Transportation & Safe Streets Crystal Understands That This City Is a Multi-Modal One and That Streets Have to Be Safe for A
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Transportation & Safe Streets Crystal understands that this city is a multi-modal one and that streets have to be safe for all users, no matter how many wheels they ride on or if they get around on foot. She will work to reform the failed implementation of Vision Zero, expand bike lanes, reform street parking, and advocate for municipal control of New York City Transit, making those who manage our subways and buses more directly accountable to their passengers. She will also ensure that taxi and for-hire drivers are treated fairly and not subject to predatory lending and labor practices. As New Yorkers, we are so lucky to live in a city that has a wide range of transportation options. Like so many, Crystal frequently gets around on foot, by bike, car, and via subway. Crystal believes we must continue to invest in all forms of transportation to ensure New York remains a multi-modal city for generations to come, and overturn decades of underinvestment in our city’s infrastructure by fully funding and implementing the already-passed Streets Master Plan, which will make our streets safer for everyone. With more protected bike lanes, updated parking policies, more protected bus lanes, bus stop upgrades, better pedestrian signals, and more pedestrian-friendly intersection redesign, we will move toward a city that respects and invests in all modes of transportation. We must be vigilant in advocating for the accessibility, safety, cleanliness and durability of our transportation infrastructure. Fellow New Yorkers continue to shoulder the burden of increased fares and transit costs with little to no improvements in service or safety. We need to remove the NYPD from traffic enforcement while investing in accessibility and affordability upgrades, like fully funding Fair Fares, shifting Access-a-Ride to municipal control, expanding station accessibility, and creating stronger bike infrastructure. Additionally, our transit workers and taxi or for-hire vehicle drivers provide essential services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. We must center their voices and demand oversight after years of predatory policies. Make Our Streets Safer ● Fully fund and implement the already-passed Streets Master Plan. New York City’s Streets Master Plan, signed into law in 2019, intends to dramatically improve bus and bike transit infrastructure and create safer streets across the city, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods that have suffered historic disinvestment. The plan calls for more protected bus lanes, hundreds of more miles of protected bike lanes, bus stop upgrades, intersection redesign, more accessible pedestrian signals, and updated parking policies. Ultimately, it will help our city reduce carbon emissions, improve accessibility, and bolster mass transit use. Crystal supports the Streets Master Plan and an overall investment in traffic calming design, and will work to fully fund and implement the new law when elected to the City Council. ● Accelerate New York City Transit’s bus network redesign process currently underway and dramatically expand Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plans. Black and brown New Yorkers have the longest commute times in New York City and overwhelmingly rely on the subway and buses to get to work. Buses provide a relatively affordable and quick-to-implement way to provide better public transit for Black and brown commuters. The 14th Street Busway has been an enormous success and expanding BRT routes to Central Brooklyn and other Black and brown neighborhoods is essential to allowing people to travel for work and pleasure. Crystal supports accelerating New York City Transit’s bus network redesign process and dramatically expanding plans for Bus Rapid Transit lines. ● Strengthen Open Streets program. As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across New York City, more and more New Yorkers masked up and explored their neighborhoods, enjoying the benefits of the Open Streets initiative to safely shop at local small businesses and enjoy socially distanced time with friends and loved ones. Unfortunately, the Open Streets program is sporadic and limited in Black and brown neighborhoods. Crystal will work to expand the Open Streets program by identifying more streets that can be closed to cars and used for pedestrians only — especially in Black and brown neighborhoods — and will work to connect Open Streets to remedy the current patchwork system. She will also work to ensure restaurants and cultural institutions can use the streets for seating, street vendors have priority access to curbside space, and artists and musicians can quickly obtain necessary permitting to perform as part of the Open Culture program (which must be reformed to provide a living wage for performers and mandated COVID-19 safety protocols). ● Shift traffic enforcement away from armed officers. More than $220 million of the NYPD’s bloated budget goes to enforcing traffic laws. The reality of armed police handling traffic enforcement is that routine stops too often escalate to violence and even murder. It is no surprise that Black and brown people suffer these fates during police traffic stops at disproportionate rates. Crystal will work to shift traffic enforcement responsibility from armed officers to the NYPD’s civilian Traffic Enforcement Agency, because armed police should not handle traffic enforcement. ● Commit to a study of residential parking permitting. Currently, any driver can park their car at nearly all of our city’s estimated 3 million curbside parking spots for free, as long as they comply with street cleaning and other street service restrictions. Most major cities have already implemented some form of a residential parking permitting system, charging residents for the ability to park their cars curbside. The system is designed to ensure there are designated curbside parking spots that are available for use by community members. As we rethink how we use our curb space, we need to ensure we are intentional with its use and designate space for everything from parking spots to bike parking to restaurant seating. Crystal supports commissioning a broad study of residential parking permitting to determine whether a system could be effectively implemented in New York. She supports a study that utilizes an equity- and justice-oriented lens to ensure Black and brown car owners are not disadvantaged and guarantee low-income car owners can afford a permit. ● Continue to build on Vision Zero and work toward zero traffic and cycling deaths by 2024. Last year, more people died in traffic incidents than any year since Vision Zero began in 2014, which aimed at eliminating all traffic fatalities in a decade. In 2019, we saw the most bike fatalities of any year since 2000. Crystal supports increasing rather than cutting the capital budget for Vision Zero and working with the administration to implement already-passed legislation that would strip reckless drivers of their license unless they take a safe driving course to work toward ensuring our city has zero traffic fatalities. She also believes that Vision Zero requires a fundamental shift in our city’s relationship to our streets, primarily by reducing our city’s reliance on cars and incentivizing New Yorkers to use mass transit and cycling by fully implementing the Streets Master Plan. There is no reason we cannot achieve our goal of eliminating traffic and cycling fatalities by 2024 other than willful inaction. ● Advocate for municipal control of the subway and bus system. For too long, our bus and subway systems have suffered from systemic underinvestment and anemic progress due to bureaucratic disputes within the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). We can no longer rely on the governor or his closest aides and allies to dictate how our city runs its mass transit system. Their misguided decisions — from cutting subway operating hours during the pandemic, which disproportionately harmed our essential workers who risked their lives to ensure our health and safety, to removing benches to deter our neighbors who are currently experiencing homelessness from sleeping on them — continue to prove that they do not know how to operate a transit system in a manner that aligns with our city’s values. Crystal will advocate for municipal control of the subway and bus system operating within the five boroughs, ensuring accountability to those who rely on city transit the most. ● Support the implementation and oversight of congestion pricing. Our city’s current congestion pricing plan — the implementation of which the Trump administration slow-walked by failing to approve an electronic tolling system that requires federal action — is projected to provide up to $1 billion in revenue for the MTA to make repairs and upgrades. Crystal will work with federal and state lawmakers to push for any needed actions to commence congestion pricing as soon as possible. Additionally, she will push for the MTA to use the revenue to support green infrastructure. See Crystal’s Environment and Climate Justice plan for more information. Expand Our City’s Investment In Making New York City the Best City for Cyclists ● Create better bike infrastructure everywhere. Not having safe places to bike in the street has given police even more opportunities to criminalize Black and brown people, whom the NYPD are more likely to ticket for riding on the sidewalk. The placement of better bike infrastructure — such as protected bike lanes — in whiter and wealthier neighborhoods is yet another example of the City’s disinvestment in Black communities. Crystal will improve bike infrastructure throughout the city, including building more protected bike lanes and stronger enforcement of laws prohibiting parking in bike lanes, with a focus on prioritizing Black and brown neighborhoods. Ultimately, Crystal believes we must expand our existing infrastructure of bike lanes into a continuous and contiguous high-capacity network. ● Expand bike parking citywide. Too many cyclists know the frustration of traveling throughout the five boroughs and not finding a safe place to park their bike.