Brad Aaron
Brad Aaron began writing for Streetsblog in 2007, after years as a reporter, editor, and publisher in the alternative weekly business. Brad adopted New York's dysfunctional traffic justice system as his primary beat for Streetsblog. He lives in Manhattan.
Recent Posts
City Approves Subsidized Yankee Stadium Parking
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Yes, the Yankees’ season is over. But on the bright side, this morning the city handed the team a nice consolation prize: $225 million in tax exempt bonds for parking deck construction at the new Yankee Stadium. Under the agreement, the city will give up some $2.5 million in taxes, with an estimated $5 million […]
“Vision Zero”: Not One More Traffic Death
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Airline safety has improved dramatically in the last 10 years, after two 1996 crashes killed 375 people. “This is the golden age of safety, the safest period, in the safest mode, in the history of the world.” That’s Marion C. Blakey, former administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, speaking last month just before the end […]
New York: A “Drivers’ Paradise”
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Move over, biker babes. A presumably tongue-in-cheek article in the Observer heralds the "Californication of New York," thanks to the proliferation of automobiles in "young, lifestyle neighborhoods" like Williamsburg, Astoria and Inwood. According to the piece, a growing number of suburban transplants see auto reliance as a comforting reminder of home. "I didn’t realize how […]
Judge in Vermont Upholds California Emissions Standards
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Detroit car makers lost another battle in their fight against stronger emissions regulations last week, this time in Vermont. The Burlington Free Press reports: In a major victory for states’ efforts to combat global warming, a U.S. District Court judge in Burlington ruled Wednesday that federal law does not bar Vermont from imposing tougher […]
A Gehl Dispatch From Down Under
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We reported yesterday that noted Danish urbanist Jan Gehl will soon be surveying New York streets with an eye toward improving them for human use. Gehl has been working in Sydney, Australia as of late, and an essay he wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald offers insight into what he may be looking for here in […]
A Streets Renaissance in Lower Manhattan
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Last weekend the New York Times published a nice piece about a resurgence in downtown Manhattan street life. Optimism abounds now among developers and merchants, who are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into real estate along the narrow streets of Lower Manhattan. They are counting on the district, in its next incarnation, to be not […]
DOT Launches Gehl Street Survey Project
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The New York City Department of Transportation has retained Danish urbanist Jan Gehl’s firm to evaluate city streets and other public spaces. Streetsblog first reported this development as a possibility back in June, when we interviewed Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Not long after, we got word that Gehl had been hired by the city as a […]
Climate Change: It’s What’s for Dinner
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For years, animal rights and welfare groups have maintained that the factory farming of animals for human consumption wreaks havoc on the environment. Now that climate change has become a mainstream issue, they’re taking it up a notch. Bolstered by a recent United Nations report "stating that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions […]
Secretary Peters Says Bikes “Are Not Transportation”
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We’d expect this kind of thing from some people, but not U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters. On PBS’ "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" this week, Peters stated that instead of raising taxes on gasoline to renew the nation’s sagging infrastructure, Congress should examine its spending priorities — including investments in bike paths and trails, which, […]
City Wants 20,000 New Parking Spaces in Hell’s Kitchen
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It seems inconceivable given the overwhelmingly positive developments of the past few weeks, but the city wants to increase parking in Manhattan by some 20,000 spaces, and is defending itself in court for the right to do so. The Bloomberg and Spitzer administrations are working together to hold on to a rezoning provision that would […]
Livingstone: Businesses Led on Congestion Charge
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Fearing that London’s ever-worsening traffic congestion would drive industry to other European cities, business leaders first broached the topic of congestion charging for the British capital, according to plan architect Mayor Ken Livingstone. At a C40 Climate Summit panel entitled "Beating Congestion & Surviving Your Next Election," Livingstone said Tuesday that the business group […]
Days Numbered for City Parking Privileges?
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Michael Bloomberg (front row, fourth from right) with other mayors at the C40 Summit City employees should not have the right to free parking any more than New Yorkers who labor in the private sector, Mayor Bloomberg said Tuesday, hinting that the perk which entices 35 percent of government workers to drive to Manhattan could […]