Yesterday, we testified at the New York City Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's oversight hearing on DOT transparency and notice requirements, presenting our opposition to three proposed bills that, ironically, are transparent in their intent to preserve street parking over other curbside uses, gum up bike lane and Open Streets approvals, and undermine the city's speed-camera program. We also voiced qualified support for legislation that would make it harder to remove Open Streets, establish better standards for siting news racks, and make it easier to track requests for traffic-control devices and speed reducers.

Our full testimony follows below.

Read more

City Council Election Results

We're happy to report that 12 of the 13 candidates whom we endorsed in Tuesday's election won their races for City Council.

All 12 winners were incumbents who will return to the Council for a two-year term following citywide redistricting, and we look forward to working with them to advance policies to make streets safer and public transit more reliable. We also want to express our gratitude to Amber Adler, who came up short in challenging an incumbent Council Member in Brooklyn's 48th District, for making street safety a focus of her campaign.

Congratulations to all!

Opposing E-Bike Registration

Yesterday, we joined Transportation Alternatives, Los Deliveristas Unidos, and Open Plans in leading a coalition of more than 30 organizations in appealing to the City Council to oppose the registration of e-bikes.

We wrote to Council Members to express our collective opposition to a bill that would require the blanket registration of all powered micromobility devices, a misguided and draconian step that would have disastrous consequences for the adoption of e-bikes.

At the same time, we outlined our support for a number of constructive measures that would improve safety and address many of the conditions that have left pedestrians feeling unsafe, including bills that would require registration and proof of a license at point of sale for mopeds, safety training and certification for delivery workers, and provision of safe, legal e-bikes to workers delivering on behalf of app companies.

And of course, there are other steps the city can take to address safety, such as enforcing laws that already exist, like prohibitions against riding on sidewalks or operating a moped in a bike lane, and building and improving safety infrastructure.

You can read the letter here.

Today is Election Day, and polls will be open in New York from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can find your polling site, review a sample ballot, confirm your registration status, and see other election-related information at vote.nyc.

We're excited to have endorsed 13 candidates for New York City Council, and you can read more about each of them, and important aspects of their street-safety and transportation records, below. Endorsed candidates are listed in ascending order by district number, and we've included links to each candidate's campaign website and a district map.

Turnout in this unusual post-redistricting election is likely to be low, so your vote for a candidate committed to making streets safer and public transit more reliable can truly make a difference. Even if there's no StreetsPAC-endorsed candidate in your City Council district, we encourage you to get out and vote, as every Council seat is on the ballot. Please make a plan to get to the polls, and don't forget that as long as you're in the queue to vote by 9 p.m., you can't be turned away.

If you do live in one of the 13 districts in which we have made an endorsement, we urge you to vote for the StreetsPAC slate!

Read more

Tomorrow – Tuesday, November 7th – is Election Day, and polls will be open in New York from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can find your polling site, review a sample ballot, confirm your registration status, and see other election-related information at vote.nyc.

We've proudly endorsed 13 candidates for New York City Council, and you can read more about our endorsees, and important aspects of their street-safety and transportation platforms, below. Endorsed candidates are listed in ascending order by district number, and we've included links to each candidate's campaign website and a district map.

Turnout in this unusual post-redistricting election is likely to be low, so your vote for a candidate committed to prioritizing safer streets and better public transit can truly make a difference. Even if there's no StreetsPAC-endorsed candidate in your Council district, we urge you to get out and vote. Please make a plan to get to the polls, and remember that as long as you're in the queue to vote by 9 p.m., you can't be turned away.

If you do live in one of the 13 districts in which we have made an endorsement, please join us in supporting our recommended candidates!

Read more

Last week, we testified at the New York City Council Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection's oversight hearing on lithium-ion battery, powered-bicycle, and powered-mobility device safety, outlining our support for several bills aimed at improving the safety of batteries and battery-powered vehicles and the way they're operated. We also renewed our call for creation of a fund that would provide safe, legal e-bikes to delivery workers.

Our full testimony follows below.

Read more

Early voting for the November 7 general election gets underway on October 28, and we're proud to re-up our June endorsements of 13 candidates for New York City Council.

The 2023 election cycle is an unusual one, dividing the typical four-year City Council term into two two-year terms as a result of the city's decennial redistricting process. Unlike the 2021 election, in which roughly two-thirds of the Council races were for open seats, nearly all of the races feature sitting Council Members running for re-election.

As a result, our 2023 endorsees include a dozen incumbents and just one candidate challenging a sitting Council Member, and four of those incumbents are running unopposed in the general election.

In-person early voting begins this Saturday, which is also the deadline to register if you are not already a registered voter. You can check your registration status, find your early-voting and election-day polling locations, and see other important election-related information at vote.nyc. We've included links to district maps for each of the candidates we're endorsing.

Early voting will continue daily through Sunday, November 5, with varying hours, in advance of Election Day, which is Tuesday, November 7, when polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. You can confirm your early-voting and Election Day voting sites, which may be different, and check early-voting hours using the polling site locator: findmypollsite.vote.nyc.

We urge you to join us in supporting our endorsees for the New York City Council. Read on to learn more about each of them and important aspects of their records on street safety and transportation. Candidates are listed below in ascending order by district number.

2023 Endorsees: Manhattan | Queens | Brooklyn

Read more

Please join us and our fellow advocates for safe biking on Wednesday, October 11, to demand action to end cyclist deaths. 

2023 is on pace to be the second most deadly year for people on bikes in New York City's recorded history. But it doesn't have to be this way. We know how to make streets safer for biking, but in order to achieve Vision Zero, city leaders need the political backbone to put plans into action. 

The Adams administration cannot ignore the NYC Streets Plan's legal mandates to build safe streets, including the addition of 50 miles of protected bike lanes this year.

Details for the ride and rally are below. Please RSVP to let us know you're coming.

Earlier this week, we testified at the New York City Council Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's oversight hearing on hard infrastructure, outlining our support for legislation that would require the Adams administration to develop a project plan and timetable for the installation of public restrooms across the city. Our full testimony follows below.

Read more

We submitted testimony earlier this week to the New York City Council's Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for the Committee's oversight hearing regarding an update on the New York City Streets Plan, expressing our concern over the pace of implementation of protected bus lanes and bike lanes required by the plan. We also offered support for three bills on the hearing agenda. Our full testimony follows below.

Read more