PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Philip Miatkowski, Interim Deputy Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives
2:25:02
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Philip Miatkowski from Transportation Alternatives testified in support of several bills aimed at improving transparency and accountability in NYC's transportation projects. He emphasized the importance of publicly tracking progress on the Streets Plan and DOT capital projects.
- Strongly supported Intro 1105 for public tracking of Streets Plan progress and Intro 1114 for an online tracker of DOT capital projects
- Advocated for quick passage of these bills to increase transparency and public accountability
- Expressed support for additional bills including Intro 552, Intro 145, Intro 928, and Intro 1160, addressing various aspects of street maintenance and safety
Philip Miatkowski
2:25:02
Afternoon.
2:25:03
And you can't just bear with us and members of the Transportation Land Food Truck Committee for holding today's hearing.
2:25:10
My name is Philip, and I'm the interim deputy executive director at Transportation Alternatives.
2:25:16
We advocate for safe and equitable streets across the 5 boroughs.
2:25:21
PA strongly supports info 110 5, which would require DOT to publicly track progress on a monthly basis made towards the street's plan.
2:25:31
New York City streets plan is a guiding document for New York Street improvements, and yet the city continues to fall short of meeting the annual legal requirements.
2:25:41
With transparent and clear information on the streets plan progress, everyone can see the status of urban life saving improvement projects and hold DOT accountable to legal requirements.
2:25:53
Currently, New Yorkers are forced to rely on a bike lane tracker created from a volunteer advocate who bikes the city in their free time instead of an official map from the city.
2:26:05
It also strongly supports intro 1114, which requires a public online tracker for DOT's capital projects.
2:26:13
New Yorkers deserve to know what capital projects are in the works, whether they're on time, reason, or delay, and when they can expect to see life saving improvements in their neighborhoods.
2:26:23
We also would strongly support an amendment to the bill to encompass tracking of all DOT projects presented to community boards.
2:26:31
Together, these two bills will increase transparency and public accountability, and we hope the council passes them quickly.
2:26:39
Additionally, TA supports intro 552, which sets a 2 week deadline for street resurfacing, intro 145, which caps the correlated color temperature of street lights, intro 928, which creates a pilot for using cool pavement, and intro 11 60, which sets a 1 week deadline for repainting pavement markings.
2:27:01
Finally, in the upcoming budget season, the city must further ensure