Bronx resident Nicole Duncan exposes the dangerous pedestrian conditions while traveling though her neighborhood. Motorists ignore stop signs, run red lights and create an unsafe environment for nine-year-old Justyn and eleven-year-old Jamel while they are walking to school.

Nicole shot all of the video with a camera NYCSR loaned her for the day. Her footage and accompanying testimony is extremely moving.

Concerned residents and community organizations rallied together at the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Bond Street in Brooklyn to raise awareness about recent traffic-related accidents and fatalities in the area. Many that participated live in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, and are lobbying the Department of Transportation for more sensible and safe street design. They are also calling for the NYPD to be more vigilant in enforcing speeding laws, urging their increased awareness as plans for the Atlantic Yards development move forward.

Special thanks to Sandy Balboza of The Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association and Matt Rogers of The Boerum Hill Association.

A Transportation Alternatives rally on the steps of City Hall demonstrates residents’ support for a car-free Central Park. 100,000 signatures!!! Come on Mayor!

Danish architect Jan Gehl (Gehl Architects) and TOPP Executive Director Mark Gorton discuss the potential for pedestrian-friendly changes in Times Square.

Gehl: “…cities are primarily for people…not for cars.”

Amen.

Part Two of our interview: Sam Schwartz and T.O.P.P. founder & Executive Director Mark Gorton discuss how the modal split into NYC’s Central Business District (essentially south of 59th Street) has changed over the last half century and how some of those numbers could easily be reversed by revoking free parking permits for NYC Governmental employees.

“Gridlock Sam” Schwartz served as NYC’s Commissioner of Traffic from 1982-86 and is a former Chief Engineer/First Deputy Commissioner at the NYC DOT. He also writes a daily transportation column for the NY Daily News.

In 1989, a 7.1 earthquake struck the Bay Area which severely damaged many of its elevated highway structures. The Embarcadero Freeway - an ugly, double-decked highway - was replaced with a grand boulevard which emphasizes access to the waterfront and provides people with transportation options like walking, mass transit, and bicycling instead of an emphasis personal vehicle use. In this 12 minute mini-doc, you’ll see some of the dramatic changes and how all users benefit when planning takes a pedestrian and people-first attitude.

Just look at these BEFORE and AFTER shots!

Also discussed: Octavia Boulevard which replaced part of the former-Central Freeway.

An inequitable use of parking by government agencies is a dirty little secret in Chinatown.

Mark Gorton, founder of The Open Planning Project, points out how parked cars and street use makes a difference in two streets just blocks apart in SoHo are felt by pedestrians.

As mayor of Bogota, Colombia, Enrique Penalosa accomplished remarkable changes of monumental proportions for the people of his country in just three years.

Penalosa changed the way Bogota treated its non-driving citizens by restricting automobile use and instituting a bus rapid transit system which now carries a 1/2 million residents daily. Among other improvements: he widened and rebuilt sidewalks, created grand public spaces, and implemented over one hundred miles of bicycle paths.

TOPP Executive Director Mark Gorton discusses with Penalosa some of these transportation achievements and asks what the future could hold for NYC if similar improvements were made here.

In June 2006, Transportation Alternatives volunteers staged a “Parking Spot Squat” in Brooklyn’s busy Park Slope neighborhood. The volunteers “liberated” two parking spaces, providing amenities that allowed residents to sit and relax.

The demonstrations created a temporary, but much-needed public space.

The event caused many to question traditional notions of the way public space is reserved for automobiles, and why that space is turned over to drivers at such a low cost. Many similar events have followed, and REBAR sponsored an amazing display of public space reclaimation in San Francisco.

A proposed plan by DOT for a subway station at 96th street will leave pedestrians with 18 ft. less sidewalk space!

Richard Barrett talks about his community’s struggle to rebuild Canal Park, a task deemed impossible by New York City’s Department of transportation.

In the summer of 2006, Brooklyn residents living around the Grand Army Plaza (GAP) mobilzed to take a traffic survey of the area.

Tired of waiting for the NYC DOT to improve pedestrian and bike access to GAP & Prospect Park, neighborhood leaders formed the Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCO) which evaluated how traffic patterns could be modified to benefit pedestrians, and in some cases, drivers!

Perhaps the most interesting and inspiring facet is that while members had varied levels of transportation experience, their recommendations and observations show that residents usually know how their own neighborhoods work better than an outside planner. And yet, so often is the case that planners and engineers ignore residents input.

At nine minutes, this StreetFilm comes in a bit long, but we want this to be a historical document - to galvanize people across the city to band together and demand changes neighborhood safer. Hopefully, this model will be replicated.

Transportation Alternatives and community activists from all five boroughs held a press conference at City Hall to announce the findings of a study on parking permit abuse in NYC (Sept. 2006).