Petition Renews Campaign For Bike/Pedestrian Pathways On Verrazano

By on April 2, 2013  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Apr 022013
 
If proponents of a Verrazano bike-ped path have their way, the Five Boro Bike Tour and NYC Marathon will no longer be the only times people can cross the Narrows w/out the use of a motor vehicle (Image source: mlcastle via Flickr).

If proponents of a Verrazano bike-ped path have their way, the Five Boro Bike Tour and NYC Marathon will no longer be the only times people can safely cross the Narrows w/out the use of a motor vehicle (Image source: mlcastle via Flickr).

Six months after Transportation Alternatives proposed bike and pedestrian lanes on the Verrazano Bridge as part of their Harbor Ring project, supporters of the idea have begun a petition on website Change.org in order to help gain some much-needed traction, as well as the attention of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

While some officials have expressed doubt concerning the plan’s feasibility and cost, proponents note that the proposal is hardly a new one, and in fact goes all the way back to the bridge’s blueprint stage. Continue reading »

Local Republicans Blast MTA Verrazano Hike, Offer No Viable Alternatives

By on December 19, 2012  Traffic & Transit
Dec 192012
 
Gridlock-Sam-Fair-Plan

Even as New York City’s most accomplished traffic planner pushed for an overhaul of the region’s toll system, politicians opposed to a toll increase on the Verrazano Bridge have failed to take notice. (Source: Sam Schwartz via Streetsblog.org)

Today, as MTA board members approved a series of expected toll and fare hikes on subways, buses, commuter trains and bridges; a group of Republican state and federal legislators who represent Bay Ridge are making their disapproval known – particularly when it comes to toll increases on the Verrazano Bridge. Continue reading »

[UPDATED] Transportation Alternatives Pushes for Verrazano Bike-Ped Path

By on October 5, 2012  Featured story, Traffic & Transit
Oct 052012
 

If proponents of a Verrazano bike-ped path have their way, the Five Boro Bike Tour and NYC Marathon will no longer be the only times people can cross the Narrows w/out the use of a motor vehicle (Image source: mlcastle via Flickr).

Tuesday, Transportation Alternatives unveiled a project that would allow one to bike in an uninterrupted loop from the West Side of Manhattan, through the New Jersey waterfront, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, and finally return to Manhattan via either the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridges.

Called the Harbor Ring, the 50-mile route would integrate “more than 28 miles of existing shared use paths and bikeways, including significant portions of the Brooklyn Greenway, a regional section of the East Coast Greenway, the pathway over the Bayonne Bridge, the Hudson River Walkway, Hudson River Greenway, and the East River Esplanade” with 20 miles of street bike lanes.

However, there is one “missing link” of the interstate bike trail not currently in place. Continue reading »