StreetFilms wishes you a Happy Halloween one of the only ways we know how!

We went back to check in how things were progressing on the NYC DOT’s plans for the 9th Avenue physically separated bike lane. The pleasant surprises continue as lane improvements, ample signage, and cyclist-only bike signals have now appeared making the innovative project even safer. And although driver behavior continues to improve, there are a few problems to highlight.

If you enjoyed this, check out others in the series: Clarence: The Traffic Calming Sasquatch & Clarence: The Traffic Calming Maniac

Sometimes videoshooters need a day to enjoy. I did yesterday so I left the bulky equipment at home and opted to take over 200 photos at the Tour de Bronx 2007. If they say a picture is worth a thousand words, then here I present about 50,000 of them.

It might have been the nicest day of the year with the Tour being kicked off by Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión and - with perhaps the biggest ovation I have ever heard for a public official - NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, the ride was huge, the smiles overflowing, camaraderie splendid, and the riding wonderful.

This past Saturday, over 100 children, along with parents & advocates rode their beautifully adorned bike machines in the first annual Kids Art Bike Ride For the Lower East Side.

The event was hosted by The East Village Community Coalition in cooperation with Transportation Alternatives, Recycle-A-Bicycle, Bike New York, The Lower East Side Girls Club and a slew of other amazing groups too numerous to name. Many public and elected officials turned out to join the festivities.

Following a bike decorating workshop and a bike helmet give away by the NYC DOT, the event took participants on a 30 minute ride through the streets of the East Village, including a trip down the 2nd Avenue bike lane! With spirits high and smiles wide, children, some who had never had the chance to ride NYC’s streets using pedal power before, got a glimpse of what a more equitable use of city streets could be like.

Continuing the PARKing Day excitement this weekend was the original Parking Spot Squat crew who took to celebrating a few weeks late after being shut down prematurely last month by Park Slope’s 78th precinct.

StreetFilms was there talking to organizers, neighbors, passerby, City Councilmember Letica James and even drivers(!) - who didn’t seem to mind the concept of taking back a parking space for public alfresco use. We love the little girl who says, “I’ve never sat in a parking spot before.”

Related: PARKing Day NYC 2007

Music: Alexander Blu

We here at StreetFilms are so happy to be back to full StreetTeam strength with the addition of Elizabeth Press. She comes to us after four years as a producer for the independent TV/Radio program, Democracy Now! She received her MFA in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on community media. While working on her thesis, Elizabeth spent a year teaching youth video in the Dominican Republic on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Her videos have screened in festivals all over the world, including a grassroots organized tour with her most recent documentary, Still We Ride. You will usually find Elizabeth commuting on her second-hand spectrum bicycle.

Photo courtesy: Fred Askew Photography

With New York City recently scoring a medallion for “Bronze Achievement in Bicycling Direction” by the “LAB Academy” (you like us! you really like us!) we figured it was a good time to post our very brief StreetFilms visit to Davis, California back in August 2007. Even though Portland, Oregon is nipping at their heels, Davis is still the only city in America to attain the very prestigious Platinum status for overall bicycle friendliness in a city.

Credit for Davis’s bike-friendliness goes back to the 1960’s when forward-thinking University of California urban planners began thinking about ways to make it safe and convenient for college students and city residents to travel safely by bike. During an era when most California towns were focused on building freeways, strip malls and suburban arterials, Davis’s planning wizards were developing off-street greenways, bike lanes and installing bike racks everywhere.

In the last decade, an influx of car-commuters moving to Davis from nearby Sacramento and San Francisco has decreased the bike commuting mode share from 25 percent to 18 percent. Still, Davis remains an amazing place to use a bike for transportation. Any place that has eliminated school buses and have children riding bikes to school is doing something right. And check this out — Davis has its own Wiki page devoted to bicycling.

Now click your heels four times and repeat after me, “There’s no place like Davis. There’s no place like Davis. There’s no place…”

Last night, I was one of 1200 lucky ticket holders attending “How New Yorkers Ride Bikes” a David Byrne presentation at Town Hall as part of the 2007 New Yorker Festival. Stuffed with laughs, entertainment, and bicycle inspiration, it was hard not to be psyched about the current state of cycling in NYC. In fact, my pyschedness level is off the charts!

Of course our MC for the night, Mr. Byrne, who has been using a bike for transportation for 30 years, pedaled to the theater. In fact, the night started with helmet cam footage he shot as he biked thru Times Square to the venue. Some Byrne-musings which drew the most applause/ laughter as he navigated the entanglement of peds, cars, and street furniture included: “...once you get used to it, riding thru the city gives you a nice jolt of energy“, “42nd Street would make a nice pedestrian mall“, and probably the biggest laugh-getter, “if this was a bike lane, there would probably be a truck from New Jersey parked in it.”

Mr. Byrne, dressed in black and sporting his cool taxi-yellow bike helmet (see our previous StreetFilm here) then rode onto the stage and locked up. Moments later Hal Ruzal, NYC bicycling icon and mechanic at Bicycle Habitat, emerged from behind a curtain to pick his lock with a variety of tools. Mr. Ruzal’s advice on not getting your bike stolen? “Have a bicycle lock that is real expensive, and a bicycle that’s really cheap.” True dat.

Continue reading this entry »

With Ninth Avenue getting a physically-separated cycle track, The NYC Department of Transportation has set the bar high for the nation. Though the innovation is still being rolled out - eventually there’ll be green pedestrian refuges, exclusive light signals for cyclists, signage, stencils and more - that didn’t stop StreetFilms and the cycling denizens of Gotham from using it today.  Looks good!

Even not complete, drivers seemed to generally get the idea. Lots of smiling riders; food delivery specialists seemed to really get a real kick out of it.

I am sure the debate will begin. Good, let it. Also, a special thanks to Au Revior Simone for lending us a tune to celebrate this happy occasion.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how we got here, here’s proof video activism works!

NYC DOT has begun groundbreaking on drastic safety improvements to Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza area - long a dangerous and confusing place for pedestrians and bicyclists to navigate around to reach Prospect Park or to the beautiful Bailey Fountain at its core.

The new plans call for a multiple green pedestrian islands, a separated bike connector, new crosswalks, and pedestrian signals.

Much of the pressure came from the Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo) a mix of residents and community organizations which formed last year in attempt to find solutions to the plaza’s traffic conundrums. You can see related StreetFilms on their work here and here.