5, where fatalities and serious injuries were down 54% from 1995 to 2009; and in Brooklyn Community District 14, where fatalities and injuries down 65% from 1995 to 2009."

Citywide, pedestrian traffic fatalities have dropped 37% from 1995 to 2009.

Transportation Alternatives has called for stricter enforcement of traffic laws by the New York City Police Department, saying that the department should pursue harsher punishments, deploy more traffic cops and more rigorously enforce the 30 mph speed limit.

Jump below for the rest of the story.

DOT continuing to ax single-space meters

As I promised before, here are the dates more single-spaced meters in the Bronx will be replaced with the muni-meters:

Monday, Nov. 7— Melrose

• 149th Street from Park to Melrose Avenue
• Third Avenue from 150th to 155th Street
• Willis Avenue from East 146th to East 148th Street

Monday, Nov. 7— Westchester, Schuylerville & Throgs Neck

• East Tremont Avenue from Miles Avenue to Overing Street
• Williamsbridge Road from Westchester Avenue to Sackett Avenue
• Sections of St. Raymonds, Halperin, Ponton, Fink, Roberts, Frisby and Otis Avenues, and Greene, Sullivan, Scott and Lamport Places

Saturday, Nov. 12— Kingsbridge, North & South Riverdale

• Riverdale Avenue from West 235th to West 261st Street
• Moshulu Avenue from West 255th Street to Post Road
• West 235th Street from Arlington to Oxford Avenue

Monday, Nov. 14— Kingsbridge & Van Cortland Village

• Goulden Avenue from West 197th Street to Sedgwick Avenue
• West Kingsbridge Road from Sedgwick Avenue to Grand Concourse
• Jerome Ave from East 192nd to 196th Street
• Bedford Park Blvd from Goulden Avenue to Grand Concourse

Wednesday, Nov. 16— Morris Park

• Morris Avenue from Williamsbridge to Unionport Road
• Pelham Parkway from Wilson to Eastchester Avenue
• Williamsbridge Road from Neill to Sackett Avenue

Parking meters dressing up as Muni-meters for Halloween, then never changing back

It's already happened in Manhattan: there are no more old, single-space parking meters. And now it's beginning to happen in the Bronx. Yes, many corridors have already made the transformation, but now the city is coming in to finish the kill.

RIP single-space parking meters

Beginning Oct. 28, the DOT will be in the Fordham area replacing the single-space meters with munis. Whether you like them or not, the city doesn't care. Not only do they raise more revenue (you can't piggyback off someone's leftover minutes anymore), but also they cost less to maintain and operate. And if one is broken, you're suppose to find the next closest one to get your receipt from. No more free rides.

I'll update this blog with new posts every time I hear about a new area being converted.

Here are the areas being updated Oct. 28:

• West and East Fordham Road from King Boulevard to Hoffman Street
• Grand Concourse from East 180th Street to East Kingsbridge Road
• Jerome Avenue from East 184th Street to East 193rd Street
• Webster Avenue from East 187th Street to Bedford Park Boulevard
• Sections of Marion, Bainbridge, Tiebout, Briggs, Valentine, Creston, Morris, Walton, Davidson and Grand Avenues, and East 188th Street

Future Bailey Ave streetlight gets a greenlight

Here's a story that didn't make the paper this week.

By Brendan McHugh

Regardless of who is taking credit, the Department of Transportation will install a new traffic light at the intersection of Baily Avenue and West 234th Street later this year, making the awkward intersection much safer.

Last week, Rep. Eliot Engel sent out a press release applauding the DOT for their actions, setting the assertion that his office was responsible for the new light.

“It will better manage traffic in an area around Kingsbridge Little League Field and Bailey Park, making the neighborhood safer for children and their parents,” he said in the statement.

But a few days later, City Councilman G. Oliver Koppell sent out a statement claiming it was, in fact, his office that brought the issue to the DOT.

“Council Member Oliver Koppell is pleased to announce that the Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved his request for the installation of a traffic signal at Bailey Avenue and West 234th Street,” the statement began.

As it turns out, Engel’s office had request the DOT examine the area for a stop sign months ago, and more recently, Koppel’s office requested DOT study the area for a traffic light.

Jump below for the rest of the story.