Jason Varone
Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.
Recent Posts
T.A. Rides with the Mayors of Sydney & Copenhagen
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T.A. Rides with the Mayors of Sydney & Copenhagen A StreetFilm by Clarence Eckerson Jr. Running Time: 3 minutes 3 seconds On the closing day of New York City’s historic C40 Climate Summit, Lord Mayor Clover Moore of Sydney, Australia and Copenhagen’s Mayor of the Technical & Environmental Administration Klaus Bondam took a lunch break […]
The Clock is Ticking for PlaNYC
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A delegation of approximately 30 members of the Campaign for New York’s Future are traveling to Albany today to meet with more than two dozen state legislators and other public officials. Today’s trip follows a series of meetings on Monday in which key coalition leaders joined Mayor Bloomberg to call for urgent State action on […]
Letter of the Week: Congestion Pricing Diplomacy
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The Bloomberg Administration is aiming to push its PlaNYC congestion pricing proposal through this session of the state legislature. That means the entire debate will take place within the next 36 days or so. One thing that you can do as an individual citizens to support the Mayor’s plan is to write a letter to […]
PlanNYC’s Public Political Push Starts Today
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From a press release that just came across the Streetsblog transom: Leading members of the Campaign for New York’s Future, a broad coalition of 80 environmental, public health, civic, labor, community and business organizations, will today join Mayor Bloomberg in separate meetings with Governor Eliot Spitzer and State legislators to help call attention to the […]
Smoggy China to Observe World Car Free Day
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The Financial Times reports that China’s cities will participate in this year’s World Car Free Day. These actions have a measureable effect. A recent study found that when Beijing ordered 800,000 cars off the roads for three days last year, local nitrogen oxide air pollution fell by 40 per cent. More than 100 Chinese cities […]
Swerve and Protect: Boston’s Bicycle Bible
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In this month’s issue of the Boston Phoenix, a 20 page supplement called the Bicycle Bible offers advice on bicycle safety and how to stay alive on the streets of Boston. Although there is a nice piece on Boston’s Livable Streets Alliance, the paper may have done more harm than good. With subtitles like "Urban […]
Where Do New York City Bike Commuters Come From?
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Park Slope and Manhattan Valley have the largest numbers of bike commuters in NYC The Department of City Planning just released its 2007 New York City Bicycle Survey. With over 1,000 survey respondents, the report documents several trends and key findings regarding bike commuting, parking, and facililties in the city. Some of the highlights include: […]
Eyes on the Street: Tillary Street Bike Lane Parking Lot
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Ian Dutton, organizer of the Houston Street bike safety initiative, made this brief StreetFilm while riding in the physically-separated bike lane on Tillary Street approaching the Brooklyn Bridge. On his YouTube page, Dutton writes, "I was on my way from SoHo to Park Slope when I saw a most remarkable assemblage of press vehicles in […]
Will the Critics Kill Congestion Pricing?
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Representative Anthony Weiner, New York’s 9th Congressional District In his latest article for the Gotham Gazette, Bruce Schaller, head of Schaller Consulting, and author of "CITYinFLUX: Understanding and Untangling Traffic and Transportation in NYC" writes that the the most biting criticism of congestion pricing, mostly coming from representatives of areas outside of Manhattan, is the […]
Eyes on the Street: Five Borough Bike Tour
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What a big weekend for public cycling events. This Sunday, more than 30,000 cyclists enjoyed perfect weather for the 30th anniversary of the Five Borough Bike Tour, a 42-mile traffic free ride through the city including a jaunt along the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn. It is the largest recreational cycling event in America. Photo: diddlbiker/Flickr
Building a Better Bike Lane
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This weekend’s Wall Street Journal has an massive, full-page report on bike friendly cities in Europe. Initially the arguments for more biking were mostly about health and congestion, but in the last year concern for the environment has become an important factor compelling people to travel by bicycle: Flat, compact and temperate, the Netherlands and […]
DOT: One-Way Park Slope Proposal is Dead
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No Land Grab is reporting that the DOT has decided to kill the one way proposal for 6th and 7th Avenues in Park Slope. In a letter to Community Board 6 (PDF), the DOT writes: NYC DOT does not intend to pursue the implementation of the proposed 6th and 7th Avenue conversion to one-way operation. […]