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Q&A
Council Member Salaam questions DOT on e-bike speeds, parking for worship, and street resurfacing
2:02:19
·
4 min
Council Member Yusef Salaam engages in a Q&A session with DOT officials, addressing concerns about e-bike speeds, parking issues for worshippers, and equitable street resurfacing in underserved communities. DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez and First Deputy Commissioner Margaret Forgione respond to his inquiries, offering insights into current plans and potential solutions.
- DOT is considering lowering e-bike speed limits to around 15 mph
- Discussion on finding solutions for worshippers receiving parking tickets during religious services
- Explanation of DOT's analytical approach to ensuring equitable street resurfacing across community boards
Yusef Salaam
2:02:19
Good afternoon.
2:02:21
I have a question a few questions actually.
2:02:24
I wanna start off with the e bikes and maybe make a suggestion.
2:02:28
There has been great attention put towards drivers in terms of lowering the speed so that the drivers of vehicles drive at safer rates.
2:02:40
Is there any plan to maybe lower this the to restrict the speed of e bikes so that they actually don't because a lot of them are going faster than cars now and the fact that they're on the sidewalks, the fact that we were experiencing more injuries in our communities is a great concern.
2:03:09
Meaning like a like a physical it's one thing to have the education.
2:03:33
We're also noticing in terms of places of worship that parishioners are receiving tickets on Sundays, on Fridays, on Saturdays in in in various districts, and we were wondering is there a plan to work with local leaders to allow the provisioners to practice their faith without fearing being ticketed because the buses, they're not I'm assuming it's like a robot.
2:03:58
If a if a double parked car is there and it's not in a bike lane or a bus lane, the bus still tickets and sends the ticket out.
2:04:12
Not the bus lane.
2:04:13
I'm saying around churches, mosques, synagogues.
2:04:17
We've noticed that in our districts, parishioners are receiving tickets.
2:04:21
Sometimes when they they may not even know because the tickets come in the mail, but they're receiving tickets because they're double parked for worship.
2:04:28
There's no parking or anything like that.
2:04:29
But it's been a practice, specifically in my district, for people to double park when it comes to Sunday worship, Saturday worship, or Friday worship.
2:04:42
Because of the human nature of it all, ticket agencies usually understand this is a day of worship, we're not gonna ticket the parishioners.
2:04:51
But because the buses are not humans, they're ticketing parishioners.
2:05:25
And just a last question regarding the resurfacing that has been mentioned earlier.
2:05:32
Despite the council's clear request for $40,000,000 increase to Street's resurfacing capacity, the executive budget that we've seen includes $0.
2:05:41
How does DOT plan to ensure equitable resurfacing in historically underserved communities like those in Central Harlem without a critical investment being there?
2:06:52
Thank you.
2:06:52
We'll definitely be in touch.
Ydanis Rodriguez
2:03:01
Yes.
2:03:02
There there's a plan to work lowering the speed limit that is allowed for biking.
2:03:14
Yeah.
2:03:15
So we we are in conversation looking at 15 as a potential number we have not finalized, but we do acknowledge, as I said before, with a question asked on the challenges of e bike that reducing the speed limit is also one of the things that we're looking at.
2:04:07
We're talking about the drivers who park on on the bus lane?
2:04:56
Yeah.
2:04:57
We we had a conversation with all the elected officials in your district.
2:05:02
More than happy to sit down with you and and identify, you know, some places where we can, you know, brainstorm a little bit and see what we can do.
2:05:11
In general, we want to keep the standard, you know, when it comes to the enforcement.
2:05:15
And when it comes to our boss lane, that part related to the enforcement is more the MTA on their their decision.
2:05:23
But we are I'm more than happy to sit down with you.
Adam Ganser
2:05:52
Alright.
2:05:52
In a minute.
Margaret Forgione
2:05:53
Sure.
2:05:53
Thank you council member.
2:05:55
So every year, right now, we're we perform about 1,150 lane miles of resurfacing, and we allocate them very analytically between the different community boards in order to ensure that every community board is getting their fair share based on the lane miles within their board.
2:06:17
And as I mentioned earlier, we move from community board to community board throughout the year in each borough to make sure that we touch every single community board every year.
2:06:27
So in terms of the percent of miles that are in good, fair, or poor condition, it's quite consistent from community board to community board.
2:06:37
So we're happy to sit with you and explain what we have planned for the rest of the year into next year in your council district.
2:06:44
And if you have any locations you see that you feel haven't been addressed that should be addressed, let us know and we will try to incorporate them into the schedule.