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AUTO-FREE NEW YORK!
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Glossary |
Light Rail |
Regional Rail |
Penn Station |
Livable City Plan |
Books |
Links |
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WHAT IS AUTO-FREE NY? A movement aimed at exploring and achieving the upper limit of "devehicularization" of our nation's largest city. Get cars out of our parks. Curb the reckless motorists who dominate our streets. Increase pedestrian space and safety. Invest in new transit options and expansion and make bicycling better. A livable city is possible! • NEXT MEETING: JULY 27th Auto-Free NY has been holding FREE monthly meetings, featuring a wide variety of guest speakers, since its founding in February, 1989. Usually held in lower Manhattan, they are open to the public, and no reservations are needed. • The Livable City Transport Plan is an affordable, comprehensive vision of our city, designed to be achievable in just one four-year mayoral term. Using innovations now common in more sophisticated and democratically run cities here and abroad, this plan would raise New Yorkers' quality of life through better functioning public transit, a noticeable reduction in car use and much more auto-free space in the core of NYC, the most densely populated city in the nation. As always, we look forward to your thoughtful review and comments. CURRENT EVENTS:
• The City's plaNYC 2030• Lower Manhattan • Light Rail in NYC • Regional Rail Working Group 
FEATURES:
• Glossary• AUTOMOBILE HORROR! • 42nd St. Trolleys - Recent History • What's so Great about Streetcars? • Light Rail in the Lincoln Tunnel! • New York Streetcar News Index • East River Bridges • Rockaway Beach Line (Qns) • Other Voices • New Orleans Streetcars post-Katrina • Life's a Beach for Paris Mayor • Berlin: Transport Politics • How to Join/Donate • Visit These Links • Recent Books • The Five-Minute Activist • Previous "Letters from George" • Remembering Steve Dobrow Auto-Free NY operates under the aegis of the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility, Inc. (IRUM), a not-for-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status. Note: this website is best viewed with Text Size set to "Smaller" or "Medium." If Car Names Were Honest:
Audi My-Way Chevy Fistfight Chrysler Criminal Dodge Tumor Ford Poluta XS GMC Denial Honda Discord Hyundai Enslava Lexus Segregator Lincoln Alienator Mercury Dioxin Saab Flatus Saturn UrFaddas Scion Boxian Smeli-Pootr Subaru Deforester Toyota Runovia VW Smoggia |
 Letter from George July 1, 2010
Putting the "City" in Long Island City Dear Friends of Auto-Free New York: NYC's plan to remake Long Island City into the central business district for the borough of Queens is on a collision course with City Hall's love affair with the automobile. The City's plan to rezone the area's industrial, light manufacturing and warehouse facilities to in order to shoehorn in yet more office buildings and publicly subsidized luxury condos does not now include any meaningful efforts to reduce auto dependence in this congested district. Left out, for instance, is a light rail rail line, that would be cost-effective and would easily connect the widespread developments in this district. Meanwhile, the MTA's plans for the nearby Sunnyside Intermodal Transfer Station for the LIRR at Queens Plaza -- a sort of Grand Central Station for western Queens -- remain stalled. In order to curtail car traffic in Long Island City, first and foremost there must be major improvements in public transit in the area. Auto-Free NY's longstanding plan for replacing two car lanes on the upper deck of the Queensboro Bridge with a pedestrian promenade, and converting the bridge's Lower Deck to a 4-lane highway with the two outermost lanes dedicated to a new light rail service, would effectively act as an "upstream meter" to reduce congestion in LIC. This would reduce the car chaos that developed decades ago when Robert Moses and Mayor LaGuardia usurped the bridge lanes dedicated to rail transit to create these motor vehicular lanes. For our July walking tour, come witness with us firsthand the car chaos at the bridge plaza, and consider our proposals for change for yourself. Perhaps we will get to see firsthand one of the frequent fender-bender accidents, or see road-raging motorists attacking each other! Join us on our summer walking tour, Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 6-8pm. Meet us in the Queens Plaza subway station at 6pm sharp, at the western end at the 24-hour token booth. Tour begins promptly at 6pm rail or shine. Also, save the date -- Tuesday, August 24, 2010 6-8pm, for the second in our popular summer walking tours: to one of Manhattan's many underused transportation resources -- the Amtrak West Side rail line. We will meet at the NW corner of 11th Avenue and 59th Street promptly at 6pm and catch a few glimpses of this line that are still not covered over with buildings. Plan to make both tours. Sincerely,
P.S. Our Regional Rail Working Group also meets monthly. This group showcases the efforts of individuals from a variety of transit advocacy groups to awaken our region's sleeping giant, its commuter rail system. Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday July 28.
George Haikalis, Chair  Bordeaux, France: More sophisticated cities, like Bordeaux, above, routinely enjoy pedestrianized areas with modern light rail. Note lane allowed for car access, on pedestrian's terms, not speeder's, like in NYC. WISHING TRAFFIC AWAY IS NOT EFFECTIVE  This car-hugger illustration appeared in the New York Times, which has a longstanding grudge against doing serious transit journalism. |
NY Times Auto Zombies Show Love for the Cross Bronx Auto Death March More New Books for 2010 Planet-Hating Congressman Dingell Forced Out of House Post 
Upcoming Auto-Free NY
Tuesday, July 27, 6-8pmMeetings for 2010: Summer Walking Tour #1: Long Island City/Queens Plaza Don't miss our guided walking tours of key aspects of NYC's transit matrix. In July we visit Queens Plaza. Meet at 6pm at western end of Qns Plaza subway station, in front of 24-hour token booth. Tuesday, August 24, 6-8pm Summer Walking Tour #2: Amtrak's West Side Rail Line Don't miss our guided walking tour of the West side's sleeping giant - the Amtrak rail line. Meet at 6pm sharp, NW corner 11th Avenue and 59th Street, Manhattan. Tuesday, Sept 21, 6-8pm Topic to be announced * DIRECTIONS: All meetings (except where noted] are at 104 Washington Street (just north of Rector Street) in lower Manhattan, in the NYPD Downtown Center's ground floor community room, generously provided by the Alliance for Downtown New York. NOTE: Meetings start promptly at 6pm and end at 8pm. By subway: take either the R, W or the 1 train, to Rector Street, or the 4 or 5 train to Wall Street. Our meetings are always FREE and open to the public.  Another SUV smashed by its reckless driver: The bulk of these top-heavy, inadequately braked vehicles makes their driver feel invulnerable, and so they drive worse, and crash more. Big business, attuned to wasteful and overdesigned products in principle, embraced SUVs as prime subjects over the past ten years for one of the most intensive marketing and indoctrination campaigns in US car company history. But eventually American price supports for lower cost gasoline are going to end, while the realities of declining world oil production and increasing political, military and climate chaos will grow more stark. Once the true costs of our national gasoline orgy start being paid by US motorists themselves rather than everyone else, these gas guzzling giants will quickly end up more worthless junk - and we will get the quality public transportation -- and the sustainable economy -- we deserve.  Be a patriot - use mass transit!
Auto-Free New York . . . more than just bollards and paintstripes |
Auto-Free New York
George Haikalis, Chairman | One Washington Sq. Village, #5D, NYC 10012 |
Phone: (212) 475-3394 | geohaikalis@juno.com
© Copyright 2010, 2009. All rights reserved. Auto-Free New York. This page last updated July 22, 2010. | ||