Auto-Free New York!

	AUTO-FREE NEW YORK!
	Home	Glossary	Light Rail	Regional Rail	Penn Station	Livable City Plan	Books	Links	Donate

Serving NYC since 1989! 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. Cut noise, smog and traffic costs. Increase pedestrian space and safety. Invest in new transit options and expansion and make bicycling better. A livable city is possible! • NEXT MEETING: May 15 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 • Remembering Steve Dobrow • 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" CONTACT US! 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 Be a patriot - use mass transit!	Above: Thousands of idling cars, most carrying just one person, the driver, in morning smog, waiting to cross the untolled Brooklyn Bridge, Sept 2011 -- daily proof of the city's success in incentivizing commuters to avoid public transportation. *Letter from George* May 1, 2012 The Tappan Zee Bridge: Which Way Forward? Also, National Train Day at GCT! Dear Friends of Auto-Free New York: Governor Andrew Cuomo's top 2012 transportation project is fixing the Tappan Zee Bridge. The current plan being pushed by the state and the mainstream media is a new bridge with no transit and 8 wider lanes replacing 7 narrow lanes, which would stimulate regional car traffic, and indirectly spur more suburban sprawl. Worse, the projected cost of this replacement bridge is "north" of five billion dollars. It seems unlikely at this time that motorists will pay even a third of that cost through higher tolls. At our May Auto-Free NY/vision42 working group meeting, our guest speaker will be Floyd Lapp, a transportation planning expert long known in NYC. Mr. Lapp will lead a discussion on the merits of this project and about the difficulty of advancing worthwhile "mega-projects" in the NY-NJ-CT region. Floyd was director of the Transportation Division at the NYC Department of City Planning, and is a member of the vision42 Advisory Committee. Following the discussion there will be updates on the vision42 initiative for an auto-free light rail boulevard on 42nd Street and other efforts to reduce car overuse in the crowded core of our city. Plan to attend - it should be an interesting evening. An RSVP is not necessary to attend, but is recommended - send to info@vision42.org. Also - don't miss National Train Day, this year at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall on Saturday, May 12, from 11am-4pm. This free event will feature tours of vintage and modern train equipment, a Kids Depot for children, model train display and live entertainment. [See the National Train Day website for details.] Sincerely, George Haikalis, Chair P.S. NYC SMOG ALERT UPDATES: NYC's air quality continues to be the worst on the East Coast. For updates, call the state Dept of Environmental Conservation at (800) 535-1345. P.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 on Wednesday, May 23, from 6-8pm, and will be held once again at Hoboken City Hall, located at 98 Washington Street, Hoboken, NJ, in its Parking Utility Conference Room, on the ground floor. Hoboken City Hall is two blocks west of the Hoboken Terminal PATH Station. 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.	The NY Times: Befuddled by Soho Traffic Jams, then Bewitched by Bike Lanes! Scapegoating Bicyclists for NYC's Reckless Motor Vehicle Climate New Book on Saving our Cities from the Car Upcoming Auto-Free NY Meetings, 2012: Tuesday, May 15, 6-8pm "The Tappan Zee Bridge: Can New York Build Useful Megaprojects?" *Floyd Lapp, Executive Director, Southwest Regional Planning Agency* TA Office, 127 West 26th Street, 10th Fl. Tuesday, June 19, 6-8pm "Getting Transit-oriented Development (TOD) Right" *David Fields, AICP, Principal, Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates* Transportation Alternatives Office, 127 West 26th Street, 10th Fl. * DIRECTIONS: note that AFNY meetings are at Transportation Alternatives' HQ, at 127 West 26th Street, 10th Floor Conference Room. Meetings start promptly at 6pm and end at 8pm. Our meetings are always FREE and open to the public. This new book, by scientist Dr. Heidi Cullen, examines weather conditions in the decades ahead, looking at places like the Great Barrier Reef, the Arctic, Greenland, Dhaka (capital of Bangladesh), and of course, NYC. The cover shows Manhattan under a 10- or 20-foot storm surge caused by a direct hit by a medium-size hurricane, which scientists say is statistically likely in the next few decades. See the Book Review page for more details. Another SUV smashed by its reckless driver (Canal Street, Feb 2011): The bulk of these top-heavy, inadequately braked "bloatmobiles" 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 beginning in the mid-90s, for one of the most intensive marketing and indoctrination campaigns in US car company history. But inexorably, 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. 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@gmail.com © Copyright 2012, 2011. All rights reserved. Auto-Free New York. This page last updated May 7, 2012.