New York State DOT

Last week the Tri-State Transportation Campaign's Michelle Ernst reported that an important funding stream for bike and pedestrian projects is currently stalled.

The state's top transportation officials delivered some tough news to the construction industry Friday: Public agencies are so cash-strapped they don't even have enough money to maintain existing infrastructure.

Thirteen projects in the New York City region are up for consideration to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation, including an intriguing proposal from New York City DOT that could boost efforts to replace the Sheridan Expressway with housing and parks along the Bronx River.

Kate Slevin is executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and this post was originally published on TSTC's blog, Mobilizing the Region. If and when the candidates produce transportation platforms, we'll see whether they acknowledge the truth inherent in many of these proposals: You don't have to spend big on transportation to achieve big improvements in safety, sustainability, access to jobs and housing, and New Yorkers' quality of life.

At a public meeting last night, the state Department of Transportation released a traffic analysis of the proposal to tear down the Sheridan Expressway, the Moses-era "highway to nowhere" that separates Bronx residents from the Bronx River waterfront. The main conclusion appeared to bode poorly for the plan to replace the highway with housing and parks: According to the state DOT, removing the Sheridan would force traffic onto local streets.

On Monday DOT marked National Work Zone Awareness Week with a new PR campaign and a call for state legislators to adopt penalties for drivers who endanger road workers -- and, ergo, city pedestrians and cyclists.

Sometime around 2019, the state DOT will begin reconstructing the segment of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway that runs through downtown Brooklyn. There are years and years of review before a shovel goes in the ground, but when construction starts, local streets already jammed with trucks and car commuters heading for free East River bridges will see even more spillover traffic. And the project itself, which will run from Hamilton Avenue to Sands Street, will have important consequences for bus transit, access to the waterfront and Brooklyn Bridge Park, and the quality of life in nearby neighborhoods.

Streets in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island continue to be among the most dangerous in the region for pedestrians, says a new report from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.