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Complete Streets
One result
of the NY Bicycling Coalition's 2009 Legislative Day is the introduction of
Assembly bill A08587 and Senate bill S5711 by NYS Assemblymen David F. Gantt (133rd
Assembly Dist., Monroe County) & Jeffrey Dinowitz (81st Assembly Dist., Bronx County)
and by NYS Senators Martin Malavé Dilan (17th Senatorial Dist., Kings County (Brooklyn))
and Ruben Diaz (32nd Senatorial Dist., Bronx County) for consideration by the Assembly and
Senate.
The New York Bicycling Coalition, the American Association of Retired
Person's state office, Green Options-Buffalo, Transportation Alternatives, and several
other organizations successfully lobbied for this legislation to be brought to the floor
of both the Assembly & the Senate from the Transportation Committees in each house. It
now is ready to be voted on by the full Assembly and the full Senate.
Click here for a summary and the complete text of this bill:
An act to amend the highway
law, in relation to enabling safe access to public roads for all users.
Be a bicycling and pedestrian
advocate! Call, write, and email (use all 3 manners of
communication) your Assemblyperson and NYS Senator to have the Assembly & Senate
vote on this bill during this NYS legislative session. Contact information is a bit lower
down on this web page. The legislative session ends on Monday, June 22, 2009.
It is important for you to directly express your support
for these bills to Assembymen Gantt & Dinowitz and Senators Dilan & Diaz. Doing so
shows these legislators the importance of bicyclists as a group of voters in New York
State. It is important for you to directly contact your NYS legislator to
ask him or her to support these bills.
You simply need to send a postcard (28˘ each at your nearest US Post
Office) to these four legislators plus one post card to your
Assemblyperson and your NYS Senator. For a minimum investment of $1.68,
you have the ability to improve bicycling and pedestrian facilities throughout New York
State, including in your village, town or city!
Don't know who your Assemblyman or Senator is? Wow! No wonder bicycling
conditions are not impoving in the State! Go to these pages to enter your address and zip
code to find your Assemblyman & NYS Senator:
Who's my
Assemblyperson?
Who's my NYS
Senator?
Don't know where your local post office
located, go to this web site: Locate a
Post Office
Clicking on the highlighted names below will
bring you directly to their offical contact web page:
Assemblyman Gantt (By post and telephone only.)
Hon. David F. Gantt
and Hon. David F. Gantt
LOB 830
74 University Ave.
Albany NY 12248
Rochester NY 14605
585 454-3670
518 455-5606
Assemblyman Dinowitz
Hon. Jeffrey Dinowitz
and Hon. Jeffrey Dinowitz
LOB 824
3107 Kingsbridge Ave.
Albany, NY 12248
Bronx NY 10463
518 455-5965
718 796-5345
Senator Martin Malavé
Dilan
Hon. Martin Malavé
Dilan and Hon. Martin Malavé
Dilan
811 Legislative Office
Building 786 Knickerbocker Ave.
Albany NY 12247
Brooklyn NY 11207
518 455-2177
718 573-1726
Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz
307 Legislative Office
Building and 1733 E. 172nd St.
Albany NY 12247
Bronx NY 10472
518 455-2511
718 991-3161
diaz@senate.state.ny.us
TITLE: BILLS A08587 & S5711
An act to amend the highway law, in relation to enabling safe access to
public roads for all users.
Summary: "Enables safe access to public roads for all users by
requiring that all transportation improvements shall improve safety, access, and mobility
for all travelers regardless of age or ability." [A wonderful, very important, &
never before legally stated provision for bicyclists & pedestrians.]
Bills A08587 & S5711 Summary:
SPONSOR Gantt (MS)
COSPNSR Dinowitz
MLTSPNSR Amendment to S10, Hway
Legislation
BILL NO A08587 Actions
05/29/2009 referred to transportation
An act to amend the highway law, in relation to
enabling safe access to public roads for all users.
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To design more complete streets that enable safe access for all users:
bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and passengers, motorists, and pedestrians of
all ages and abilities.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
This legislation requires bicycle and pedestrian ways be
included in the planning and development of state, county, and local transportation
facilities, plans, and programs. All transportation improvements shall
improve safety, access, and mobility for all travelers in New York, regardless of age or
ability, and shall recognize bicycle, pedestrian, and transit modes as integral to the
transportation system.
In addition, bicycle and pedestrian ways shall be established in
conjunction with the construction, reconstruction, or other change of any state, county,
or local transportation facility, with special emphasis given to projects in or
within-three miles of an urban area. Accommodations will include, but not be limited to,
paved shoulders suitable for use by bicyclists, lane stripping, share the road signage,
crosswalks, pedestrian control signals, curb cuts and ramps.
The legislation also requires a best practice report to be published by
the Department of Transportation no later than two years after the bill becomes law
showing how transportation agencies have changed their procedures to routinely design
safe, effective multi-modal facilities for travelers of all ages and abilities.
JUSTIFICATION:
The streets of our cities and towns are an
important part of the livability of our
communities. Our streets should be designed for everyone, whether young
or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair
user, or bus rider. Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for
all users. Complete streets policies direct transportation planners and engineers to
consistently design with all users in mind.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2007, a
pedestrian was hit by a motorist and killed every 113 minutes (about every two hours) - a
total of 4,654 fatalities nationwide. Forty percent of these
fatalities were people 50 years of age and older. In addition, NHTSA found that a
pedestrian is injured by motorists every 8 minutes with over 70,000 pedestrians
injured in 2007.
A 2008 report issued by the Tri-State Transportation
Campaign found older pedestrians are far more likely to be killed while
walking than their younger neighbors. The report focusing on New
York City and the surrounding counties found that the fatality rates for older pedestrians
are far higher than in the rest of the country.
The report stated that between 2005 and 2007, 255 pedestrians age
65 years and older were killed on downstate New York roads, Though comprising
less than 12 percent of the area's population, people aged 65 and older
accounted for 30 percent of the total pedestrian fatalities during the three-year
period. Those age 75 years and older represent less than 6 percent of downstate New York's
population, but more than 18 percent of pedestrian deaths.
A new poll released by AARP in 2008 found that while many people age 50 plus are
trying to move away from car transportation as a result of high gas prices, almost half
(47%) of poll responders say they cannot cross the main roads safely.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
This is new legislation.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect 180 days after it shall have become a law.
Next Step
Whether or not the Complete Streets bills are
passed and signed into law by the Governor you, yes you, must become an activist for
better bicycling conditions.
1. You must contact your local MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization,
the folks who monitor and distribute Federal Highway Administration, gasoline tax money),
your local NYS Department of Transportation office, your county highway department, and
the department in your city, town, or village responsible for roadway planning.
2. You must be placed on the meeting notification list.
3. You must attend those meetings, boring as they are.
4. You must speak at those meetings, even if all you say is
"bicyclists use this road, you must accomodate bicyclists include safe bicycling
facilities."
5. You must submit, via email and paper, statements concerning
including bicycling facilities on the roadway/bridge/trail being planned, considered, or
discussed.
6. You must try to convince your bicycling compatriots to be a
bicycling activist.
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