A Parking Experiment, With the Village as the Lab

Annie Tritt for The New York Times

Justyna Marriott feeds a meter in Greenwich Village, where the city has raised rates in hopes of discouraging long-term parking.

By MARTIN ESPINOZA

Published: October 17, 2008

Justyna Marriott, a sales manager for Fiji Water, drives all day from one Manhattan hotel or restaurant to the next, pulling quarters from a shiny, gold-colored coin purse at least five or six times a day to feed the meters.  The purse felt a little lighter on Wednesday afternoon after she drove into an area of Greenwich Village where the city is trying out a form ofcongestion pricing for parking. “This is no joke, huh?” Ms. Marriott said. “One dollar for 30 minutes — it’s still cheaper than the parking lot, where it’s $10 for half an hour. But it’s annoying, absolutely.”

Ms. Marriott was not the only driver bemoaning the pilot program, which began Oct. 6 and doubled the meter rate in part of the Village to $2 an hour from noon to 4 p.m.

The hope is that the added expense will discourage people from using curbside spaces for long-term parking. That, in turn, could increase turnover in metered spots while reducing the time drivers spend cruising for a place to park, as well as the tendency to double-park, transportation officials said.

The area chosen for the six-month trial stretches from Houston Street to Charles Street and includes portions of Seventh Avenue South and Avenue of the Americas. Within the test area are a number of residential streets with unmetered alternate-side parking, where rules remain unchanged.

On Wednesday, shortly before noon, Sal Rincione sent one of his employees to feed the meter where his 2008 Acura sedan was parked on Seventh Avenue South.

Mr. Rincione, who runs Five Guys Burgers and Fries on the corner of Bleecker and Barrow Streets, lives in West New York, N.J. The increase, Mr. Rincione said, is not likely to change his parking habits.

“Even at $2 an hour, it’s still cheaper than putting your car in a garage,” he said.

Phil Mortillaro, the owner of Greenwich Locksmiths on Seventh Avenue South, said he did not think the trial program would meet its goals. Standing in front of a wall of keys in his small shop, Mr. Mortillaro said there was little traffic congestion in Greenwich Village during the hours the meter rate is higher.

“It would have been better to run the trial at night when this place is full of tourists, not just during the day,” he said. “It’s like Disneyland out here.”

Like several others interviewed, Mr. Mortillaro questioned the city’s motive for the pilot program, saying it was probably a way to generate more revenue.

Seth Solomonow, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Transportation, said that neither the rate increase nor the structure of the pilot program was designed to increase revenue. The goal, he said, is to encourage people to use metered parking for only as long as is absolutely necessary.

He said transportation officials would collect data next month, measuring traffic volume, parking space occupancy rates and the frequency of double-parking, and compare it with parking patterns before the program began. He said that at the end of the trial period, the department would conduct a survey of merchants and drivers to get their opinions.

Mr. Solomonow said that although the program had just started, “we’re really encouraged by what we’re seeing on the streets itself, and we are seeing available spots on the street.”

Ian Dutton, vice chairman of the transportation committee for Community Board 2, which includes Greenwich Village, said that his group supported the experiment and that results might not be evident so quickly.

Mr. Dutton, however, said he thought the $1-an-hour increase might not be enough to stop people from continually feeding meters. Although most spots have a one- or two-hour limit, the city acknowledged that it rarely tickets cars for staying longer, so long as the meter has not run out.

“That extra $1 an hour is still nowhere near what a commercial lot will charge,” Mr. Dutton said. “Far too many people use cars when there are better ways to meet their needs.”

At Bedford Street and Avenue of the Americas on Wednesday, a white van sat double-parked behind a larger gray delivery truck, also double-parked, in front of a corner deli. The van scrambled as soon as the driver heard sirens down the street.

A few yards up the avenue, a man sat in his car, double-parked just behind a car that looked as if it was about to pull out of its parking space. Instead, the two women who had been sitting in the parked car got out and walked away.

“I thought they were leaving,” said the man in the double-parked car. Asked if he thought the meter rate increase would free up more parking spaces, the man, just before pulling away, said, “Tell you the truth, I don’t think so.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/nyregion/18parking.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin

Sparse plug-ins for electric cars spark creativity

By PHUONG LE, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 41 mins ago

AP – Steve Bernheim shows off his Corbin Sparrow fully electric auto in the driveway of his home in Edmonds, …

SEATTLE – Owning an electric vehicle requires more than global-cooling ambitions. It takes guile, planning, sharp vision, a silver tongue — and a 50-foot extension cord.

Steve Bernheim knows accessible outlets like a firefighter knows hydrants. He has to — his Corbin Sparrow runs only 25 miles on a charge.

"You do guerrilla charging where you locate these plugs," said Bernheim, an attorney who lives in the Seattle suburb of Edmonds. "I'm an expert at finding them."

While California has more than 500 public charging stations at parks, malls and grocery stores to serve electric vehicles that rolled out in the last decade, the network is still thin across the rest of the country, forcing drivers like Bernheim to get creative.

That may change as charging stations crop up in San Jose, Calif., Seattle and Portland, Ore. to serve early adopters and pave the way for a new breed of mass market plug-in cars.

"Every auto company in the world is developing all-electric or plug-in hybrids," said Zan Dubin Scott, a spokeswoman for Plug In America, a nonprofit advocacy group for electric car owners. "The utilities, municipalities and smart business people are seeing that this is the future."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081019/ap_on_bi_ge/electric_car_charging

MAYOR'S PARKING 'OFFENSE'

TRAFFIC STUDY RIPS RULE

By TOM TOPOUSIS

Posted: 3:44 am
October 14, 2008

Mayor Bloomberg waged his fierce campaign to slash traffic through congestion pricing even as his administration's parking policies encouraged more people to drive to work, a study released today has found.

The City Planning Department's requirement for off-street parking at new housing developments varies by neighborhood, with some sections requiring as much as a sin gle parking space for every new unit - a policy the study's authors suggest has increased traffic.

"City Planning's parking require ments encourage driving. Car owners with a guaranteed spot at home are more likely to drive to work," said Paul Steely White, ex ecutive director of Transporta tion Alternatives, one of eight groups endorsing the study.

The study compared Jackson Heights, Queens, with Park Slope, Brooklyn, both of which are about the same distance from Midtown Manhattan and are served by mass transit, but vary dramatically in the availability of off-street parking.

In Jackson Heights, car owners are twice as likely to have off-street parking and, as a result, the study's authors say, are 45 percent more likely to drive to work in Manhattan than those in Park Slope, which has a higher rate of car-ownership per household.

City zoning outside of Manhattan requires anywhere from four spaces for every 10 units of housing to a single parking space for each new housing unit. In Manhattan, because of clean-air requirements, the minimum parking ranges as low as two spaces for every 10 units of new housing.

About 16 percent of the housing in Jackson Heights has been built since the city rules on off-street parking were instituted, double the rate in Park Slope.

The coalition of groups, also including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Straphangers Campaign, the Municipal Art Society and the Regional Plan Association, issued the study to get the city to reduce requirements for off-street parking.

A companion study released by Transportation Alternatives in August found that new housing projected to be built by 2030 would put an additional 170,000 cars on the street if the residential development meets current off-street parking rules.

City Planning spokeswoman Rachelle Raynoff said the department is reviewing a wide range of policies aimed at reducing the use of cars while working to steer new development toward areas with mass transit.

"We met with Transportation Alternatives on Friday to discuss its study and our ongoing review of parking regulations citywide and will continue the dialogue in partnership with DOT [the Department of Transportation]," she said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10142008/news/regionalnews/mayors_parking_offense_133561.htm

City hopes to shuttle people in futuristic 'podcars'

ITHACA, New York (AP) -- The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some.

Computer-guided electric podcars like these carry small groups of people on their own networks.

To Jacob Roberts, podcars -- or PRTs, for personal rapid transit -- represent an important component in the here-and-now of transportation.

"It's time we design cities for the human, not for the automobile," said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate New York college town the first podcar community in the United States.

"In the podcar ... it creates the perfect blend between the privacy and autonomy of the automobile with the public transportation aspect and, of course, it uses clean energy," Roberts said.

With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers ready to begin fashioning a new national transportation bill for 2010, Roberts and his colleagues think the future is now for podcars -- electric, automated, lightweight vehicles that ride on their own network separate from other traffic.

Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers, giving travelers the freedom and privacy of their own car while reducing the use of fossil fuels, reducing traffic congestion and freeing up space now monopolized by parking.

At stations located every block or every half-mile, depending on the need, a rider enters a destination on a computerized pad, and a car would take the person nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while others could continue unimpeded on the main course.

"It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally," said Roberts, adding podcar travel would be safer than automobile travel.

The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with larger cars carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975 in Morgantown, West Virginia, and still transports West Virginia University students.

Next year, Heathrow Airport outside London will unveil a pilot podcar system to ferry air travelers on the ground. Companies in Sweden, Poland and Korea are already operating full-scale test tracks to demonstrate the feasibility. Designers are planning a podcar network for Masdar City, outside Abu Dhabi, which is being built as the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen cities in Sweden are planning podcar systems as part of the country's commitment to be fossil-fuel-free by 2020, said Hans Lindqvist, a councilman from Varmdo, Sweden, and chairman of Kompass, an association of groups and municipalities behind the Swedish initiative.

"Today's transportation system is reaching a dead end," said Lindqvist, a former member of the European parliament.

Cars have dominated the cityscape for nearly a century, taking up valuable space while polluting the air, said Magnus Hunhammar, chief executive officer of the Stockholm-based Institute for Sustainable Transportation, the world's leading center on podcar technology.

"Something has to change," he said. "We aren't talking about replacing the automobile entirely. We are adding something else into the transportation strategy."

Skeptics, however, question whether podcars can ever be more than a novelty mode of transportation, suitable only for limited-area operations, such as airports, colleges and corporate campuses. Detractors, mainly light-rail advocates, say a podcar system would be too complex and expensive.

"It is operationally and economically unfeasible," said Vukan Vuchic, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania who has written several books on urban transportation.

"In the city, if you have that much demand, you could build these guideways and afford the millions it would take, but you wouldn't have capacity. In the suburbs, you would have capacity, but the demand would be so thin you couldn't possibly pay for those guideways, elevated stations, control systems and everything else," Vuchic said.

Podcars typically run on an elevated guideway or rails, but they also can run at street level. As a starting point, pilot podcar networks can be built along existing infrastructure, supporters say.

Ithaca Mayor Carol Peterson said a podcar network could be part of her upstate city's long-range transportation plans and its mission of developing urban neighborhoods that are environmentally sustainable and pedestrian-friendly. Ithaca has a long history of progressive achievements -- this summer, it began the first community-wide car sharing program in upstate New York.

In Ithaca, a network could connect the downtown business district and main business boulevard with the campuses of Cornell University and Ithaca College, which sit on hillsides flanking the city. When the two colleges are in session, Ithaca's population balloons from about 30,000 to about 80,000, causing big-city congestion on the city's roads.

Santa Cruz, California, recently hired a contractor to design a small solar-powered podcar system that would loop through the city's downtown and along its beach front.

The Institute for Sustainable Transportation predicts a podcar system will be installed in an American city within the next five years, although it is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars. Because of the huge initial investment, funding would have to come from both public and private sectors, IST officials said.

The capital cost is about $25 million to $40 million per mile, which includes guideways, vehicles and stations, compared with $100 million to $300 million a mile for light-rail or subway systems, according to the IST.

Although the plan for Ithaca is only in the conceptual stages, Roberts sees the city as a logical place for the country's first community-wide podcar network, noting that construction of the Erie Canal across upstate New York in the early 1800s revolutionized commercial transportation in a young America.

"Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany are connected along a single line, the Erie Canal. Now, they are connected by the (New York State) Thruway. It would be easy to adapt. You could have a high-speed rail line, or even buses, deliver travelers to the podcar stations, and the podcars take them wherever they want to go in the city," he said.

But podcar developers say they have overcome most technological obstacles and now must overcome the political and cultural barriers that lie ahead, equating it to the mind-set revolution that occurred when Americans hitched up their horses for good to become a nation of motorists.

"We are introducing an alternative to the automobile for the first time in 100 years," said Christopher Perkins, chief executive officer of Unimodal Transport Solutions, a California company that builds podcars that operate on magnetic levitation instead of wheels.

"But if you look back 100 years, you saw that we made the transition from the horse to the car. I think we are ready to make another transition," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/13/podcar.city.ap/index.html

Wall Street Journal

Up on the Roof

Adding a layer of vegetation on the top of buildings can keep things cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter

By SHELLY BANJO

A growing number of urban residents are happy to have a green roof over their heads.

Buildings topped with ground cover, shrubs and other greenery are sprouting up across the country. Such roofs cost more to build than conventional roofs, because of the extra materials and labor.

But they also offer savings on energy, reductions in storm-water runoff and a possible way to lower urban temperatures in summer. So, many cities have started offering builders tax and other incentives to adopt the features.

Even without the incentives, the extra cost of building a green roof -- a 30% to 50% premium, compared with a conventional roof -- can be recouped within about five years, says Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow for sustainable development at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C.

Green roofs provide a natural layer of insulation, keeping buildings cooler in summer and warmer in winter. The energy savings vary depending on materials and location, but according to one study, by the National Research Council of Canada, a green roof can reduce the average daily energy demand of a building by more than 75%. A study by a Columbia University group, meanwhile, found that green roofs can reduce the average daily energy demand of a building by about 15%.

Urban Thatch

Such insulation prevents some of the temperature-driven expansion and contraction that takes place when a roof is completely exposed to temperature extremes. Experts say that while a typical asphalt roof can reach 160 degrees on a summer day, green roofs rarely exceed 80 degrees. A protective layer of greenery "doubles the life of the roof," says Leslie Hoffman, director of Earth Pledge, a New York nonprofit that acts as a consultant on sustainable environmental practices.

Vegetation also captures rainfall and can slow the rate at which runoff goes into storm-water systems, reducing the load on urban sewers -- and possibly the tax burdens of city residents. When runoff is produced by heavy rains, it can "overwhelm city water systems...becoming a very expensive problem for municipalities, as well as violating the Clean Water Act," says Ms. Hoffman.

"As individuals, we don't think about storm water as having an effect on our bottom line," she adds, but cities build elaborate storm-water-management systems, and "we pay those costs through taxes."

View Slideshow

Earth Pledge

TOP GROWTH Green roofs on residential commercial buildings in Kansas City, Mo.

On a larger scale, green roofs may help ease global warming by reducing what is known as the urban-heat-island effect. Heat islands are created when dark-colored, impermeable surfaces absorb heat energy and radiate it back into the air. The effect makes cities two to 10 degrees hotter than nearby suburbs, increasing energy use and causing health problems as well. "As the temperature goes up, the air quality goes down, affecting the overall health of the cities' residents," says Amy Norquist, founder of Greensulate Inc., a consulting firm based in New York and California that focuses on environmentally friendly building techniques.

According to a study by Canada's environmental agency, Environment Canada, planting vegetation over at least 6% of Toronto's total available roof space (70 million square feet) could reduce summer temperatures in the city by 1.8 degrees. Such a reduction, they predict, would subsequently lower cooling demands by 5% for all buildings in Toronto, and that decrease in energy use would reduce temperatures an additional degree.

Another boon: Lower roof temperatures prevent overheating in solar-energy panels placed there, and thus make them more efficient, Ms. Norquist says.

While most green roofs have been installed as part of new buildings, retrofits are increasing. However, these aren't "do-it-yourself projects," Ms. Hoffman warns. Just as you wouldn't attempt to build a traditional roof, installing a green roof may require input from an architect, landscape designer and green roof consultant, among others. Building owners must be careful to check out any insurance policies that apply. Weight and fire hazards may exist.

Going to Sedum

Maintenance costs depend on the complexity of the project. The simplest of green roofs are planted with a 3-inch to 4-inch layer of grass or ground cover, like sedum, a plant whose leaves store water. Such greenery requires minimal maintenance. "These could go months without any kind of watering," Ms. Norquist says.

More elaborate projects, including flowers, vegetable gardens and trees, require continuing attention. But the aesthetics can add to a property's real-estate value as well. "It's definitely an amenity," says Michael Gubbins, resident manager of the Solaire, an environmentally friendly residential building with two rooftop gardens in the Battery Park City area of New York.

While green-roof technologies have been around for years in Japan and in some European countries, like Germany and Switzerland, the idea started gaining ground in North America only in the past decade. In 2001, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, inspired by a trip to Hamburg, Germany, decided to cover about 20,000 square feet of the roof atop Chicago's City Hall.

City officials in Chicago now estimate that their green roof saves the city about $3,600 a year in cooling and heating costs. If all of Chicago's roofs were greened, they add, the city's peak energy demand could be cut by 720 megawatts -- enough electricity for 750,000 people. The load on the city's storm-sewer system, meanwhile, would be slashed by about 70%.

Mayor Daley says that Chicago offers grants of as much as $5,000 toward the cost of installing a green roof, and that buildings with plans to install green roofs are pushed through the permit process quicker.

"We decided that the city had to lead by example," by installing green roofs on government buildings and then "offering economic assistance to get the private sector involved," the mayor says.

"Now everything from libraries, schools and apartment buildings have green roofs," he says. Mr. Daley estimates that Chicago now has about 400 green roofs in the downtown area.

Earth Pledge

Green roofs on commercial buildings in Kansas City, Mo.

The city of Chicago also has begun hosting conferences about green roofs for other U.S. city leaders.

Cities from Tokyo to Toronto, New York, Washington, Portland, Houston and Seattle have gotten involved, offering builders and companies tax incentives, rebates and higher-density building allowances for installing green roofs. That means builders can get permission to construct bigger buildings in highly coveted downtown spaces if they incorporate a green roof into the plan. Tokyo requires new buildings with total floor space of more than 10,000 square feet to make at least 20% of their usable roof area green.

New York's Battery Park City in 2002 started requiring new buildings to plant greenery covering 75% of the nonmechanical area of their roofs. That rule has resulted in about two acres of green roofs installed or planned in the neighborhood since then -- about a third of a typical New York City block. Then, in June of this year, the city of New York began offering a one-year property-tax credit of as much as $100,000 to building owners who install green roofs on at least 50% of available rooftop space. The credit would be equal to $4.50 per square foot of planted area, or about 25% of the typical costs associated with the materials, labor, installation and design.

The amount of green roofing in New York more than doubled to 123,074 square feet from 2004 to 2007, according to surveys by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities-North America Inc. That is an area roughly equal to about 10 Olympic-size swimming pools. Green Roofs, an industry association based in Toronto, says the study polled only members of its association. But the group estimates that its survey reflects about 60% of all green-roof activity in the U.S. and Canada.

Earth Pledge

The layers of one kind of green roof system.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122305471179402733.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

—Ms. Banjo is a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal in South Brunswick, N.J.

ComEd Urges Customers to Fight Global Warming One Pledge, One Light Bulb at a Time

Last update: 5:15 p.m. EDT Oct. 6, 2008

CHICAGO, Oct 06, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today ComEd announced its Take The Pledge Giveaway to encourage its customers to take the ENERGY STAR(R) Pledge. Customers taking the pledge promise to replace at least one incandescent light bulb in their homes with a compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb to conserve energy, reduce costs, and help fight global warming.

To thank customers for taking the first step to save energy and help the environment, everyone who takes the pledge will be entered in ComEd's Take The Pledge Giveaway. Participants can win one of several prizes, including the Grand Prize -- an ENERGY STAR qualified appliance selected with the help of the ComEd Energy Doctor.

In partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's national "The Change the World, Start with ENERGY STAR Campaign," ComEd's effort is the latest in its 12 Ways to Green campaign. Taking the ENERGY STAR Pledge is one of the utility's Smart Ideas for Your Home, a portfolio of programs to help customers manage their energy consumption and make wise energy decisions. It is also a component of a comprehensive strategy to reduce, offset, or displace more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020 among ComEd's parent, Exelon, and its family of companies.

"In addition to ComEd's core obligation to deliver safe and reliable service to our 3.8 million customers, we are uniquely positioned to bring value to those communities, particularly when it comes to the environment," said Val Jensen, vice president, Marketing and Environmental programs, ComEd. "Together with our customers, the ENERGY STAR Pledge will help make a positive impact on global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

According to the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ENERGY STAR qualified CFL bulbs use up to 75 percent less electricity than equivalent incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Replacing one 60-watt incandescent bulb with a comparable CFL can save up to $44 over the lifetime of the bulb.

If every household took the pledge, Americans would save more than 110 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, more than $18 billion in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to more than 18 million cars.

The Change the World, ENERGY STAR Pledge encourages Americans to take further action in saving energy and money by:

    -- Using a programmable thermostat to save energy while asleep or away        from home.     -- Enabling power management settings on the computer and monitor so it        goes into "sleep mode" when away or not in use.     -- Choosing ENERGY STAR qualified products for kitchen and laundry.     -- Making sure one's home is well sealed and insulated, among other steps.    

"Becoming part of the solution to global warming takes less time and effort than you might think. You can start by taking simple steps like changing a light or looking for the ENERGY STAR when you purchase new products," said Kathleen Hogan, director, Climate Protection Partnerships Division, EPA. "We are delighted to work with ComEd and others across the country who are helping in the fight against global warming. Together, we can all make a difference and protect our environment through simple everyday actions."

To make it easier for customers to fulfill their pledges, ComEd is offering special discounts on nearly 2 million CFL bulbs at retailers such as Ace Hardware, Costco, The Home Depot, Jewel-Osco, Lowe's, Menards, Sam's Club, and True Value, while supplies last. For more information and to take the pledge, visit http://www.comedsmartideas.com. For a complete list of participating retailers offering discounts on CFLs, visit http://www.ComEd.comor call (888) 806-2273.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (EXC:

44.43, -3.74, -7.8%) , one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across Northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/comed-urges-customers-fight-global/story.aspx?guid=%7B62463C03-11CF-4890-BB20-A6AFC9F50B3B%7D&dist=hppr

Posted on Mon, Oct. 06, 2008 Miami rides a green wave toward a 'bike friendly' city BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI • A: It's the traffic, stupid! • Q: What's the reason so few people in Miami bicycle even though it's warm all year and the terrain perfectly flat? Whether it's out of fear of getting crushed by two tons of speeding metal, the clueless motorists or the near-total lack of bike lanes, Miamians have long been notoriously bike-averse. So what's a car-choked town to do if it wants to join a growing trend and foster safe cycling for recreation and transportation?  You do what the city of Miami -- incredibly, perhaps -- is starting to do. First, you draw up a bike plan for the first time ever: identify suitable streets, create bike lanes and signage, provide bike parking and print up ''bike-friendly'' maps.  And then, to show that people do want this, pick a day when main streets in the center of town can be closed to cars and turn them over to the citizenry to freely bike, walk, skate, jog, congregate. Say, Sunday, Nov. 9.  That day, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the city will close off Flagler Street from the Miami-Dade County Courthouse to Bayfront Park and South Miami Avenue from Flagler over the Miami River to the new Mary Brickell Village dining and retail complex. Bike Miami, an event the city hopes will become a regular happening, is modeled after the famed Ciclovía in Bogotá. Some 70 miles of main streets in the Colombian capital are closed to cars every Sunday and holiday, drawing hundreds of thousands of people -- an example cities from New York to San Francisco and, yes, Miami, are now trying to emulate. ''We know this is our chance,'' said Mike Lydon, an urban planner and bicycle commuter who as a volunteer has worked closely with city officials on the bike plans. ``If we can get a couple thousand riders out, that will be a big statement.''  The event will mark the public debut of a months-long effort by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, eager to burnish his ''green'' legacy as his tenure draws to a close, to transform Miami into a bike-friendly city. His aides say it's an extension of the mayor's goal of improving the city's quality of life by luring residents downtown, revitalizing neighborhoods and making streets welcoming to pedestrians, thereby reducing auto dependency and carbon emissions.  And they say there is no better time: Across the country, bicycling has spiked as urban living becomes more popular and people seek alternatives to cars amid sharply rising gas prices. New York City and Chicago, among others, have big plans to create miles of bike lanes and encourage bike commuting. On Oct. 16, Diaz's Green Commission and Office of Sustainable Initiatives will present a Bike Action Plan to the City Commission that outlines where new bike lanes, bike ''boulevards'' and other designated bike routes should be created, including, among other possibilities, parts of Coral Way, Northeast Second Avenue and South Bayshore Drive. Some, in fact, are already underway: When city officials recently realized the state was getting ready to redo part of Coral Way, it persuaded road planners to add bike lanes at the last minute. That means some 16 blocks, from Southwest 15th Road to Southwest 12th Avenue near the Vizcaya Metrorail Station, will likely be striped for bikes. Designated lanes will also be added when Northeast Second Avenue is repaved from Wynwood through the Design District and Little Haiti.  ''We want to get these things done,'' said Robert Ruano, director of sustainable initiatives for the city. ``These are short-term solutions we can take now. It's not about doing a beautiful map that will sit on a shelf.'' This is all the result of a groundswell of bike-activism, led by small grass-roots groups -- Emerge Miami, TransitMiami.com and the Green Mobility Network -- pining for more space for cycling and walking as an alternative to cars. Activists got Diaz's buy-in at a meeting in February after delivering a briefing paper and a big binder with examples of other cities' bike plans and ordinances. The activists say they are impressed by city staffers' follow-through, but acknowledge that making Miami bike-friendly will require far more than slapping stripes on asphalt.  The city, they say, has agreed to supplement the mapping with public campaigns to educate motorists and cyclists alike on how to safely share roadways. (Bicycles are vehicles under state law, meaning cyclists have the right to use roadways, as well as the obligation to observe traffic laws.) ''This is an uphill battle, because Miami grew up around the automobile.'' said Hank Sanchez-Resnik, a member of Green Mobility's board and Diaz's new Bicycle Action Committee. ``The entire street grid, the buildings, it's all designed for cars to move quickly. It's a city for cars, not for people.  ``We have an awful lot of catching up to do, but at least it's happening.'' The city's goal is ambitious: to earn a designation as a bike-friendly city from the League of American Bicyclists by 2012.  That would be quite a turnaround. In its June issue this year, Bicycling magazine named Miami one of the worst cities for cyclists in the country. The action plan is meant as a precursor to a more-comprehensive bike master plan the city pledges to develop within five years. In time, the idea is to have a network of safe, mostly on-street bike routes linking major corridors, neighborhoods, parks and schools, supplemented by widely available bike racks and covered parking.  The routes would include not just bike lanes but also ''bike boulevards'' -- side streets made safe for bikes through traffic-calming approaches such as narrower lanes. The plan would require all city-sponsored events to provide bike parking. It would also seek ways to encourage developers to include showers and lockers in new or renovated buildings for bike commuters.  Routes would be coordinated with Miami-Dade County, which has an existing bike program. Miami-Dade planners are working on plans for commuter bikeways as well as greenways that would link neighborhoods and the county's far-flung parks.  The aim, activists say, is to allay the average Miamian's fears about cycling, not the Lycra lizards who already brave the city's mean streets. Thus Bike Miami, which is designed to both gauge and stoke interest in cycling in the city. And, not incidentally, to show off the gradually revitalizing downtown.  Plans are still coming together, but the city and its supporters hope to create a family-friendly, fair-like atmosphere. They encourage attendees to take public transit and visit new restaurants and shops, Bayfront Park and the new art-filled baywalk at the mouth of the Miami River. Free bike-valet parking will be available at Bayfront Park and Mary Brickell Village.  'We hope people will say, `Hey, it's safe, it sounds good, I'll bring the kids and the family,' '' Sanchez-Resnik said. ``It has great potential to galvanize the community and let people know Miami is doing something to promote bicycling.'' http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/715262.html

The Private Role in Public Infrastructure

By Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters , 10/6/2008 8:50:43 AM

This speech by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters was given at the Manhattan Institute in New York, NY on October 2, 2008'''

Good morning. Thank you, Larry Mone, for that kind introduction. And thank you for inviting me to be part of this timely forum on the private role in public infrastructure. It is heartening that the Manhattan Institute—an organization which has done so much to advance policy in areas such as welfare reform, education, and public safety—is putting their intellectual capital to work on infrastructure issues.

Your leadership will be pivotal in making sure that the United States completes the transition to a 21st Century transportation policy that can keep New York and our country competitive, our people mobile, and our infrastructure in good working order.

America's transportation programs today labor under the burden of policies, approaches, and even equipment designed more than fifty years ago. We are living with the result: New Yorkers, for example, deal every day with airline delays, lengthening daily commutes, and growing gridlock that makes a trip across midtown Manhattan about as predictable as the next Top Chef.

Like Wall Street itself, we are battling a crisis of confidence in transportation. Every year, Americans routinely reject new taxes and new debt for transportation projects. It is not that they don't want better commutes. They just have no confidence in the government's ability to deliver better results. They know the current approach is failing badly.

But around the country, innovative leaders have begun demonstrating that congestion does not have to be a fact of urban life.

There are roads, like California's Highway 91 in Orange County, that deliver reliable commutes—every day—by using congestion pricing to keep traffic flowing.

There are cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Miami that are relieving stubborn bottlenecks almost overnight—without building a single mile of new roadway. Thanks to sensor technology on HOT lanes and even on parking meters and lots, they are able to use the power of pricing to deliver faster commutes, better transit, and cleaner air.

And there are states like Indiana, Florida, and Texas that are funding ambitious infrastructure programs today—without raising gas taxes or grabbing new federal earmarks. Instead, these forward-looking states are reaching out to the private sector, where they are finding eager partners.

Governor Mitch Daniels' bold move to lease the Indiana Toll Road brought in $3.85 billion to fund the capital projects in the state's Major Moves program. Moreover, the private concern, Cintra, now has responsibility for upkeep of the 157-mile road, which was in need of costly maintenance and repairs.

Others have partnered with the private sector to finance, build, and operate new projects. A good example is Virginia's agreement with Transurban and Flour Enterprises on a $1.8 billion project that will add new HOT lanes to the Capital Beltway—one of the most congested highways in the nation.

Interest is not limited to highways. On Tuesday, Mayor Daley announced a private firm is prepared to pay Chicago $2.25 billion to take over operation of Midway Airport. It is a deal we will need to review, but the concept is strong.

And it is the direction we need to head. America has been slow to grasp the unprecedented innovation taking place in transportation financing today, and frankly, it is hampering our ability to compete in a global economy that relies on efficient transportation infrastructure.

Around the world, countries as diverse as Canada, France, Spain, England, Italy, China, Mexico, and India routinely use private capital to finance transportation infrastructure improvements. Russia has a pipeline of Public Private Partnership projects lined up that will involve hundreds of billions in private-sector investment.

Yet when I arrived in Washington to head the Federal Highway Administration in 2001, there was little talk of market forces or Public Private Partnerships in transportation.

With the active encouragement of the Bush Administration, that is changing.

We have developed model Public Private Partnership legislation and encouraged states to modernize their laws, and a total of 25 states now have P3 authority.

We have made market incentives available to airports and carriers, and they are helping spread flights more evenly throughout the day.

We have reached out to innovative municipal leaders with Urban Partnerships and congestion reduction grants, and they have responded with potent combinations of technology, pricing, and transit to fight congestion.

We have made aggressive use of private activity bonds and TIFIA loans and programs like Interstate Tolling, Corridors of the Future, and the Federal Transit Administration's PPP Pilot Program to encourage states to engage the private sector in creative ways. And from the Chicago Skyway, to the Capital Beltway, to the Hiawatha Light Rail, private-sector partnerships are becoming the preferred model for adding significant new capacity.

In fact, we recently concluded a comprehensive review of innovative financing projects in the United States. What the study found was that more transportation Public Private Partnerships have been completed over the last three years than in any comparable period in U.S. history.

Another 20 major highway and transit projects involving partnerships with the private sector are at various stages of development in California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and many other states.

Just this week, Governor Patterson announced a special commission on Public Private Partnerships for New York, preparing to position the state to "more effectively make long-term capital investments, even in periods of economic distress."

I recognize that the financial market is in upheaval right now. One implication is that states and municipalities will have a more difficult time borrowing even as they must fill gaps in their budgets.

At the same time, infrastructure funds continue to grow. Transportation represents an attractive investment—a solid asset with real value that produces a steady revenue stream.

Long-term, the trends are quite clear. The private sector must play a major role in modernizing America's transportation infrastructure— from our roads and bridges, to our subways and seaports, to our air traffic control system.

Public Private Partnerships are an essential part of modern transportation financing. These partnerships reduce project costs, accelerate project delivery, and allow states and municipalities to greatly leverage available public resources.

Over the last eight years, the Bush Administration has supported record federal investments in America's highways and bridges. We have nearly doubled funding for transit. And we have invested almost $50 billion in airports, runways, and aviation technology.

But there is no question in my mind that our most important legacy will be the unprecedented innovation we have sparked in the very way transportation in America is financed, built, and operated.

The challenge we now face is translating these good examples into a national policy that will deliver fewer traffic tie-ups in the air and on the ground, better transit services, a stronger economy, and a cleaner environment.

The Bush Administration has proposed reform legislation for both aviation and surface transportation aimed at furthering the momentum. Sadly, it will be next year at the earliest before Congress acts on either.

There is a clear role for the federal government in helping spread effective solutions across the country and making them the norm. But it has got to get out of the business of micromanaging process and stop limiting the flexibility of cities and states and the private sector to innovate. Federal policy can help promote accountability and rational investment decisions, but Washington should not stand in the way of change.

As I travel the country, I find there is a real hunger out there for new ideas—and an eagerness to put them to work to solve problems.

Some of the most exciting ideas have been proposed here in New York, like Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan for mid-town Manhattan—a plan many in this room helped to advance.

And some of my most disappointing moments as Secretary have been seeing those plans scuttled by entrenched interests determined to thwart any attempt at meaningful change. But that has not and will not stop me from continuing to beat the drum for reform, and you must not let it discourage you either.

As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to say, "You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it."

New York City represents a microcosm for what is happening in cities across America. Historic transportation systems are failing. Gridlock is growing. And the battle with the forces of stagnation is joined.

So join with me in continuing to fight for relief from honking horns and polluting tailpipes and endless flight delays.

Join me in working for reliable transportation choices, so New Yorkers can walk out of their doors and know how long it will take them to get across town, whether they travel by taxi or transit, or on foot.

Join me in raising New York's stock by giving the city a 21st Century transportation system marked by innovation, efficiency, and choice.

And as has happened so many times throughout our history, when New York blazes the trail, the country will follow.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?ddb88ee9-9676-4337-bccc-2d08c9217f24