Transportation

Councilman Ben Kallos opposed the new Citi Bike station last year and plans on working with the DOT to get it moved.

Recently the councilman suggested the agency move it around the corner against Ruppert Park on Second Avenue between East 90th and East 91st streets.

“This is a very uphill battle,” Kallos said. “Citi Bike has not moved very many locations, except to the extent that we’re able to work with the community for minimal changes.”

Councilman Ben Kallos (D-Manhattan), whose district covers Weill Cornell, joined Mason’s team to help the city earn bragging rights on the diversity of its microorganisms.

“New York City is bigger and better than anywhere else, so I’m assuming the same for our microbes,” Kallos said. “We should have more microbes from all over the world and in higher concentration because there is no subway system like ours.”

“Please take your time, obey traffic laws, and wear safety vests so that residents know which restaurants have good drivers and which restaurants don’t,” Kallos told a crowd of delivery bike workers. “Starting soon doorman buildings may stop accepting deliveries from people without safety vests.” 

Two Manhattan bike projects went before community boards last night. The CB 8 transportation committee heard from DOT about the agency’s plan forcrosstown bike lanes on the Upper East Side, and CB 4 endorsed the protected lane on Sixth Avenue, which DOT plans to install in the fall.

The crosstown painted lanes would span the width of the Upper East Side, providing safer east-west access for a neighborhood that currently has only one bike lane pair — 90th and 91st streets. The new bike lane pairs are East 67th and 68th streets between Fifth and York, 77th and 78th Streets between Fifth and John Jay Park, and 84th and 85th Streets between Fifth and East End. After the eastern termini at Cherokee Place and East End Avenue, shared lanes will guide cyclists to parks and the East River Esplanade greenway.

Plans for a major overhaul of Second Avenue on the Upper East Side were revealed Wednesday at a community board meeting.

They include a protected bike lane, a parking lane, a bus lane and three travel lanes.

The redesigned street will look much like Second Avenue currently does above 105th street.

The proposed bike lane changes drew mixed opinions.

"I think it's great we're finally going to get our street back on Second Avenue. We're going to get more parking back on Second Avenue, and all the bikes going the wrong way on First Avenue will finally have a place to go," said City Councilman Ben Kallos of Manhattan.

Speaking before the meeting, Council Member Ben Kallos was supportive of the proposal. “I am for a complete street proposal that provides a protected bike lane to provide pedestrians, cyclists and motorists a safe way to use the street,” he told Streetsblog.

City Councilman Ben Kallos says residents might be pleasantly surprised by the changes to Second Avenue.

"We haven't had parking on Second Avenue for quite some time, so having any parking back should be a good thing for drivers and riders alike. People will no longer be going the wrong way on the First Avenue bike lane because they will have a bike lane to go downtown," Kallos said.

"Subway delays, making you late to a meeting with no way to tell anyone, was a part of being a subway rider,” he said. “But now you’ll be able to get in touch and get work done.”

According to the councilmember’s office, Kallos has been advocating for expanded Wi-Fi service for his district since last year’s City Council’s budget hearings.

“Subway delays making you late to a meeting with no way to tell anyone, was a part of being a subway rider, but now you’ll be able to get in touch and get work done,” said Council Member Ben Kallos who has been advocating for this expansion in City Council hearings. “A connected commute is about to become a reality for nearly 200 million subway riders on the East Side. Thank you to the MTA and Transit Wireless for their partnership in bringing the Internet to any subway rider with a smartphone.”

DOT already maps NYPD crash data for all streets citywide, albeit by intersection, so we know the streets where crashes occur. What the public doesn’t know is whether police are concentrating enforcement in areas where it’s most needed to prevent crashes. In 2014 Council Member Ben Kallos introduced a bill to require the city to release and map data on all moving violations — including date, time, and latitude and longitude coordinates — to be published at least once a month. Though Rodriguez is listed as a co-sponsor of the Kallos bill, it went nowhere.