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In-Line Skating in Everyday Manhattan Life || Personalizing Public Transportation
Toward a Pedestrian Agenda: Ten Mayoral Steps
by Right of Way
How do we spell out a transportation philosophy that is hospitable to walking and
cycling? Here's a sketch, in the form of a memo to the mayor.
1 Stand symbolically with victims of car violence, rather than with drivers.
During your tenure as mayor, over 1200 pedestrians and cyclists have
been killed by automobile. Console a bereaved family. Pledge "No more
car violence."
2 Stop embracing the motoring minority. Declare New York a transit and
walking city. "One person one car" doesn't work here. This isn't "anti-car
ideology" but common sense.
3 See to it that the police enforce all vehicular traffic laws that protect
walkers and bike-riders -- not as an occasional publicity gambit, but every
day.
4 Jawbone the district attorneys to prosecute all dangerous driving, not
just DWI.
5 Institute traffic-calming projects in the neighborhoods, not just near
schools. Fight for legislative approval of "neighborhood zones," in which
any driver who hits a child is presumed culpable.
6 Require inquests into all pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, and make the
findings public.
7 Stop treating bicyclists as if they were a major source of street danger.
Work to change state vehicle and traffic law to establish, as the Toronto
coroner recommended last year, "the principle of motorized vehicles
yielding to non-motorized vehicles."
8 Institute comprehensive road-pricing, beginning with barrier-free tolls on
East River bridges and per-minute pricing for cars on midtown streets.
9 Build out sidewalks and enlarge crosswalks, starting in thronged
midtown and extending throughout the city.
10 End free parking for public employees, including yourself.
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